Mitt Romney has his talking point: Rick Perry might just take your Social Security away, and his talk about the program is too dangerous to allow into a general election campaign.
At the CNN/Tea Party Express debate Monday night, we got Perry’s response: Don’t worry, seniors — you’re gonna be a-ok in a Perry administration. Everything else Romney talks about it just pure hypocrisy.
“If what you’re trying to say is that back in the ’30s and ’40s the government made all the right decisions, I disagree with you,” Perry told Romney. “It’s time for us to get back to the Constitution and — a program that’s been there 70 or 80 years, obviously we’re not going to take that program away.”
That’s Perry running defense. But he’s got plenty of offense, too.
“The question is, do you still believe that Social Security should be ended as a federal program as you did six months ago when your book came out and returned to the states?” Romney asked during a long back-and-forth between the two men.
Perry seemed prepared for that one, not backing down from his past view that the program should be eliminated in favor of a state-run system while also throwing accusations Romney’s way.
“I think those types of thoughtful conversations with America, rather than trying to scare seniors like you’re doing and other people, it’s time to have a legitimate conversation in this country about how to fix that program where it’s not bankrupt and our children actually know that there’s going to be a retirement program there for them,” Perry said.
“You said that if people did it in the private sector, it would be called criminal,” Perry said, offering up a talking point his campaign has been using for the past couple days, aimed at Romney’s No Apologies tome. “That’s in your book.”
As the debate raged on stage, the two campaigns sent out releases backing their candidate. Team Perry introduced two new characters: ‘Citizen Romney’ and ‘Candidate Romney.’
“In his book, which was published just last year, Citizen Romney compared those managing Social Security to criminals,” Romney said.
Romney kept pushing the Perry retreats line, which they used all Monday.
“Perry’s campaign is leading the charge away from his position on Social Security,” the Romney folks wrote.
