Mitt Romney reiterated his criticism of Newt Gingrich as “unreliable” and “zany” in an in interview that aired this morning.
“A campaign is about pointing out differences,” Romney told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace. “For instance, the great issue that has been brought before this Congress, with the new Republican Congress, is ‘are we going to deal with entitlement reform or not?’ And Republicans came together and proposed a program to make sure that Medicare is sustainable. Paul Ryan was the author of the plan [and] almost every single Republican in Congress voted for it. And the world watched to see ‘okay, are we going to have progress?’ and the speaker said, this is right wing social engineering .Talk about unreliable. At a critical time, he cut the legs out from underneath a very important message.”
“The same was true with regards to cap-and-trade,” Romney continued. “This was being battled on Capitol Hill and the speaker sat down with Nancy Pelosi and spoke in favor of legislation dealing with climate change. He has been unreliable in those settings. And zany? I wouldn’t think you’d call mirrors in space to light highways at night particularly practical or a lunar colony a practical idea, not at a stage like this.”
Talking about the individual mandate in his Massachusetts health-care plan, Romney said, “There are various ways to encourage people to have insurance if they can afford it. … Another alternative would be to say we’re going to give a tax break to people who do have insurance, and you’re going to lose that break if you don’t have insurance.”
Asked if he would encourage other states to adopt his health-care plan, Romney responded, “I’m not going to try to tell other states what to do.”