Surprise: Mitt Romney Favors Privatizing Disaster Response

When disaster strikes: clearly a role for the private sector?

Mitt Romney thinks so:

A man who can say that disaster relief and response should be in the hands of the private sector is a man who is either imbalanced or so cynical that blowing dog whistles is more important than real critical thinking and honest appraisal. Vote Mitt! Disaster response brought to you by Bain Capital! Sheesh.

But wait. If you really get down into the weeds of Romney's response, he indicates three things: disaster response should be moved to the states, or better yet, given over to the private sector, or quite possibly eliminated altogether.

Oh, yes, he's a leader! Vote Mitt! He'll get the government off my back, even in a hurricane!

Update. Matthew Yglesias points out that Romney wants to cut FEMA. Of course he did, but not today. Josh Marshall thinks Mitt is just pandering:

Many things that Romney said back during his severely conservative period I have little doubt are what he really believes. This one though is so nonsensical that I’d chalk it up more to his penchant for pandering and lack of character. But that’s a difficult excuse for Romney to use on his behalf and I suspect we’ll be hearing more about this pretty soon.

 I sure hope so.