Romney and Obama are expected to bash China in full force tonight, as they’ve been doing on the campaign trail, with Romney calling the Chinese “cheaters” and Obama promising to raise tariffs.

This is in stark contrast to Rep. Mike Coffman, who’s written that the Chinese have enjoyed “economic growth based on the free market principles that we have long abandoned in favor of the redistributionist policies of a welfare state.” (Littleton Independent, May 22, 2011) Republican Michele Bachmann took a similar position.

Back on May 22 of last year, Coffman wrote in the Littleton Independent about a recent trip Coffman took to China:

Coffman: “No doubt, it felt strange to travel to a country that is the largest holder of U.S. debt, continues to expand its industrial base at the expense of ours, and has enjoyed sustained economic growth based on the free market principles that we have long abandoned in favor of the redistributionist policies of a welfare state. The ruling elite of China are communists in name only but cling to power based solely on an ideology of economic growth that most of the population accepts in exchange for a complete lack of political freedom. The government knows that if they are unable to sustain economic growth then the Chinese people will question their authoritarian rule and unrest will follow. The Chinese are nationalistic in their pride; in only three decades this economic experiment has already lifted a third of their nation out of abject poverty.

If China takes center stage in the debate tonight, reporters might find out from Coffman if he’d toss out health insurance for kids, Medicaid, school lunches, and other parts of the “Welfare state” in order to make capitalism in America look more like China’s version.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2012 at 3:07 pm and is filed under Colorado 6th Cong. Distroct. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.