By Mitt Romney
LatinaLista
We continue with our series of guest posts from the 2008 presidential candidates and take this opportunity to thank Gov. Mitt Romney for sharing his time and outlook for the country.
The former Governor of Massachusetts, a Mormon and the only other presidential contender who can trace his family tree to Mexico, Governor Romney is a camera-friendly candidate with a track record for solving economic woes when he was governor and rescuing failing businesses as a private entrepreneur.
Governor Romney is no stranger to national politics either. His father, George Romney, also ran for the Republican presidential nomination back in 1968. He was defeated. It’s a legacy that the younger Romney has no intention of fulfilling.
Governor Romney announced his candidacy for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination in the state of his birth, Michigan, on February 13, 2007.
Throughout my life, I have relished the opportunity to lead in the business world, public sector and government. As the founder of Bain Capital, I led a company that invested in start-up enterprises and turned around troubled businesses.
As chairman of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, I turned around a scandal-plagued Games and eliminated a $379 million deficit. As Governor of Massachusetts, I cut taxes for families and businesses, enabled successful students to attend college tuition-free, signed into law landmark health care reform and defended traditional family values.
Through it all, I still consider raising a loving family to be my life’s greatest achievement.
Earlier this year, my high school sweetheart Ann and I celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary. Our lives have been profoundly enriched by our five sons, five daughters-in-law and eleven grandchildren.
My experiences have solidified my belief that the most important work in America today is taking place inside the four walls of the American home.
In order to strengthen the American people, we must strengthen our greatest institution – the family.
As President, I will protect marriage, family and the sanctity of life.
Ann and I will use the bully pulpit to teach America’s children that before they have babies, they should get married. It’s time to make out-of-wedlock births out-of-fashion again so that our young women can complete their educations and realize their full potential.
We must also encourage a culture that values all life, while promoting greater parental involvement in children’s lives.
Another way to strengthen families is by allowing them to keep more of their hard-earned money. As President, I will make the Bush tax relief permanent, roll back tax rates for all taxpayers, abolish the death tax, make health care expenses tax deductible, oppose Social Security tax increases and make the corporate tax rate more competitive with the rest of the world.
I will also allow the middle class to save tax-free by changing the tax rate on interest, capital gains and dividends to absolutely 0%.
Measures like these will allow families to save more money for their children’s education, to buy a home and for their retirement. Tax relief is not only beneficial to our economy, it is also fair and provides an incentive to our entrepreneurs to take risks, innovate and grow their businesses.
Strengthening the family also requires making health care more affordable for the 47 million uninsured Americans, a group that includes 13 million Hispanics.
For this reason, I have articulated a vision of healthcare reform that puts conservative, market-based principles to work in order to give every American access to affordable, portable and quality health insurance.
On this issue, other candidates are sure to offer a broad array of prescriptions, but I’m the only one who has actually accomplished something to resolve this problem. I did it in Massachusetts, and I can also do it for the entire nation.
To strengthen the family, we must also improve our education system. Closing the achievement gap in our schools is the civil rights issue of our time, and this means we have to ensure all our children are acquiring the skills to graduate from high school and then go on to college.
As President, I will promote school choice. I believe that when parents and kids are free to choose their school, everyone benefits. I will improve upon No Child Left Behind (NCLB) by giving states additional flexibility in measuring student performance.
We must also honor teaching as the profession it truly is by supporting performance-based pay and other initiatives that encourage our best teachers to teach in our highest-need schools.
Our efforts must also be re-focused on fields like math and science while promoting innovative approaches such as charter schools and public-private partnerships.
Together, these initiatives will help ensure that America’s youth have the intellectual capital and skills they need to compete in the new global marketplace.
Another issue that is on the minds of many Americans, particularly the Hispanic community, is immigration. I believe we need to end illegal immigration so that legal immigration can remain a source of strength for America.
I believe it’s important to reform our immigration laws in a way that will secure our borders, implement an employment verification system and eliminate incentives for illegal immigration. In doing so, we can give the American people renewed faith in their immigration system.
There should be no doubt that we want people from all parts of the world to keep coming to the United States as they have been for centuries. But we need to encourage them to come through the legal channels that exist and ensure that we’re not putting those that are waiting to come legally at any disadvantage by doing so.
During this campaign, I have been blessed to meet men, women and children from many diverse backgrounds. I am proud to count several extraordinary Latina leaders in my National Hispanic Steering Committee.
