Mitt Romney cites the average wages of government workers being higher than private sector workers as a sign that our government spending is out of control. First off, I'd like to know where he is getting these numbers since David Gregory didn't ask him. Second, these Republicans only seem to be worried about deficits and spending when a)Democrats are in charge and b) when it's spending to get people to work instead of spending for war or tax cuts for the rich.
GREGORY: Governor Romney, our role in the world here. The auto companies going through bankruptcy; and yet, we find out this week that, in fact, the Chinese are buying more cars for the first time more than Americans.
ROMNEY: We can compete around the world, there's no question about that, David. We have the capacity to do that. The American workers are the best in the world, our technology is at the leading edge. America, long term, can be the, the powerful economic engine it's always been. But the real threat right here is something that Alan Greenspan just said, and that is that if we don't take action to rein in the scale of government and the growth of government spending and the compensation levels of government workers--you saw government workers, average government workers, are now making $30,000 a year more than the average private sector worker. These kinds of excesses and the massive deficits that, that, that government is putting in place, over a trillion dollars a year for these coming several years, this threatens our long-term viability, because it, it, it suggests that we could have runaway inflation. And, and the Fed and the federal government are going to have to rein in, pull back from what have been the excesses of these past years, Republican and Democrat. It's not a partisan issue, it's a growth of government issue. And it's got to stop, or America's future could be very much in jeopardy.
