Mitt Romney: Federal Disaster Relief For Tornado And Flood Victims Is 'Immoral,' 'Makes No Sense At All' | ThinkProgress

Mitt Romney: Federal Disaster Relief For Tornado And Flood Victims Is 'Immoral,' 'Makes No Sense At All' | ThinkProgress:

Mitt Romney: Federal Disaster Relief For Tornado And Flood Victims Is ‘Immoral,’ ‘Makes No Sense At All’

By Brad Johnson on Jun 14, 2011 at 12:40 pm

Obama meets victims of the Joplin tornado.

Asked about federal disaster relief for recent tornado and flood victims at last night’s GOP debate, candidate Mitt Romney called the spending “immoral” and said the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be privatized. With greenhouse pollution on the rise, the United States has been struck by a “punishing series of billion-dollar disasters.”

Embracing a radical anti-government ideology from the most extreme elements of the Tea Party, Romney said that the victims in Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and other communities hit by tornadoes and flooding should not receive governmental assistance. He argued it is “simply immoral” for there to be deficit spending that could harm future generations:

Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better. [...] We cannot — we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the