I am honored to have their support and, more importantly, be able to count on their advice. Together, we can confront the new generation of challenges America faces and build a more prosperous and secure future for ourselves, our children and future generations.
Comment(17)
Maldonado
The Cartoon Mitt Romney Doesn’t Want You To See [VIDEO]
Maldonado
Racist AZ Sheriff Arpaio Appointed to Romney team
Racist AZ Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been appointed as honorary chair of the AZ Romney Presidential campaign. Arpaio stumped for Romney in IA and is expected to do do in NH as well.
Arpaio is a vile racist who routinely arrests Mexican looking people for suspicion of being “illegal.”
Arpaio has also been an arch foe of AZ John Senator McCain. Arpaio supported Bush over McCain in the 2000 presidential campaign. Bush was still the Governor of TX then.
In IA, McCain quiped about Arapio: “I hope he enjoys the weather.” Des Moines was covered in snow.
Frank
Romney isn’t the only presidential candidate that can trace his family tree back to Mexico. What about Richardson?
Sheriff Joe is not a racist. I get so sick and tired of hearing these vile labels put upon law abiding Americans and law enforcement just doing their jobs in detaining and arresting suspected illegal aliens. All one has to do is provide proof of one’s legality in this country and they will be released. Is this some kind of inconvenience? I am asked for my driver’s licence and sometimes even my birth certificate all the time. The only ones complaining about it are those who have something to hide and those whose compassion extends to illegal foreigners (and most likely ethnically like themselves) rather than standing up for the rule of law and their fellow American citizens.
Utah Chicano
As a Chicano Utahn, I would not support Mitt Romney. I am admittedly and unfortunately very suspicious of his Mormon ties, and his positions on Immigration, in addition to his flip-flopping, pandering character. His father was a much better man than Mitt is. I don’t know which Mitt we would get if he were nominated. His ancestors illegally moved into northern Mexico before it became Utah Territory and part of the USA. Mexico did not impose Spanish and the official or Spanish Only for them. Yet, he supports those efforts with immigrants. When polygamy became illegal here, they moved to Mexico and developed communities there that are isolated, do not mix and continue with their polygamist practice.
Despite his assurances that his religion would not play a role as president, Google recent new articles of our previous Governor and now HHS Secretary, Mike Leavitt who was found to fun morning seminar instructions with his cabinet. As Secretary of HHS, he took all of his Utah cabinet to serve him in DC. Mormons have donated so much of their funds and Utah remains the State that has provided him with the most of his funds. How big is Utah with a population of 2.5 million? The ‘Mormon network’ in each state is what maintains a multi-state appearance. Without that, he would have almost none. Women should be very wary and suspicious of him as should Latinos, and other ethnics.
Those who have not lived in Utah do not fully understand the dominating influence of Mormons on this state, and their church’s powerful influence on their personal lives. Don’t believe him that it will not play – not only a role but – a major role in any administration. The Mormon church has one of the strongest and most sophisticated security capabilities in the USA, strengthened even more by the presence of the Olympics here, and the Mittster was in the middle of all that.
This guy is not to be trusted! He’s not who he says he is. He is a dangerous candidate.
Utah Chicano
“I believe we need to end illegal immigration so that legal immigration can remain a source of strength for America.” What a nice line but that also means that illegal immigration has not been a source of strength… not sustaining the Social Security accounts; not building the USA – and in particular, Utah during the Olympics; not helping the inner cities sustain dying centers through their entrepreneurship.
“…it’s important to reform our immigration laws [to] secure our borders, implement an employment verification system and eliminate incentives for illegal immigration.” Note: no mention of a pathway to citizenship, earned citizenship or anything of the like. What will we do with all the people here?
“…I have been blessed to meet men, women and children from many diverse backgrounds. I am proud to count several extraordinary Latina leaders in my National Hispanic Steering Committee.” Note how he panders to “Latinas” since he’s writing to Latina Lista. He should direct his comments to the large community that reads LL’s blog. Also, I would like to know the religion of all of his Latina/o advisors. “Diversity” to Mormons is blonde Mormons or brunette Mormons. His two Utah Latino co-chairs are Mormon Republicans, that’s what Latinos support him!
Frank
Romney’s grandfather fled to Mexico because of religious persecution. Mexico was well aware of the Mormon population there and no steps were taken to remove them. I am not sure they were there illegally under the same premise of our immigration laws of today. Anyway, Mitt should not be held responsible for what his grandfather did or didn’t do. Mitt is a separate individual. Are actions and sins passed down thru families? I don’t think so.
