If you’re hoping Mitt Romney will stop attacking Rick Perry’s position on Social Security, don’t hold your breath.
I asked Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser for the Romney campaign, how long the campaign planned to hammer Perry on Social Security and if they had any concerns that voters would be turned off by the negative attacks. Based on Fehrnstrom’s response, it appears that the line of criticism won’t disappear anytime soon.
“Rick Perry a year ago published a book called Fed Up!” Fehrnstrom said. “He went on a media tour to promote that book. In the book and on the media tour, he attacks Social Security as a failure from its very inception. He said it does violence to the founding principles of this country. He suggested we should end it as a federal entitlement and give it to the states.”
“This type of radical rhetoric is unlike anything we’ve seen from a modern candidate for elective office,” Fehrnstrom added, “and we happen to think it would be a disaster to nominate somebody for president who believes that Social Security has been a failure from its very inception and should be dismantled as a federal entitlement and given to the states.”