Mitt Romney
Latest News on Mitt Romney
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- Candidate Status:
- Out
- Current Job:
- NA
- Birth Date:
- March 12, 1947 in Detroit, Michigan
- Family:
- Wife Ann Davies (married 1967-present); five children
- Religion:
- Mormon
- Education:
- Brigham Young University, B.A., 1971
Harvard University, M.B.A., J.D., 1975
- Career:
- Mitt Romney is the former one-term governor of Massachusetts (2002-2007) and chairman of the Republican Governors Association, who chose not to run for re-election to pursue a presidential bid. He gained national notice as CEO of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. Before that, Romney was co-founder and vice president of Bain Capital, a venture capital and investment company.
- Other facts:
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- Romney's father, George Romney, was a three-term governor of Michigan.
- Romney's mother, Lenore Romney, ran for the U.S. Senate.
- Romney's first name is Willard.
- Abortion:
- Romney says Roe v. Wade should be overturned. He believes decisions on abortion are best left to the states and that "a single federal rule" is wrong. In the past, he broadly supported abortion rights and Roe v. Wade. He has since changed his position regarding the role of government in such matters.
- Energy/Environment:
- Romney proposes using a combination of conservation and efficiency measures to make the U.S. energy independent. He supports greater public investment in the development of alternative sources of energy like bio-diesel, ethanol, nuclear and coal gasification. He supports drilling for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and on the Outer Continental Shelf. Romney says better measures than CAFE standards are available to raise fuel efficiency. He opposes carbon taxes.
- Immigration:
- Romney opposed the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill of 2006, saying it would have opened a door to a vast number of immigrants and allow "amnesty" for illegals. He believes amnesty hasn't worked in the past and that it won't work now. Romney says the U.S. must become more attractive for legal immigrants, and champions greater use of H1B visas to bring in skilled workers. He promotes harsher penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants and wants to create an employment verification system that uses high-tech identification cards. He supports building a fence on the U.S.-Mexico border.
- Iraq:
- Romney has criticized the Bush administration for committing errors in Iraq, but supports the current troop surge strategy. He opposes an early withdrawal from Iraq, and has described Democratic attempts to set a deadline for withdrawal as "setting a date for surrender." He believes a quick withdrawal from Iraq, before the country has been stabilized, could trigger a larger regional conflict.
- Taxes:
- Romney believes the Bush tax cuts should be made permanent, and that even more tax cuts should be offered. He believes that keeping taxes low and simplifying the code will grow the economy. He also says he will fight to abolish the estate tax. Romney backs a savings incentive plan that would allow Americans to earn interest, dividends, and capital gains tax-free. He would also lower the corporate tax rate. Romney signed the 2008 presidential candidate "Taxpayer Protection Pledge," even though he has been critical of similar no-tax pledges in the past.
- Economy:
- Romney proposes simplifying regulations and bureaucratic processes for businesses in addition to tort reform, saying that both issues keep businesses from seeking out and retaining employees. He wants to trim local pork barrel spending in favor of national infrastructure projects that would benefit the national economy and to re-evaluate federal spending programs and entitlement spending to eliminate inefficiencies. He wants to curb federal spending by establishing a spending limit and by instituting the line-item veto to cut out unnecessary expenditures. Romney says to avoid a pending budget crisis, the federal government must trim down entitlement spending. He has expressed concern that American workers of this generation and future ones will be able to compete with economies in Asia.
- Homeland Security:
- Romney wants to clarify and streamline relationships with domestic security-related operations to enable clearer communication and more decisive action. He also wants to integrate national security structures. He wants to increase the size of the U.S. army by 100,000 troops. Romney wants to shift the focus of homeland security from response to prevention. He says effective prevention means that stronger international alliances and integration of federal actions with global and local efforts.
- Education:
- Romney is in favor of charter schools and school choice programs. He wants to put more of an emphasis on math and science education. He is proposing a federal home schooling tax credit to help reduce education-related expenses of parents who home school. He supports Bush's NCLB (No Child Left Behind) and wants to offer schools with good testing track records more leeway in evaluating student performance. Romney wants to focus more on individual student progress over school progress. Romney supports performance-based pay for teachers, which he believes will create incentive for good teachers moving to areas of need.
- Health Care:
- Romney wants to make all health care expenses tax deductible and divert some funds from emergency rooms treating uninsured patients to programs that would help needy uninsured patients to buy private insurance. He also favors malpractice tort reform. Romney supports giving states leeway as to how they spend their Medicaid funds.
