BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney Says He Opposes The Government Picking Winner And Losers, But That’s The Same Approach He Took In Massachusetts

Romney Claims He Opposes Government Giving Financial Support To Specific Enterprises

Romney Said Instead Of “Picking Winners And Losers With Taxpayer Dollars” Entrepreneurs Would Get Fair Shot And All Businesses Would Play By The Same Rules. According to Romney For President, during a speech before the Newspaper Association, Romney said “Seven months ago, I presented a detailed plan for jobs and economic growth, including 59 different proposals that would help strengthen the economy.  I understand some people are amused that I have so many ideas. But I think the American people will prefer it to President Obama’s grand total of zero. I will cut marginal tax rates across the board for individuals and corporations, and limit deductions and exclusions.  I will repeal burdensome regulations, and prevent the bureaucracy from writing new ones.  I will unleash our domestic energy resources so that we can finally get the energy we need at a price we can afford. Instead of picking winners and losers with taxpayer dollars, I will make sure that every entrepreneur gets a fair shot and that every business plays by the same rules. I will create an environment where our businesses and workers can compete and win.  I will welcome the best and the brightest to our shores, and ensure that we have labor and training policies that help American workers to be more competitive.” [Romney For President, 4/4/12] Romney Called The Government’s “Choosing Winners And Losers” Among Companies A Terrible Ideas. In an interview with Brian Kilmeade, Romney said, “The idea that the federal government can become a venture capital institution, choosing winners and losers among various companies is a terrible idea, and that’s been proven time and time again. Look, the right course for the federal government as it relates to research and development is in basic science. Programs like NASA develop technologies that ultimately can be commercialized. But for the government to say ‘oh, we think the world should make this kind of car’ or ‘that kind of solar panel’, that’s almost certain to fail. Now and then there will be a winner, but overwhelmingly they’re going to be losers. Let the private market work. Government does not know better than free people and free enterprise, how to grow an economy.” [Kilmeade and Friends, 9/16/11]

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney's Tax And Fee Increases

The Tax Burden In Massachusetts Increased

During Romney’s Tenure The Massachusetts Tax Burden Increased From 10 Percent To 10.6 Percent Of Per Capita Income. According to the Boston Globe, “Data compiled by The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, shows that during Romney’s four years as governor, the state and local tax burden in Massachusetts increased from 10 percent to 10.6 percent of per capita income.” [Boston Globe, 6/29/07] Factcheck.org: The Massachusetts Tax Burden Increased Under Romney. According to Factcheck.org, “In Massachusetts, the tax burden figure went up under Romney, from 5.93 percent to 6.57 percent.” [Factcheck.org, 10/12/07] State & Local Tax Burden Increased 6.5 Percent During The Romney Administration. According to The Tax Foundation, a conservative tax research organization, in 2002 (the year before Romney came to power), the state and local tax burden in Massachusetts was 9.3 percent. In 2006, Romney’s last year in office, the state and local tax burden of Massachusetts had increased to 9.9 percent. Thus, under Romney, Bay Staters saw their taxes burden increase by 6.5 percent in real terms. [The Tax Foundation, 2/23/11]

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney Holds Outdated Views On Immigration

Romney Would Veto The DREAM Act

Mitt Romney Repeatedly Promised He Would Veto the DREAM Act. According to ABC News, “Mitt Romney explicitly stated today that if he is elected president he would veto the Dream Act, legislation that would give permanent residency to some illegal immigrants who met certain criteria, such as having proof that they entered the country before age 16 or having a graduated from a U.S. high school.” Romney repeated and defended his promise to the veto the DREAM Act in subsequent appearances, calling the DREAM Act a “handout.” Romney said: “I’ve indicated I would veto the DREAM Act.” He told a young woman questioning his position, ““I’ve said across the country, I would veto the DREAM Act.” [Huffington Post, 1/16/12; ABC News, 12/31/11; Crooks and Liars, 1/20/12; The Hill, 1/16/12; CNN, 1/5/12]

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney's Tax Plan

Romney’s Tax Plan Would Raise taxes on middle class families by $2000 while cutting taxes on multi-millionaires by $250,000.

