Mitt Romney– who used to be the presumed Republican presidential nominee for 2012 and may yet be again– has, for an extremely rich man, an odd habit of pretending to be in the same boat as ordinary folks.
Last June, meeting with a group of unemployed people in Florida, Romney quipped, “I’m also unemployed.”
As I noted at the time:
Of course one difference between Romney and his listeners is that he has a $200 million cushion on which to get by until he can find work.
Now Politico reports:
Some people believe that “instead of a merit-based society we should be an entitlement based society,” Romney told the crowd of about 100 people on hand [in Des Moines], adding that people in that mindset want everyone to essentially receive the same things, and said if that happens, “We’ll have the certainty that we’re all pretty close to equal. But we’ll also have the certainty that we’re all poor. Because what drives an economy is people pursuing their dreams.”
I don’t know in what alternative universe there is a serious danger of a “merit-based society” being replaced by an “entitlement-based society.” Hell, even the dreaded redistributionist Elizabeth Warren thinks financially successful people should keep a big share of what they earn.
Let me reassure you, Mitt: there will never, ever come a time when the poor among us will include you. They may include some of the 1,700 employees laid off from the medical company Dade International. But not you, Mitt.
Update: In tonight’s presidential debate, Romney offered to bet Rick Perry $10,000 to settle a dispute about Romney’s support for mandated health insurance. So much for identifying with ordinary Americans, the vast majority of whom are not in a financial position to bet that kind of money.