Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
Rob Long wrote a fantastic piece in 2010 about George H.W. Bush's "Message: I care" moment in the 1992 campaign which came to mind this week in relation to Mitt Romney's "I'm not concerned with the very poor" line, sure to be aired again and again in the fall's negative ad apocalypse.
The full quote from Romney's response to a followup query about his initial line (clear? clear!) is the problem for me:
“I said I’m not concerned about the very poor that have a safety net, but if it has holes in it, I will repair them. We will hear from the Democratic party the plight of the poor, and there’s no question it’s not good being poor, and we have a safety net to help those that are very poor. But my campaign is focused on middle-income Americans. My campaign — you can choose on where to focus. You can focus on the rich — that’s not my focus. You can focus on the very poor, that’s not my focus. …We have a very ample safety net and we can talk about whether it needs to be strengthened or whether it has holes in it. We have food stamps, we have Medicaid, we have housing vouchers, we have programs to help the poor…”
There are three ways, as I see it, to read Romney's words. One is as a misstatement, a subroutine error - like 57 states, "oops", or any other typical politician gaffe. This is not true here - Romney repeated the statement again in the same interview, and followed it up by defending the idea.
Another is as poor phrasing - a statement that makes sense, but taken out of context, can be tone-deaf or damaging (Romney's "I like to fire people" line is one of these). Romney seems to be indicating that his comment was one of these two - saying that he "misspoke".
But a third possibility, and one that is more concerning here, is a statement of unintentional honesty - one that reveals or illustrates an unpopular but accurate depiction of a candidate's views. These often occur when a candidate reads the liner notes, as Rob describes, sharing what they really think about a situation in unfortunately blunt language. Here was how Romney defended it yesterday:
“No, no, no, no,” Romney protested when asked about his statement. “I’ve said throughout the campaign my focus, my concern, my energy is going to be devoted to helping middle- income people, all right?” He said poor people have an “ample safety net,” including Medicaid, housing vouchers, food stamps and the Earned Income Tax Credit.
“If there are people that are falling through the cracks, I want to fix that,” Romney said. “Wealthy people are doing fine. But my focus in the campaign is on middle-income people.”
I believe Romney's statement falls into this third category. It's the sort of thing a consultant could frame in a back room or note in the margins of a speech - that a candidate should remember to focus on middle class concerns to win an election. Romney's policies already are focused on this approach - it's why, for instance, that he doesn't don't cut the capital gains for people making more than $200,000 on the high end, or talk about food stamps (he cites them as a positive above) or education policy on the low end.
Here's the problem: shared publicly, the comment doesn't just seem tone deaf and heartless (who, even non-politicians, ever says they don't care about the poor?). It indicates, as Charles Krauthammer notes, that Romney has no ability to defend conservative arguments when it comes to poor Americans. Plugging the holes in the nationwide safety net with taxpayer money is his solution, just as subsidies and Medicaid expansion was his solution in Massachusetts.
Given that President Obama has added so many to this category, this is yet another area where Romney seems particularly ill-equipped to make the case for conservative values. We are a far cry from the moment when Ronald Reagan - whose liner note reading was rare indeed - said that "Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence."
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Comments :
Aug '10
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
Wasn't it Jesus who said the poor will always be with us? I think that Mitt acknowledges that fact in his statement.
There are surely other aspects of American poverty on which he could've elaborated such as the fact that many poor people don't stay poor for long or that there is percentage of the poor who are a permanent underclass brought about by the Great Society programs of the 1960s but that might've opened up another can of worms.
Mitt could've presented his idea better but even conservative principles implemented perfectly would not eliminate the poor and to believe otherwise is pure Utopianism.
Dec '10
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
Romney's statement is self-contradictory, and he seems oblivious to that fact.
If he wants to reduce the burden on the beleaguered middle class, he ought to be looking for ways to get the very poor off our backs as consumers of the government services we pay for, and into the category of productive, self-supporting, taxpaying citizens. We are not comfortable having the very poor in the warp and weft of the safety net, however well-mended it may be. We want them climbing back up the ladder, and under their own power to the greatest extent possible.