Tax Policy Center: Romney Tax Plan Would Raise Taxes On Families With Children With Income Below $200,000 By $2,041. According to a Tax Policy Center analysis of Romney’s tax plan and promises, families with children that earn below $200,000 a year would see tax increases of $2,041. [Tax Policy Center, 8/1/12] Tax Policy Center: Top 0.1% Would See $246,652 Tax Cut Per Year Under Romney Plan. According to a Tax Policy Center analysis of Romney’s tax plan and promises, the top 0.1% would receive a tax cut of $246,652 per year. [Tax Policy Center, 8/1/12]

The Romney Plan Raises Taxes Of The Middle Class And Poor To Pay For Tax Breaks For The Super-Wealthy

A Brookings Study By Economists With Experience In Both Republican And Democratic Admirations Concluded That Romney’s Tax Plan Would Cut Tax Rates For The Wealthy While Leaving 95 Percent Of Americans With A Net Tax Increase. According to New York Times, “The center is a joint effort of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution that includes economists and tax experts with experience in both Republican and Democratic administrations. It concluded that a tax-code overhaul meeting Mr. Romney’s goal — a 20 percent cut in all rates without adding to annual budget deficits — would leave wealthy taxpayers with a large tax cut but 95 percent of Americans with a net tax increase once tax breaks for items like mortgage interest are curtailed to keep deficits in check.” [New York Times, 8/11/12] Romney’s Tax Plan Would Raise Taxes For 95 Percent Of Americans While Cutting Taxes For The Richest 5 Percent. According to The Washington Post, “Mitt Romney’s plan to overhaul the tax code would produce cuts for the richest 5 percent of Americans — and bigger bills for everybody else, according to an independent analysis set for release Wednesday. The study was conducted by researchers at the Brookings Institution and the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, who seem to bend over backward to be fair to the Republican presidential candidate. To cover the cost of his plan — which would reduce tax rates by 20 percent, repeal the estate tax and eliminate taxes on investment income for middle-class taxpayers — the researchers assume that Romney would go after breaks for the richest taxpayers first… What would that mean for the average tax bill? Millionaires would get an $87,000 tax cut, the study says. But for 95 percent of the population, taxes would go up by about 1.2 percent, an average of $500 a year.” [The Washington Post, 8/1/12]

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney And Housing

Romney Does Not Support Helping Homeowners In Need

Romney Wanted Foreclosures To Hit The Bottom

Romney Believed The “Cure For Foreclosures” Was Getting Government Out Of The Way And Letting The Process Run Its Course. According to a New York Times editorial, “Since the housing bubble began to burst six years ago, prices nationwide have fallen by a third… As home prices fall and more homeowners sink underwater, there will be more foreclosures and more price declines. So what is Mitt Romney’s response? Bring it on. In interviews and in the Republican presidential debates, Mr. Romney has said that the cure for foreclosures is for the government to get out of the way and let the process run its course… The argument might have some red-meat appeal, playing off the notion that any owners who lose their homes are getting what they deserve. It is wrong on several counts…Mass foreclosures are a rotten way to stabilize the market…Who does Mr. Romney think will buy up millions of foreclosed properties? Borrowers who lose their homes to foreclosure or who sell their homes for less than the balance on their mortgages can be denied credit for years; many will never be homeowners again… With the economy still weak and vulnerable to shocks, more foreclosures and the resulting price declines would only weaken the economy further…The let-it-crash argument conveniently ignores that the housing bubble was the result not only of overborrowing but of reckless lending too.” [New York Times, Editorial, 11/26/11] Romney Opposed Trying To Stop The Foreclosure Process, Wanting It To “Run Its Course And Hit The Bottom.” According to The Huffington Post, “Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney suggested he doesn’t support foreclosure relief for the millions of Americans struggling with underwater mortgages, untold numbers of which have been the victims of fraudulent lending or foreclosure practices. In a filmed interview with the editorial board of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a newspaper serving the hardest-hit foreclosure state in the union, Romney criticized President Barack Obama for not foreclosing on American families fast enough. ‘Don’t try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom,’ Romney said when asked what he would do to jump-start the floundering housing market. ‘Allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up and let it turn around and come back up,’ he continued. ‘The Obama administration has slow walked the foreclosure process ... that has long existed and as a result we still have a foreclosure overhang.’” [The Huffington Post, 10/18/11] Romney Opposed Housing Relief Programs, Saying The Market Must Repair Itself By Collapsing. According to KLAS-TV 8 News Now, “Romney says he doesn’t support President Obama’s relief programs HAMP and HARP. Instead, he believes the housing market must bottom out to repair itself. ‘If you start having government starting to tax people so they can give money to people who need help in their homes, you’ll just bring the market down, down, and down, and you’ll never see an end to it.’” [KLAS-TV 8 News Now, 2/2/12] Read the full report after the jump.

