I think Mitt Romney is probably a nice guy, and probably a talented businessman and devoted family man.
But this does not alter the fact that he was a terrible governor of our state. He is also portraying himself to be a conservative Republican when in fact he is a Republican John Kerry. Why can’t he just level with the voters about what his core beliefs are?
He was pro choice in 1992 when running against Ted Kennedy for Senate, pro-life in 2001 in Utah at the Mormon Tabernacle, pro-choice again in 2002 when running for Governor in Mass, and now in 2006 pro-life again. At least Rudy admits to being for abortion on demand and doesn’t try to deceive the voters with the constant flip flopping.
The same can be said of same sex marriage in Mass. Romney had ample opportunity to stop the total judicial usurpation of the legislative authority to define the marriage laws in Mass by using his executive authority to stop the activist court’s attempt to re-write marriage statutes from the bench imposing same sex marriage on Mass citizens without a proper consitutionally proscribed vote. But he didn’t. In fact he threatened to fire any clerks who failed to issue marriage licneces to same sex couples and never used his executive authority to defend the rule of law that had been egregiously violated by Margarett Marshall & Co. on the MSJC.
Then right before leaving office to run for president, Romney gave one speech at the state house with pro-marriage citizen groups such as Vote on Marriage to portray himself as “pro-traditional marriage.” Total PR stunt so that he would be “on record” as a defender of “traditional family values.”
He also claimed in South Carolina, an important GOP primary state, that he was opposed to gay marriage and civil unions- when in fact he is on record supporting Vermont style “civil unions” which are basically the same thing as marriage.
The guy flip flops more than John Kerry if that is even possible.
Finally, right before leaving office Romeny signs a univeral-healthcare bill that Hillary Clinton would have been proud to call her own.
When then-Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, introduced a universal health-insurance plan in the Bay State early last year, it was widely acclaimed. But less than a year after passage, RomneyCare is in the intensive care unit, soon to be wheeled into hospice.
The first signs of trouble appeared last August. In a filing to support general obligation bonds, officials projected that the new plan would increase state government health-care spending by $276.4 million in 2007. That’s $151 million more than what the public had been told the plan would cost. Meanwhile, the state’s new bureaucracy, busily signing up people for free care, has run into trouble finding affordable plans for those who have to pay. The premiums for subsidized plans would consume up to 6% of a person’s income — prompting calls from activists and echoes from politicians that they should be exempted from the individual mandate. So much for universal coverage.
Reality fully hit in late January of this year, when private insurers submitted bids to the bureaucracy that would administer the new program. The average premium for the unsubsidized plans was not $200 per month — as Mr. Romney promised from the stump — but rather $380. That’s more than 15% of the target audiences’ income — and for a plan with a $2,000 deductible and a total cost sharing of $5,000. People were stunned, outraged. Naturally, “greedy” private insurers were blamed. Politicians called for price controls.
I wonder if Romney will explain to the voters aorund the country how this totolitarian socialist style healthcare plan he bequeathed upon we the people in the Commonwealth is “conservative?” I am also wondering if he can explain as a pro-growth fiscal conservative how such as government run bureacratic nightmare that he left us with in Mass can possibly be good for small businesses that are having a hard enough time operating in the Commonwealth in the first place and are leaving the state in record numbers becuase of things like….you guessed it- rising healthcare costs.
I know the guy is articulate and telegenic. But my God can somebody please explain to me what this guy has done as governor to qualify him to be the president of the United States? His is the type of pedigree one would normally expect from a Democrat, but not a self described conservative “Reagan Republican.”