Moreover, we don't like the social pathologies that seem to go hand-in-hand with a large population of very poor citizens. We middle-class taxpayers foot the bill for prisons, police protection, and the war on drugs, and an appreciable chunk of that spending results from the knock-on effects of multigenerational poverty.
And finally, the human cost of poverty offends us. We don't like seeing very poor people suffering, even if from their own bad choices.
Mitt thinks the very poor can be neatly set aside. At least Newt understands the folly of that thinking.
Aug '10
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
In NW Missouri there are 11,000 people on food stamps, etc. The local social workers are trying to get that number to 50,000. So they are hiring workers to go and find the other 39,000. This out of a base of 125,000 . Are they admitting to an unemployment rate vastly higher than reported ? Are they manufacturing the base ?
Of course they are creating desk jobs with tenure and benefits for the rural nomenklatura.
Romney didn't need to say that to give them ammo, they were making it up anyway .
Apr '11
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
The very poor are not generally major players in interstate commerce, and are not part of the Federal government's role, properly understood. The welfare of paupers is a state responsibility. Hence Mitt is sending Medicaid over to the states.
Ironically, this is essentially what Mark Levin was saying that we ought to be doing, and getting upset with Mitt for not doing it.
Edited on Feb 2 at 5:07pmApr '11
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
Yeah, the "the poor need a trampoline, not a safety net" conservative talking point that Gingrich was serving up today misses a key point about modern American life. The meritocracy does lift up virtually everyone of intelligence and talent (adjusting for random tragedies that could happen to anybody). Look at any poor person and will almost always see someone who either a) has a low IQ, or b) has put forth a lax effort. For them, there is the safety net, and we can use that to pacify them and keep them from bothering us. Conservatives like Charles Murray and John Derbyshire understand this, and I think Mitt Romney does too. Traditional conservative movement ideas like Reagan's are faulty in their understanding of this aspect of human nature.
Apr '11
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
Ben Domenech:
Here's the problem: shared publicly, the comment doesn't just seem tone deaf and heartless (who, even non-politicians, ever says they don't care about the poor?). It indicates, as Charles Krauthammer notes, that Romney has no ability to defend conservative arguments when it comes to poor Americans. Plugging the holes in the nationwide safety net with taxpayer money is his solution, just as subsidies and Medicaid expansion was his solution in Massachusetts.
Given that President Obama has added so many to this category, this is yet another area where Romney seems particularly ill-equipped to make the case for conservative values. We are a far cry from the moment when Ronald Reagan - whose liner note reading was rare indeed - said that "Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence." · ·
Reagan did say wonderful things, like that, but did not do them. The big change to entitlements under Reagan was their unprecedented expansion (as opposed to founding new ones).
Romney says he's not going to focus much on the safety net (other than defederalizing Medicaid). He does have other things we want him to focus on.
Dec '10
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
If you are in the safety net set up for the very poor, you have fallen through the cracks.
Romney seems to think that if you are in the safety net set up for the very poor, you are exactly where you belong, you very poor person, you.
Why, it's almost as if he sees the very poor as different from you or me, and incapable of being anything other than very poor. Nice that he can write off an entire stratum of American society like that.
Mar '11
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
I don't think Levin is getting upset about him doing it -- I think he's upset for saying it in such an artless manner.
He's been running for President for at least six years. He needs to be better at it than this. We need for him to be better at it than this.
Apr '11
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
Stuart Creque
If he thinks that, he is right. In an advanced knowledge economy, people with IQ's much under 100 are going to have a rough go of things.
Dec '10
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
I am sorry: how do the very poor not fall along with every other American citizen into the category of, "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America"?
May '10
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
Stuart Creque
I am sorry: how do the very poor not fall along with every other American citizen into the category of, "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America"? · 0 minutes ago
I think he specifically means that helping them at the federal level with welfare cannot be justified under the Commerce Clause.
However, "welfare" is usually justified by the Left using the exact preamble you just cited. I think it's a horrible mis-use of the preamble, but that's why they intentionally called it "welfare."
