WASHINGTON, D.C.— As a guest on Face the Nation this week, GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney reminded official Washington that the government has an overspending problem, not an under-taxing problem:

BOB SCHIEFFER, HOST:  “You were one of the vast majority of Republicans who signed the pledge that was circulated by the leading anti-tax advocate, Grover Norquist, no new taxes under any circumstances.  And I remember once, back during one of the primaries, you were asked if you would agree to $1 in taxes if you could get $10 cut in spending cuts, and you said at that time, no, I wouldn`t even accept that.

Do you still feel that way?”

ROMNEY:  “Well, we all felt that way. And the reason is that government, at all levels today, consumes about 37 percent of our economy.”

SCHIEFFER:  “But do you still feel...”

ROMNEY: “Let me go on and explain. And the answer is I do feel that way. Government is big and getting larger, and there are those who think, well, the answer is just to take a little more from the American people, just give us a little more. And there are places that have gone that way. California, for instance, keeps raising taxes more and more and more. And funny thing, the more they raise in taxes, the deficits get larger and larger. The only solution to taming an out-of-control-spending government is to cut spending. And my policies reduce the rate of spending, bring government expenses from 25 percent -- federal expenses -- from 25 percent of the economy down to 20 percent, and ignite growth of our economy.

That`s the way that we`re going to balance our budget is getting people back to work with rising incomes again, so we`re going to get bigger tax revenues as a result of that good news.”

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Posted by John Kartch on Monday, June 18, 2012 4:36 PM EDT

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