The U.S. is not advocating for “English only”. Many Americans just want it to be our official langauge just as Mexico has Spanish as it’s official langauage. That in no way would restrict anyone from speaking another language. But learing English of course has always be desirable for immigrants for their own benefit.
I think you have no real basis to believe that Mitt will allow his relgion to interfere with his duties as president, if he is elected.
Frank
I don’t consider illegal immigration a “source of strength” for America and the stats back me up on this. We need to re-vamp our SS system, not depend on illegal aliens to support it. With that kind of reasoning the population just continues to grow and then we have even more retirees in the future draining it. The U.S. has already been built and any business rejuvination of inner cities by illegal aliens just caters to illegal aliens.
There should be no path to citizenship for those who have violated our immigration laws. If employers are forced to use the e-verify system in indentifying fraudulent workers on their payroll, the jobs will dry up and the illegals will go home.
EYES OF TEXAS
What will we do with all the people here?
If you read our existing immigration laws, you can answer that question yourself. No, it would be impossible to deport 20 million illegal aliens out of our country, but if such an effort were to seriously begin, millions would leave on their own. A good beginning would be enforcement through attrition, cut off all the government free crap that is handed out, enforce verification of all SS numbers by employers and require all law enforcement to be involved in enforcement of the law.
A journey of 20 million miles starts with a single step and takes a long time to complete. If the journey is not completed, at least the effort has been made.
Tired of "forked tongues"
Aside from the various flip-flopping on positions by Romney, he also says he wants to control the “exhorbitant spending” in Washington and yet his campaign spends like he’s printing money. Not the best example.
Additionally, rather than being a person of principle, he seems to follow the polls more than anyone else. His changes in positions reflect this. Again, not what we would hope for in a principled president.
Finally, CNN reported that most of the Republican candidates get along congenially, all except Romney whom the others don’t seem to enjoy as much. CNN didn’t report why.
Frank
Hillary and some other
Dems have done so much flip-flopping on the illegal immigration issue, I swear they were fish in their former lives.
Former lives
Interestingly, Frank speaks of “former lives”. This is a very Mormon theological notion that we were all spirit alive until we were born here.
Additionally, with regard to Frank’s comments of whether Mitt – or others – should be held “responsible for what his grandfather did or didn’t do”, he asserts that “Mitt is a separate individual.” and that asks whether “actions and sins ” are passed down thru families, then answers his own question by saying “I don’t think so.” Ironically, however, that’s opposite of the argument of blaming children for the “sins” of their parents who bring them to the US without their understanding or sometimes knowledge of their “illegal” status.
If that argument – not to blame Mitt for the “sins” of his ancestors – holds for him, why not for the unwitting children of undocumented immigrants and unauthorized workers?
Frank
Sorry, I am not a Mormom. All I was making is an analogy. You do know what an analogy is, don’t you?
No one is blaming the illegal alien children for what their parents did but you do not reward them or their parents either. Their citizenship and their parents citizenship are not of this country so they can go back to the country where they are citizens. You call that punishment?
Mitt Romney was born here just like many illegal alien’s give birth in this country and their kids are automatically citizens. You are mixing apples and oranges here. Those kids born in another country and brought here illegally are not citizens.
So if an illegal alien is an unathorized worker does that make a drug dealer an unlicensed pharmacist?
Evelyn
Cat got your tongue Frank, no more BS to spew, did Former lives just leave you speechless? Ha! Ha!
Frank
Cat got my tongue? Uh, I replied so what the hell are you talking about? Do you ever know what you are talking about or do you just constantly foam at the mouth?
Evelyn
No Frank, I”m just arrogant. I get that from my fathers side of the family, you know how mean the Irish can be when you pick on someone in their presence, I think that’s why they call them: “THE FIGHTING IRISH”
Unlicensed Pharmacist
Good one, Frank. I have to admit that the analogy was comical and made me chuckle.
Actually though, there is some validity to that assessment since the irony is real where Latinos and other ethnics get investigated, arrested, charges and prison terms where the wealthy anglos get doctor’s prescriptions and rehab clinics. The inconsistencies and inadequacies of the legal system is well documented.
Still, I did enjoy your tongue in cheek comment ….. this time.
Evelyn
Frank said: “so if an illegal alien is an unauthorized worker does that make a drug dealer an unlicensed pharmacists?”
Yes it would, especially if the government looked the other way while he was working and than charged him tax on his profits, as is the case with the immigrants who are undocumented.
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