MITT ROMNEY: During a CNN debate at the height of the GOP primary, Mitt Romney was asked, in the context of the Joplin disaster and FEMA's cash crunch, whether the agency should be shuttered so that states can individually take over responsibility for disaster response. "Absolutely," he said. "Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that's the right direction. And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that's even better. Instead of thinking, in the federal budget, what we should cut, we should ask the opposite question, what should we keep?" "Including disaster relief, though?" debate moderator John King asked Romney. "We cannot -- we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids," Romney replied. "It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we'll all be dead and gone before it's paid off. It makes no sense at all." CHRIS CHRISTIE: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) put aside his campaigning for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Sunday to praise President Barack Obama for his responsiveness to the Garden State's needs in preparing for Hurricane Sandy. During a briefing with emergency personnel, residents and press, Christie thanked Obama for holding a conference call with him and governors of other states expected to be impacted by the storm, the Star-Ledger reports. “I appreciated the president’s outreach today in making sure that we know he’s watching this and is concerned about the health and welfare and safety of the people of the state of New Jersey,” he said. Christie also announced Sunday that he is asking Obama to issue a pre-landfall emergency declaration for New Jersey in order to expedite federal assistance for the state. A press release from Christie's office indicated that such a declaration would allow New Jersey to start requesting federal funds and other aid in advance of the storm. Obama issued a similar declaration for New York state. CONCLUSION: Chris Christie would MUCH rather have President Obama be President in this situation than Romney. Correct??? Both articles from Monday's Huffington Post
Why should that be the conlusion? Christie is going with what the current set up is. He has no other aid option for now.
Hey, Mitt, let's go even further if we put a private company in charge of disaster preparation and they have financial problems let's not use federal money to temporarily bail them out if they can't raise the funds on the bond markets, as he urged for the auto industry. Then we would have a true libertarian paradise-- sort of like the local privatized fire department watching houses burn down for failure to pay up. Libertopia at last.
Let's see how well getting rid of FEMA works when Mississippi or Alabama doesn't have the North's tax money to rebuild. It's as if he wants to take us back to the Articles of Confederation.
Mitt Romney is not a libertarian, and nothing he has ever done (within govt) can be classified as libertarian. But yeah, keep on attacking that enemy which does not exist. Soon enough, you'll fix everything that way. As for Libertopia, I didn't get to go but I heard great things. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/h8PunhfvIsI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
It's a simple question, really. Romney say, NO FEMA, NO FED HELP. Christie say, MUCH THANKS, NEED FED ASSISTANCE. See how easy that is?
Did Romney indicate at all that this would be a change he would make immediately, leaving states with zero time to adjust? The idea that he's going to instantly dissolve FEMA and leave states on their own is ridiculous. I'm in complete disagreement with him on this issue, btw. It doesn't really make sense to me for a state to have all of it's disaster relief apparatus localized. If it were destroyed in the disaster, what are they supposed to do?
It makes a LOT more sense to pool the resources of the entire country so that states, particularly those prone to disasters, don't bear the brunt of the costs by themselves. It is called living in a society.
"Absolutely," he said. "Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that's the right direction." For someone intelligent like Romney, this is a really dumb statement. EVERY TIME.. it's the right direction? Income taxes? How about the military? Let's make that a state-by-state matter. That's what it means when you say "Every time." Dumb statement from him, period.
It is still a terrible idea which is why we haven't heard Romney bring it up since the RNC primaries. Do you think Romney honestly believes that? I highly doubt that if Romney was asked about this right now he would actually agree with it.
I don't think he is dumb but I do think he will change what he says to different audiences and will say almost anything that furthers him politically.
