Gary Johnson: I would have vetoed DHS after 9/11

Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson is fond of saying no.

As governor of New Mexico, he vetoed more legislation that all other governors combined.

On Wednesday, he told the New Hampshire Legislature that he would have even blocked the creation of the Department of Homeland Security if he had been president after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2011.

"I vetoed 750 bills while I was governor of New Mexico," Johnson declared. "I had thousands of line-item vetoes as the governor of New Mexico. And for those that say, 'Gee, just saying no, that really doesn't help people out.' Well, it does. Just saying no to government, the unintended consequences that go along with what government does really does make a difference."

"If I would have been president of the United States after 9/11, I would have never established the Department of Homeland Security. I think it's tremendously redundant and it doesn't make us any safer and it costs a lot more money. And it actually takes a lot of our time to comply with what it is they are demanding of us which is really an erosion of our civil liberties."

He added: "I think we should get out of the wars. I think we should get ourselves out of these conflicts."

Johnson was excluded from Tuesday night's The Washington Post/Bloomberg Republican presidential debate because he did not meet the requirement of participating in at least three prior nationally televised debates during the 2012 cycle. He had been included in two debates but was denied a chance to appear at a CNN/Tea Party Exress debate in September.

Watch this video from CNN, broadcast Oct. 12, 2011.

Watch this video on iPhone/iPad

Photo: Flickr/Gage Skidmore