Kyle Becker
October 31, 2012
"Republican
candidate and former governor Mitt Romney is a leader of tremendous
character, whose ability to turn around enterprises, talent for
overcoming partisanship, and commitment to his country make him worthy
of becoming the next president of the United States. The following are
characteristics displayed by Mitt Romney, based on his record.
#1.
Mitt Romney graduated from Harvard University with a degree from the
prestigious J.D.-M.B.A. program, which is the graduate education of the
last two presidents
combined.
#2. Mitt Romney governed a state whose schools
ranked first nationally in education.
#3. In 1984, Romney founded and led one of the world’s most successful venture capital and investment firms:
Bain Capital.
#4. Bain
Capital helped turn around numerous struggling businesses that went on
to become prosperous and successful, such as: Burger King, Sealy, Sports
Authority, Staples, Brookstone, Burlington Coat Factory, Clear Channel,
Domino’s Pizza, Houghton Mifflin, Dunkin’ Donuts, The Weather Channel,
Guitar Center, and the Hospital Corporation of America.
#5. In
2002, Romney left the private sector to oversee the Olympics
preparations at Salt Lake City. He erased a $379 million operating
deficit, organized 23,000 volunteers, and oversaw security in the wake
of the 9/11 attacks.
#6. As Governor of Massachusetts, Romney turned a $ 3 billion deficit into a $700 Million budget surplus in less than 2 years.
7. Governor Romney was granted emergency gubernatorial powers and slashed unsustainable spending levels by hundreds of millions of dollars.
#8. As governor, he helped
reduce Massachusetts’ unemployment rate from 6% to 4.7%
#9. Romney was
elected
Chairman of the Republican Governors Association for the the 2006
election cycle, going on to raise a then-record $27 million for
candidates in state house contests across the nation.
#10. In 2006, Governor Romney proposed and
signed
into law market-based healthcare reform approved by 99% of the
Massachusetts legislature, which was 85% Democrat and could override any
veto.
#11. Romney
objected
to the employer mandate, mandated benefits, minimum coverage
guidelines, and medicaid expansion in the final healthcare bill. His
vetoes were overridden. He also preferred a tax break for those who
could prove coverage, rather than a penalty for the individual mandate.
#12. As Romney predicted, the healthcare law
added 1.2% to Massachusetts’ budget, despite the additional costly provisions that he objected to as governor. Another
analysis put the cost as low as .3% a year or $100 million.
#13. So-called Romneycare remains
popular
with 67-84% of Massachusetts residents, who are happy with the plan and
would not go back to the old system if given the chance.
#14. Romney cut taxes
19 times,
and they were only raised in Massachusetts when his governor’s veto was
overridden. The governor used fees to help close the state’s $3 billion
budget shortfall.
#15. Mitt Romney has
pledged to repeal
Obamacare as quickly as possible, granting waivers from the program to
the states in the meantime (just as President Obama gave
waivers to special interests and the Democrat Party exempted politicians from the program).
#16. A devout Mormon, a
branch of Christianity, Romney spent
two years as a missionary in Paris, France, forgoing entertainment, dating, and contact with family and friends to serve God.
#17. Mitt Romney has never smoked cigarettes, used drugs, or drank alcohol, which shows remarkable dedication.
#18. Mitt Romney has given nearly 13.5% of his income to
charity over the last twenty years, $4 million in 2011 alone. Much of his
donations was given to his church.
#19. The former governor’s taxes never fell below 13.66%, and amount to
38.5% of his income over twenty years.
#20. Mitt
Romney accepted no pay as an intern in his father’s Governor’s office,
no pay as bishop and stake president for his church, no pay as president
of the Olympics, and only a ceremonial salary of $1 as Governor of
Massachusetts — 28 years of virtually unpaid service.
#21. Mitt Romney refused to take his father’s trust fund money, he financed his way through college, and he
donated his father’s inheritance to charity.
#22. Ann and Mitt Romney
lived in a modest basement apartment for years.
#23. While
at Bain Capital, Romney shut down the company so that workers could
help find a partner’s missing daughter. Mitt Romney helped organize the
search, which sent out hundreds of thousands of fliers. The teenage girl
was found in New York, after police traced a call in New Jersey to a
teenage boy who was interested in the reward.
#24. In
July 2003, Mitt Romney used his Jet Ski to rescue a New Jersey family
and their Scottish terrier McKenzie out of Lake Winnipesaukee while
their boat sank.
#25. After
a California wildfire, Mitt Romney took time out away from his campaign
to help a family dig out a tree stump. The act went unpublicized,
because Romney does not like to advertise his community service and
random acts of kindness.
#26. In 1979, Mitt Romney helped a dying fourteen-year old boy named David write his will and delivered the eulogy at his funeral.
#27. At
a campaign stop in South Carolina, Mitt emptied his wallet for a woman
having trouble paying her light bill named Ruth Williams. The woman was
in difficult circumstances due to her desperately ill son.
#28. Although
Mitt Romney had the opportunity to attend Stanford, he took a risk and
bypassed it to attend Brigham Young University, where his future wife
was enrolled. As recounted, Mitt Romney was worried about Ann Davie
being wooed by other suitors after he received a “Dear John” letter.
#29. As governor, Romney
hired more women to his economic team than any other in the country.
#30. Although Mitt Romney is personally against abortion, he has respected a woman’s ‘right to choose’ and
vowed not to make abortion legislation a part of his presidential agenda.