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney And Higher Education

Romney Does Not Care About College Affordability

Romney Said “College Is Not Right For Everybody.” According to Fox News, during an interview on “Hannity,” Romney was asked by Sean Hannity: “Do you think that it’s in everybody’s best interest to get a degree or are people better off going to specialized schools to become a mechanic or an electrician or a plumber? What do you think?” Romney replied “Not everybody is going to go to college, of course. And people have different courses in their life they want to pursue. College is not right for everybody. Some folks have other ambitions and want to go in different directions. So, we want people to have freedom in this country and opportunity to pursue their happiness and the way they think.” [Fox News, 2/28/12] Romney Suggested Students Facing Rising Tuition Costs Should Get A Scholarship Or Join The Military. According to a New York Times op-ed, “There wasn’t a word about the variety of government loan programs… There wasn’t a word urging colleges to hold down tuition increases… And there wasn’t a word about Pell Grants, in case the student’s family had a low enough income to qualify… Instead, the advice was pretty brutal: if you can’t afford college, look around for a scholarship (good luck with that), try to graduate in less than four years, or join the military if you want a free education.” [New York Times, 3/5/12] Romney Told College Students To Borrow Money From Their Parents, Rather Than The Government, To Pay For Higher Education. According to KSL, “Personal responsibility has long been the backbone of many conservative principles, so when Romney told students to borrow from their parents rather than Uncle Sam, it doesn't come as much of a surprise. ‘Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business,’ Romney told college students in Ohio. The statement is in context of a story where a friend of his borrowed $20,000 from his parents.” [KSL, 4/30/12]

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney And Wall Street Reform

Romney Wanted To Repeal Wall Street Regulations – Has Not Been Specific On What Would Replace It

Romney’s Financial Regulation Plan Was To Have “Something” Replace Dodd-Frank After It’s Repealed. According to The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein, “On financial regulation, Romney would ‘repeal Dodd-Frank and replace with streamlined, modern regulatory framework.’ That is literally his entire plan. Three years after a homegrown financial crisis wrecked the global economy, the likely Republican nominee for president would repeal the new regulatory architecture and replace it with … something.” [The Washington Post, Ezra Klein, 8/6/12] Romney Adviser Lanhee Chen Said Romney Would Get Rid Of The Dodd-Frank Law And Would Seek To Replace The Law’s Volcker Rule. According to CBS News, “In talking about financial regulations, Chen reasserted Romney’s desire to get rid of the Dodd-Frank law, and disputed the assertion that repealing the law would lead to ‘a dog-eat-dog kind of situation where there’s absolutely no regulation.’ ‘Governor Romney has made clear that we do need some regulation of derivatives trading, that we do need to have some kind of consumer protections in place, that we do need to look seriously at things we can do to ensure that the financial services industry is regulated in a reasonable way,’ Chen said. ‘But Dodd-Frank is really not the answer. And so I think we have to resist the temptation to caricature what a post-Dodd-Frank world looks like.’ He also said Romney would seek to replace the Volcker rule, one part of Dodd-Frank that restricts the ability of banks to make certain kinds of speculative investments that do not benefit their customers.” [CBS News, 6/1/12]

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney And The Environment

Previously said Carbon Was Not A harmful Pollutant And Questioned The EXISTENCE Of Global Warming

