Iowa State Fair: Des Moines Register Soapbox                                       next
August 11, 2011--Former Gov. Mitt Romney had a lively time on the Des Moines Register soapbox.  Romney spoke for about ten minutes, emphasizing his "lifetime of work in the private sector."  From that experience, he identified seven things "an economy has to do if it's going to perform better than the other nations around us and allow Americans to continue to have a standard of living that leads the world."  Romney then took questions for another ten minutes.  His spirited exchange with questioners over Social Security made national news.  Romney fared pretty well, holding his own, although his remark that, "Corporations are people, my friend" was quickly seized upon by critics.  [transcript]
Cherie Mortice, a retired public school teacher from Des Moines ("an East Sider"), asked, “Do you support scrapping the Social Security payroll cap, so that rich people pay their fair share into the trust fund?”  (Later, speaking to a reporter, she stated that Social Security is not an entitlement, but rather an earned benefit).
Not satisified with Romney's response, Joe Fagan (+), founding director of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, interrupted him and shouted to make his question heard.  "What are you going to do to strengthen Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid without cutting benefits?" Fagan asked.  Romney responded, "I'm not going to raise taxes."  (Romney did offer a more detailed answer in response to another question, see below).
Dennis Fett, a peacock farmer from Minden (Pottawattamie Co.), asked a "non-controversial question."  Fett asked Romney, "What can you assure me, if I support you, that perhaps that maybe you'll make small businesses like mine, not only mine but everyone in Iowa and the United States to be better?"

A fourth question on Social Security came from Daniel Symonds of Maplewood, NJ, a recent Swathmore graduate, who, arguing that "Social Security legally cannot add a single dime to the deficit," asked Romney, "Do you agree that Social Security should take no part, no part in deficit reduction negotiations?"  In his response, Romney noted that, "Social Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid account for about half of federal spending."  He stated, "And if we are ultimately, not just this year, but over the coming decades going to be able to balance our budget and not spend more than we take in we have to make sure that the promises we make in Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare are promises we can keep."   Specifically, Romney said, "I think we should have what's known as progressive indexing.  I think we also should consider a higher retirement age." 
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