In the wake of the election, Mitt Romney thinks Barack Obama should “seize his ‘Nixon to China’ opportunity.” And by China, he means the US government. “Government is a greater threat to America in 2010 than China was in 1972,” Romney writes in an op-ed for the Washington Post. “Government is smothering the pioneering, entrepreneurial spirit that propelled our economy past those of older, larger nations.”
Obama “must subject government to the two budgeting rules employed by every well-run business and home.” The first is to start with your total in mind. “Don’t add up all the program requirements, departmental requests and political wish lists—that’s surrendering, not budgeting.” Second, he needs to go where the real money is: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. But Romney's against cuts in defense spending, or letting the Bush tax cuts expire. “Spending, Mr. President, is what threatens America's economy, not tax cuts.” (More Mitt Romney stories.)