Edited on Feb 2 at 5:22pmDec '10
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
wmartin
Stuart Creque
If he thinks that, he is right. In an advanced knowledge economy, people with IQ's much under 100 are going to have a rough go of things.
Perhaps a campaign of mass sterilization is called for? Keeping with Oliver Wendell Holmes's famous opinion in Buck v. Bell?
Mitt Romney, the Eugenicists' Choice!
Feb '11
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
Stupid Reagan. He expected the poor and lazy to work, which is just crazy talk. Obviously the taxpayers should work to support the lazy and stupid, lest those worthies bother us.
Hey, I disagree. I think the lazy and stupid should have to work and support themselves like anyone else, and if they don't like it, tough.
May '10
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
Stuart Creque
Perhaps a campaign of mass sterilization is called for? Keeping with Oliver Wendell Holmes's famous opinion in Buck v. Bell?
Mitt Romney, the Eugenicists' Choice! · 1 minute ago
Stuart, let's not go overboard. I find myself unable to join the Romney team, but isn't this a bit much?
Dec '10
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
Chris Deleon
Stuart Creque
I am sorry: how do the very poor not fall along with every other American citizen into the category of, "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America"? · 0 minutes ago
I think he specifically means that helping them at the federal level with welfare cannot be justified under the Commerce Clause.
And Federal welfare isn't help. Any Conservative would know that.
But Romney seems perfectly comfortable with Federal welfare as part of the "safety net." And his approach, should that Federal welfare come up short, is to throw more of it at the net to patch its holes.
Apr '11
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
Chris Deleon
Stuart Creque
I am sorry: how do the very poor not fall along with every other American citizen into the category of, "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America"? · 0 minutes ago
I think he specifically means that helping them at the federal level with welfare cannot be justified under the Commerce Clause. · 2 minutes ago
Right. Sorry, I didn't mean that federal government responsibilities don't apply to the very poor. They should be defended by the military, receive mail addressed to them, be protected from state and local government discrimination, have access to federal courts, and so on. So far as I know, none of that stuff requires urgent reform.
May '10
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
I think everyone is reading way too much into this.
I interpret the phrase "I'm not concerned about..." in the same sense as when somebody says "this doesn't concern you"; basically, that it's off-topic or irrelevant to the point at hand. It seems like Romney just wanted to get off the sidetrack and back to his main idea about the middle class, and was merely trying to dismiss the topic.
I think the vast majority of Americans support the nebulous idea of a "safety net" for the indigent and aren't gonna get real upset if he doesn't spend time figuring out how to fix the social programs for the "very poor".
So unless you want this election to actually be about the very poor and not about the Obamacare and the economy, I say quit needlessly beating up our own guy.
Edited on Feb 2 at 5:35pmDec '10
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
Chris Deleon
Stuart, let's not go overboard. I find myself unable to join the Romney team, but isn't this a bit much? · 1 minute ago
No, it's in keeping with the tenor of this discussion:
May '10
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
wmartin
Stuart Creque
If he thinks that, he is right. In an advanced knowledge economy, people with IQ's much under 100 are going to have a rough go of things. · 10 minutes ago
Sorry, I don't agree. Not everyone is suited for an office job, but not every job requires you to be an office worker or have a higher education. We still need people to do physical work, and crafts, and cooking, and growing things, etc.
Our problem is that we import illegals to do these things, and have trained our own population to think of these jobs as somehow demeaning and beneath them. A good honest days' work should be respected by all, no matter the type of work it is. That's why, while I don't respect illegals' decision to come to this country illegally, I give them props for being willing to work hard.
Apr '11
Re: Mitt Romney Reads the Margin Notes
Percival
I don't think Levin is getting upset about him doing it -- I think he's upset for saying it in such an artless manner.
He's been running for President for at least six years. He needs to be better at it than this. We need for him to be better at it than this. · 14 minutes ago
I was referring to Levin's remarks on federalism, during which he did not reference any statements of Mitt's, merely assuring us, incorrectly, that Mitt did not intend to return power to the states.