July, 2011, Romney Said Carbon Is Not A Harmful Pollutant To Human Bodies. According to Mitt Romney says he doesn’t think carbon pollution threatens human health and would not green-light EPA climate regulations if he were in the White House. The GOP presidential candidate signaled the reversal to one of the Obama administration’s top environmental policies during a town hall meeting Thursday in Derry, N.H. This came about six weeks after he acknowledged during a campaign stop that global warming is real, a statement that won him praise from Al Gore. ‘I think we may have made a mistake,’ Romney said Thursday in response to a voter’s question about EPA regulating air pollution from coal plants under the Clean Air Act. ‘We have made a mistake is what I believe, in saying that the EPA should regulate carbon emissions. I don’t think that was the intent of the original legislation, and I don’t think carbon is a pollutant in the sense of harming our bodies.’” [Politico, 7/18/11]

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney And Energy

Romney Opposed Wind Energy Tax Credit Benefitting Iowan Farmers

Romney Opposed Renewing Wind Energy Tax Credits Set To Expire Despite Program’s Popularity In Iowa. According to Talking Points Memo, “The Romney campaign on Monday signaled the Republican nominee is against renewing a tax break for wind energy, a potentially dangerous position since the program is popular in the swing state of Iowa, reports the Des Moines Register. The position distinguishes Romney from President Obama who wishes to extend the tax credit and says it has saved jobs in Iowa. It also puts Romney at odds with some Iowa Republicans who support the tax break. ‘He will allow the wind credit to expire, end the stimulus boondoggles, and create a level playing field on which all sources of energy can compete on their merits,’ Shawn McCoy, a spokesman for Romney’s Iowa campaign, told the Register Monday. ‘Wind energy will thrive wherever it is economically competitive, and wherever private sector competitors with far more experience than the president believe the investment will produce results.’” [Talking Points Memo, 7/31/12] Gov. Branstad Said Wind Energy Tax Credits Proceeded Obama And The Stimulus And Made A Difference. According to Radio Iowa, “The Romney campaign is running a TV ad in Iowa which suggests part of the 2009 economic stimulus package sent taxpayer dollars to ‘windmills from China.’ ‘I understand why they are very critical of the whole thing that was done by the Obama Administration with regard to the stimulus and some of the money that was wasted on Solyndra and some of these green energy projects didn’t make sense,’ Branstad said. ‘The tax credit, however, is a much different thing and it way proceeded Obama and it was actually something that Senator Grassley authored and has made a real difference over time.’” [Radio Iowa, 8/2/12]

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney And Sequestration

Romney Showed No Leadership On Debate Leading Up To Sequestration

Romney Refused To Comment On Debt Ceiling Negotiations

Romney Was Criticized By Other Republican Presidential Candidates For Staying On The Sidelines During Debt Ceiling Talks. According to The New York Times, “Mr. Romney, who has been criticized by fellow Republican candidates for remaining largely on the sidelines during the recent debate over the nation’s debt ceiling, defended himself by saying that he had maintained a consistent, if quiet, position throughout the partisan bickering in Washington, favoring the ‘cut, cap and balance’ plan passed by the House and defeated by the Senate. ‘I didn’t react day to day to every negotiation because my position was clear,’ he said. ‘Cut, cap and balance was the right way for America to deal with this financial distress.’” [The New York Times, 8/8/11] Romney Was Criticized By Santorum And Pawlenty’s Campaign For Showing No Leadership On The Debt Ceiling Fight. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Republican presidential candidates have used the debate over raising the nation’s borrowing limit to score points with conservative voters and insert their views into Washington’s thorniest political dispute. But Mitt Romney, the Republican front-runner, has taken a subtler tack, avoiding the issue of the debt ceiling as he presses a more general assault on President Barack Obama’s economic record. That has attracted the attention of his GOP challengers, who have begun to accuse him of ducking the most vital issue of the campaign so far. ‘The current debate is about what kind of leadership you’re going to show,’ former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said in an interview Monday. ‘If you’re running for president, you’ve got to show how you would handle a situation like this.’ ‘The debt ceiling is a gut-check time for all Republicans on spending and size of government,’ said Alex Conant, spokesman for former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. ‘Apparently, Gov. Romney is still checking his gut to figure out where he should stand.’” [The Wall Street Journal, 7/12/11]