#31. While
Romney is a proponent of “traditional marriage,” and is not in favor of
civil unions, he has not stood in the way of legal extensions of rights
to “domestic partnerships.” As the governor put it, “If the question
is: “Do you support gay marriage or civil unions?” I’d say neither; if
they said you have to have one or the other, that Massachusetts is going
to have one or the other, then I’d rather have civil unions than gay
marriage.” Romney has been
endorsed by the Log Cabin Republicans.
#32. While Romney was governor, he vetoed a bill for embryonic stem cell research.
#33. Romney
also said he would cut federal funding for PBS, given the U.S. is
borrowing money from China to finance the government. Such a bold
statement about cutting a popular federal program shows courage and
seriousness about the issue. (Sesame Street and other programs
would not likely go out of business, regardless.)
#34. Mitt
Romney also told the NAACP that he pledged to repeal Obamacare, drawing
boos. This again demonstrates his willingness to tell people what they
do not want to hear.
#35. The governor said he would
cut funding for the pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood.
#36. Romney
stated in unequivocal terms that the Federal Reserve should be audited.
As he responded to a questioner at a campaign stop, “The Federal
Reserve should be accountable. We should see what they’re doing.”
#37. The Republican candidate has pledged to work to repeal the burdensome 2300-page
Dodd-Frank regulations.
#38. Although Mitt Romney has admitted that man is responsible for “
some warming” in the climate, he
opposes cap-and-trade and fought the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative as governor of Massachusetts.
#39. The GOP candidate has
proposed more domestic energy development, approval of the Keystone pipeline, and a return to market-oriented “green energy” innovation.
#40. Romney
signed
into law at least one pro-second amendment or pro-sportsmen bill while
governor every year, and blocked or improved anti-gun legislation coming
out of the Democrat-dominated legislature. NRA board of directors
member Grover Norquist in 2007
called Romney’s position on guns “flawless.”
#41. Regarding foreign policy matters, Mitt Romney has pledged to be a
staunch defender of Israel.
#42. He has called Iran’s attainment of nuclear weapons “
unacceptable” and would do everything in his power to prevent it.
#43. Mitt Romney called Russia the U.S.’ “
number one geopolitical foe.” President Obama has made numerous concessions to Russia in what he called a “
reset” of relations and even whispered to Dmitry Medvedev that he would have more “
flexibility” after his “last election” in a hot microphone exchange.
#44. In regards to China, Romney has stated he intends to go after China for currency manipulation, and he would
strengthen our naval assets in the Pacific.
#45. Although
Romney was attacked by mainstream media for going after Obama on his
mishandling of the terrorist attack at Benghazi, further analysis
confirms that the administration
did not send help to the murdered diplomats and security forces after three requests.
#46. Mitt Romney strongly
opposes illegal immigration. He is not for forcibly removing but wants to seek ways to encourage legal immigration and discourage illegal immigration.
#47. He
selected as his running mate Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan, who was
re-elected six times in a Democrat-heavy district, and never failed to
receive 63% of the vote.
#48. Paul Ryan’s
proposed budget
plan would “shrink the size of government to about 20 percent of gross
domestic product (GDP) in 2023, 19 percent of GDP in 2040 and 16 percent
of GDP in 2050.”
The plan is relatively non-aggressive, as conservative
critics contend, but may be politically viable.
#49. As one policy foundation
summarized:
“The Ryan budget would reform income taxes for individuals and
corporations by lowering rates and allowing fewer exemptions, deductions
and other special provisions.”
#50. As
the analysis continued, “relative to the CBO baseline, these proposals
would cut taxes by $4.4 trillion over 10 years and would more than
offset all of the budget’s $4.1 trillion in proposed spending cuts.”
Other ‘non-static’ budget analyses have
confirmed this $4 trillion in spending reductions.
#51. According
to the CBO’s long-term projections, federal debt would decline to 62
percent of GDP in 2022 and to 10 percent of GDP in 2050 under the Ryan
plan.
#52. As a potential
president, Mitt Romney would likely be charged with nominating two
Supreme Court justices, who would have lifetime appointments, and dozens
of federal judges. The Justices he cites as
his favorites are: Scalia, Thomas, and Alito.
#53. While
governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney worked with an 85% Democrat
legislature to balance the budget four times. If his election bid is
successful enough on November 6th, he would likely have the opportunity
to work with a Republican-controlled House of Representatives and
possibly a GOP majority Senate to effect the change of direction America
so desperately needs."
********************************
This article was really needed because it helps to remind of us of our
reasons for making this good and informed choice. With all the hoopla
and distractions in the news we as Americans forget to look at the big
picture. Sandy and 9/11/12 and the Debates have been on everyone's
minds as the nation has been caught up in the moment and putting out
fires.
Our focus has been literally jammed with a lot of very big news and
important stuff from the press. In the frenzy of all of it we need to
take a step back and look at the big picture. That should reground us
and help us refocus on our wise decision making. So thank you to Kyle
Becker from the Independent Review Journal. Thank you for reminding us
why Mitt Romney is our man for a brighter future.
Recovery is needed and the truth is everyone will have to make
sacrifices to see things turn around. We need to step back from our
personal interest groups and look at what is best for everybody in
America. We are all "entitled" to that and to attain it we are all
going to have to work together. No more free rides...everyone needs to
pitch in. We need the Leadership of an honest, forthright and good man
to guide us with a proven track record. We have him on the ticket.
It is Mitt Romney on November 6, 2012. No more helpless watching as the present administration continues on the downward spiral with their hopeless
trying. Just say
"NO!" to Obama in the voting booth. Get out there and make a big difference!
