The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

MITT TO CHINA: DROP DEAD

Posted on | November 4, 2011 | 23 Comments

WASHINGTON, D.C.
OK, maybe the NY Post-style headline slightly overstates Mitt Romney’s tough talk on China here at the “Defending the American Dream” summit. Instead the former Massachusetts governor promised that, as president, he would evaluate federal programs in terms of deficit spending financed by borrowing from China.

“For each program we have in the government, I’m going to look at them one by one, and I’m going to ask this question: ‘Is this program so critical, so essential, that we should borrow money from China to pay for it?” said Romney, who is neck-and-neck with Atlanta businessman Herman Cain in the race for the GOP 2012 nomination.

“Now, for example, I like Amtrak, but I’m not willing to borrow $1.6 billion a year from China to pay for it,” Romney said, drawing applause from the crowd in the D.C. Convention Center ballroom. “I really like the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, but I will not borrow almost a billion dollars a year from China to pay for them.

“And then there’s foreign aid. Do you know that we give $27 million a year — guess to which country? To China. . . . I will stop sending money to any country that can take care of itself, and no foreign aid will go to countries that oppose American interests.”

That line produced a standing ovation.

Our ruthless Chinese overlords have yet to issue a statement on this unexpected outbreak of Sinophobia from Romney.

Category: China, Election 2012, Fear and Loathing at Defending the American Dream, Mitt Romney

Comments

23 Responses to “MITT TO CHINA: DROP DEAD”

  1. DaveO
    November 4th, 2011 @ 2:13 pm

    It’s Friday, early afternoon. By Monday, noon at the outside, Romney will have issued enough clarifying statements that only the Chinese will remember today.

  2. Doc Clear
    November 4th, 2011 @ 2:15 pm

    Wow, I actually agree with Romney on this.  Except you can see his pants are on fire.

  3. Annoytheleft
    November 4th, 2011 @ 2:16 pm

    Talk is cheap.

  4. Anonymous
    November 4th, 2011 @ 2:23 pm

    The question is why should we believe Romney on any position he takes after all he is a sleeper agent for the SDs.

  5. Vera Eyzendooren
    November 4th, 2011 @ 2:23 pm

    Am I wrong?  Didn’t Obama make similar promises? To me Romney is like a sail boat. It always depends on how the wind is blowing.

  6. Dm
    November 4th, 2011 @ 2:26 pm

    Sometimes the Mormon actually says things that I like the sound of.

    But always at the end of it, I have to ask myself whether he believes it.

  7. Anonymous
    November 4th, 2011 @ 2:40 pm

    That’s good.  Reminds me of when P.J. O’Rourke wrote about taxation enforced by, um, force, and concludes that the proper test of government spending is whether you’d be willing to point a gun at (or possibly shoot?) your grandmother for each item of spending.

  8. BigGator5
    November 4th, 2011 @ 4:09 pm

    I would have used my fav “Pound Sand”, but “Drop Dead” is just as good.

  9. Mortimer Snerd
    November 4th, 2011 @ 4:13 pm

    “I really like the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,…..”

    We know you do, Mitt.  That’s the problem.

  10. Adjoran
    November 4th, 2011 @ 4:53 pm

    It’s a good way to present the deficit problem to an electorate handicapped by 35 years of ever-increasing federal government monopoly of public education which has destroyed their ability to think critically – but instilled in them an extremely inflated sense of self-worth and self-esteem and an overriding need to “diversify” everything.

  11. Daily scoreboard « Don Surber
    November 4th, 2011 @ 5:05 pm

    […] Via Robert Stacy McCain, Mitt Romney: “For each program we have in the government, I’m going to look at them one by […]

  12. Joe
    November 4th, 2011 @ 5:57 pm

    Anyone speaking out against spending is going to be generally correct (excluding Dems who want to gut defense but increase spending on everything else). 

    Glad Mitt is saying that.  I think all of the GOP candidates agree on this point (even Huntsman). 

  13. Joe
    November 4th, 2011 @ 5:57 pm

    It is but you have to start somewhere.  Talk is cheap, but being cheap and actually cutting is of course better. 

  14. Joe
    November 4th, 2011 @ 5:58 pm

    Romney has a lot of flaws, but I do believe he is for cutting the budget.  All Republican candidates are for cutting the budget.  We do not have a lot of disagreement about this.  We should be reminding voters that is something we all stand for. 

  15. Joe
    November 4th, 2011 @ 5:59 pm

    Obama is a lying liar.  Romney is flawed, he is not my pick, but I think we can give him the benefit of doubt he is committed to cutting the budget.  What Republican candidate is not for doing so? 

  16. Anonymous
    November 4th, 2011 @ 6:23 pm

    He’s not for cutting enough spending or for slaughtering the bureaucracy, he wants to make government “work” because he’ll be great at it, he’s special that way.

  17. Anonymous
    November 4th, 2011 @ 6:24 pm

    I harbor no doubts to give him the benefit of. He simply wont do.

  18. Anonymous
    November 4th, 2011 @ 6:30 pm

    We really are f**ked aren’t we?

  19. Daily Pundit » Romney Really Likes NPR and PBS….
    November 5th, 2011 @ 12:02 am

    […] MITT TO CHINA: DROP DEAD : The Other McCain “Now, for example, I like Amtrak, but I’m not willing to borrow $1.6 billion a year from China to pay for it,” Romney said, drawing applause from the crowd in the D.C. Convention Center ballroom. “I really like the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, but I will not borrow almost a billion dollars a year from China to pay for them. […]

  20. Mitt Romney Burnishes Conservative Credentials | The Lonely Conservative
    November 5th, 2011 @ 12:53 am

    […] except for those now 55 and older.At the AFP “Defending the American Dream” summit, he basically told China to go to Hell.“For each program we have in the government, I’m going to look at them one by one, and I’m […]

  21. Bobbymike34
    November 5th, 2011 @ 12:12 pm

    Exactly Mortimer – Mitt’s statement implies that he would keep all these programs in we were not borrowing from China.

    NO NO and NO they are a waste of money and should not be funded by the federal government regardless of who pays for them.

    This is what worries me about Romney he really has no core Constitutional philosophy he is saying what will give him applause lines. 

  22. The Mob Who Came to Dinner | Notebook 17 Inch
    November 7th, 2011 @ 4:33 am

    […] trivial incident. Having covered the speeches that afternoon by Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Herman Cain, I figured I’d already done the journalistic minimum necessary to justify my […]

  23. You Can’t Always Get What You Want… « The Camp Of The Saints
    November 7th, 2011 @ 10:58 am

    […] trivial incident. Having covered the speeches that afternoon by Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Herman Cain, I figured I’d already done the journalistic minimum necessary to justify my […]