Mitt Romney is kicking off his second presidential campaign later on Thursday, and — according to published excerpts from the afternoon’s big speech — he’ll do it with a healthy dose of fear-the-coming-socialist-tide rhetoric.
“We are only inches away from ceasing to be a free market economy,” Romney will say in his New Hampshire speech, according to prepared remarks.
Excerpts of the address tease a speech that seeks to paint President Obama’s America as leaning dangerously away from core capitalist principles.
Romney will warn that government “has grown to consume almost 40% of our economy” under Obama. Romney’s plan to get things back on track? Repeal the health care law and “return responsibility and authority to the states for dozens of government programs.”
“I will cap federal spending at 20% or less of the GDP and finally, finally balance the budget,” Romney will pledge.
He’ll will also give a nod to the 10th Amendment in the prepared remarks, the kind of tea party-friendly rhetoric he’ll need to successfully wield, if he wants to convince a wary Republican primary electorate he’s not the man he was when he signed that health care mandate into law back in Massachusetts.
Romney will furthermore promise to be a man of austerity, and to slash the government down to a size where it can never endanger the capitalist economic structure again. He’ll also pledge that “from my first day in office my number one job will be to see that America once again is number one in job creation.”
The speech is set for 12:30 p.m. in Stratham, New Hampshire.
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.