Pizzas! Mitt Romney's substitute for the staffing and safety equipment firefighters need

Mitt Romney's answer to first-responder budget cuts:
Pepperoni and cheese. Oh-so-very-eager not to politicize 9/11, and saying it was "inappropriate" of the Obama team to take credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden in an election year, on Tuesday, Mitt Romney joined another guy who has been careful not to politicize the worst terror attack in U.S. history, former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani. They arrived at Engine 24, Ladder 5, Battalion 2, a firehouse in Manhattan that lost 11 firefighters in the 2001 attacks.

The all-but-crowned GOP presidential nominee arrived with pizzas. He paid the Greenwich Village pizza-maker in cash, $136, including tip. Quite the non-politicized photo op on a day unconnected to the 9/11 attack other than its being the anniversary of the death of the man behind all those deaths that terrible day.

If the firefighters were wondering as they downed their slices what kind of president Romney might make, they could take a look at his record as governor of Massachusetts:

During Romney's tenure, cuts to local aid resulted in about 500-700 police officers being taken off the streets, according to a survey in 2007 by Deval Patrick's campaign. Cuts that hit teachers, firefighters, police offices, and librarians ' constituencies from which the Democrats usually draw their base ' led to the laying off of about 14,500 workers in total over the course of Romney's term.

During his first year in office, in an attempt to streamline the Massachusetts budget, Romney proposed expanding the state's legal definition of a manager, a move that would make thousands of government workers illegal for union benefits.

The move was described as 'complete union busting," by the National Association of Government Employees. The 12,000-member Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts said it would result with 1/3 of their members losing union protection. [...]

"During his last year in office Romney vetoed about $2.5 million dollars for fire safety equipment, a veto that was unanimously overridden in the Massachusetts' House and Senate.

Thank goodness for some good news. The beleaguered public sector can expect a bigger pizza budget from a Romney presidency. Hold the onions.