"Hangouts" with Mitt Romney

Although he likes a lot of federal programs, some might have to end, Mitt Romney said Tuesday, because "we just can't afford them right now."

The Republican presidential candidate added that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for Humanities and the Arts "are great programs, but the idea of borrowing money from the next generation for things that are 'nice' to have, not absolutely 'have to have' is not a good idea."

Romney was speaking in the first virtual town hall webcast hosted by Fox News' Bret Baier, in which three citizen participants from around the U.S. questioned the GOP hopeful. The 15-minute question-and-answer session focused on cutting and consolidating, balancing and eliminating, limiting and deregulating.

Asked whether and how he would cut the Education Department and its programs, Romney said, "What I would do is look at each program and say, 'Is this program so essential to America that it is worth borrowing money from China to pay for it?'"

When pressed by Baier to say whether he would eliminate the Department of Education, Romney conceded he had not decided which departments he would eliminate or combine. He said that's something he would decide if he got into the White House.

Although his GOP opponents take aim at Romney for his health care overhaul in Massachusetts when he was governor, he tried to draw a line in the sand between his reforms and President Obama's. The two plans have often been compared as quite similar.

"In my state we were able to solve the problem of the uninsured, that was about 8 percent of the population. We didn't change the plan for the 92 percent of people who already had insurance. Unlike the president's plan, my plan didn't cost a trillion dollars."You can watch the Google Hangout on FoxNews.com by clicking on the following link :

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/special-report/index.html