I didn't vote for Mitt during our state's primary (voted Newt) but I sure am voting the party ticket here in a few weeks, and you know, the more I learn from my own research and dig into stories like this, the more I like the guy.
Same here, I also voted for Newt. I really didn't like Romney based on everything I had been reading here. Once he got the nomination, though, I figured there had to be something decent about him based on folks like Coulter backing him so strongly and folks like Jay Sekulow endorsing him way, way back in January. I started doing my own research and have been surprised and very happy at what I was finding.
I'll list some of it for you in a couple of posts with links you can research, if you want. Some really good stuff :-)
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844 total vetoes of the 87% democrat massachusetts legislature - http://www.conservapedia.com/Mitt_Romney
vetoed in-state tuition for immigrants -http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/23/romney-had-mixed-record-on-immigration-in-mass/
arranged federal agreement for Mass State Police to arrest and seek deportation of suspected illegal aliens - http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/23/romney-had-mixed-record-on-immigration-in-mass/
vetoed immigrants from receiving state assistance for healthcare - http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060413/NEWS/304139962&cid=sitesearch
filed legislation to reinstate capital punishment - http://www.conservapedia.com/Mitt_Romney
tried twice to pass tort-reform in 2003 and 2006 - http://www.clubforgrowth.org/whitepapers/?subsec=137&id=905
vetoed union card-check bill that would allow union organizing without secret ballot - http://www.clubforgrowth.org/whitepapers/?subsec=137&id=905
Great information in this. Here is the Club for Growth on Romneys term as Governor regarding his history with cutting size of government, entitlement reform, tax reform.
On balance, his record comes out more positive than negative, especially when one considers that average spending increased only 2.22% over his four years, well below the population plus inflation benchmark of nearly 3%.
Governor Romney receives credit for reducing actual spending unilaterally in Fiscal Year FY2003, even though he entered office halfway into the fiscal year, because of the tremendous spending cuts he forced down the Legislatures throat in January of 2003. Facing a $650 million deficit he inherited from the previous administration, Romney convinced the unfriendly State Legislature to grant him unilateral power to make budget cuts and unveiled $343 million in cuts to cities, healthcare, and state agencies. This fiscal discipline continued in 2004, in which Romney continued to slash nearly every part of state government to close a $3 billion deficit.
To his credit, Romney attempted to cut down on government spending by streamlining many duplicative and wasteful elements of Beacon Hill. Some of his more ambitious proposals were rejected by his über-liberal Legislature. These include: his plans to overhaul the wasteful Boston Municipal Court and close underused courthouses; merge the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority with the Highway Department; decentralize management of the University of Massachusetts; streamline the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission; and phase out the obsolete Worcester State Hospital where employees outnumber patients nearly 3 to 1.
Governor Romney successfully consolidated the social service and public health bureaucracy and restructured the Metropolitan District Commission. Romney even eliminated half of the executive branchs press positions, saving $1.2 million. He also used his emergency fiscal powers to make $425 million worth of cuts in 2006, taking particular aim at local earmarks, instead of allowing the Legislature to dip into the states $1.2 billion rainy day fund. While there is no question that Governor Romneys initial fiscal discipline slacked off in the second half of his term, on balance, he imposed some much-needed fiscal discipline on a very liberal Massachusetts Legislature.
Romney fought for legislation that would bring Massachusetts welfare system up to date with federal standards by increasing the number of hours each week recipients must work and establishing a five-year limit for receiving benefits. Much to his credit and to the dismay of many Massachusetts liberals, Romney successfully forced Medicaid recipients to make co-payments for some services and successfully pushed for legislative action forcing new state workers to contribute 25% of their health insurance costs, up from 15%. Governor Romney also deserves praise for proposing to revolutionize the Massachusetts state pension system by moving it from a defined benefit system to a defined contribution system.
In May of 2004, Mitt Romney proposed cutting the states income tax rate from 5.3% to 5.0%a measure Massachusetts voters had approved in a 2000 referendum, but was blocked by the State Legislature in 2002. The proposed tax cut would have provided $675 million in relief over a year and a half. When the Massachusetts Legislature refused to budge, Romney proposed the same tax cut in 2005 and again in 2006 with no success. Romney was more successful when he took on the State Legislature for imposing a retroactive tax on capital gains earnings. After a bloody fight, Romney succeeded in passing a bill preventing the capital gains tax from being applied retroactively, resulting in a rebate of $275 million for capital gains taxes collected in 2002.
more at link....
http://www.clubforgrowth.org/whitepapers/?subsec=137&id=905
On gun rights:
Romney endorsed by the NRA. Also backed by GOAL, the Gun Owners Action League in Massachusetts who states:
“During the Romney Administration, no anti-Second Amendment or anti-sportsmen legislation made its way to the Governors desk. Governor Romney did sign five pro-Second Amendment/pro-sportsmen bills into law. His administration also worked with Gun Owners Action League and the Democratic leadership of the Massachusetts House and Senate to remove any anti-Second Amendment language from the Gang Violence bill passed in 2006. A summary of this legislation follows.”
(The “assault weapons ban” that Romney signed as Governor was actually BACKED by the gun lobby there because it LOOSENED the existing restrictions.)
http://www.goal.org/newspages/romney.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_Massachusetts
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Part of Romneys speech at the rally:
Legislators so energized to protect the newly discovered gay right to marry had no compunction about trammeling the long established, constitutional right of the people to vote.
The issue now before us is not whether same sex couples should marry. The issue before us today is whether 109 legislators will follow the Constitution.
Tomorrow, I will send these 109 a copy of the Constitution and of their oath of office.
And this week, we will file an action before the courts, calling upon the judiciary to protect the constitutional rights of our citizens.
Let us not see this state, which first established constitutional democracy, become the first to abandon it.
http://illinoisans-4-mitt-romney.blogspot.com/2006/11/mitt-romney-remarks-111906-democracy.html
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The gay lobby held a protest against Romneys Protection of Marriage amendment:
Rally Against Romney Bigot!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaLsE-y1TQE
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