Mitt Romney On Immigration

2008 Romney: 12 Million Undocumented Immigrants Should Not Be Allowed to Stay Permanently. At the ABC GOP Debate on January 5, 2008, Romney said: “I disagree fundamentally that the 12 million people who come here illegally, should be allowed to stay here permanently. I think that is a form of amnesty and that it’s not appropriate.” [NH ABC Debate, 1/5/08] 2006: Romney Supported Immigration Reform, Saying “I Don’t Believe In Rounding Up 11 Million People And Forcing Them At Gunpoint From Our Country.” “Romney expressed support for an immigration program that places large numbers of illegal residents on the path toward citizenship, but criticized any form of “amnesty.” Romney said, ‘I don’t believe in amnesty.’ But at the same time, Romney said illegal immigrants should have a chance to obtain citizenship. ‘I don’t believe in rounding up 11 million people and forcing them at gunpoint from our country,’ Romney said. ‘With these 11 million people, let’s have them registered, know who they are. Those who’ve been arrested or convicted of crimes shouldn’t be here; those that are here paying taxes and not taking government benefits should begin a process towards application for citizenship, as they would from their home country.’” [Lowell Sun, 3/30/06]

Mitt Romney's Health Care Plan: The Foundation Of Obama's Plan

Club For Growth: Romney’s Health Care Plan And “ObamaCare” Are Similar In Three Significant Ways: Mandate, Health Exchanges And Low-Income Subsidies. According to the Club for Growth, Romney’s health care plan and Obama’s health care law “are similar in at least three significant ways.” Club for Growth wrote, “Both have an individual mandate that requires people to purchase a private good – in this case, health insurance – and levies a financial penalty against those who don’t. Both implement a new government bureaucracy called an “exchange” through which all insurance policies are approved, sold, and heavily regulated. Both have sizeable subsidies for low-income people to purchase the mandated coverage.” [Club for Growth, 2012 Presidential White Paper #5, 6/7/11] National Review Editorial: Romney’s Signature Health Care Legislation Looks Like A Pilot Program For Obamacare. In an editorial for the National Review, contributor Mark Steyn wrote, “Unfortunately for [Romney], his signature legislation in Massachusetts looks awfully like a pilot program for Obamacare. So in recent days, he’s been out yet again defending his record: If I understand him correctly, his argument is that the salient point about Romneycare and Obamacare is not that they’re both disasters, but that one’s local and the other’s national, and that Obama has a one-disaster-fits-all approach to health care whereas Romney believes in letting a thousand disasters bloom. Celebrate diversity!” [National Review, 5/14/11 ]

Mitt Romney On Social Security

Mitt Romney Wrote That Individual Accounts, Paid By The Borrowing Of Treasuries Sales, Was An Option To Solve Social Security. In his book “No Apology” Mitt Romney wrote “Individual retirement accounts offer a fourth option, one that would allow today’s wage earners to direct a portion of their Social Security tax to a private account rather than go entirely to pay the benefits of current retirees, as is the case today. The federal government would make up for its lost Social Security revenue by borrowing that amount through the sale of treasuries, just as it currently does for the rest of its deficits. Owners of these individual accounts would invest in a combination of stocks and bonds and—presuming these investments paid a higher rate of return than the new treasuries—the return on these investments would boost the payments to seniors. I also like the fact the individual retirement accounts would encourage more Americans to invest in the private sector that powers our economy. [“No Apology” 2011 Pg. 175-176]

Mitt Romney On Medicare

Mitt Romney Supports Ending Medicare As We Know It

Romney Praised Replacing Medicare With Credits To Buy Private Insurance. According to the National Journal, “Most of Romney’s thinking hugs the conservative mainstream. On foreign policy, he closely follows George W. Bush’s tracks. At home, he passionately accuses unions, especially teachers unions, of impeding innovation and productivity. He wants to retrench Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor, by converting it from an entitlement into a block grant. He praises the House Republican proposal to replace Medicare as it now exists with a credit for seniors to buy private insurance.” [National Journal, 3/6/10] Romney Wanted To Replace Medicare With Private Insurance. According to a transcript of the Republican presidential debate in Dearborn, Mich. obtained via Political Transcript Wire, Romney said, “And number three, instead of having the federal government give you government insurance, Medicare and federal employee insurance, let’s have private insurance.” [Political Transcript Wire, 10/9/07] Read full research after the jump.

Dean Heller On Medicare

Heller Says He Is Proud To Be The Only Member Of Congress Who Would Get To Vote For GOP Medicare Plan Twice. Before Dean Heller was sworn in as a Senator, the Associated Press noted that he would likely have to vote again on the Paul Ryan budget plan. “Once Heller joins the Senate, Reid could call up for a vote the House budget blueprint that the chamber passed last month. The nonbinding plan would cut $6.2 trillion from yearly federal deficits over the coming decade. The plan makes changes to Medicare and Medicaid that some Democrats say would prove unpopular in next year’s elections. ‘I’m not worried about it. I voted for it once. I’m not going to come over here and vote against it,’ Heller said. ‘I’m proud to be the only member of Congress who will get to vote for it twice.’” [Associated Press, 5/3/11 (emphasis added)]

Heller Voted In The House for the Ryan Plan To End Medicare As We Know It And Double Out-Of-Pocket Costs For Seniors. Heller voted for adoption of House Concurrent Resolution 34, the House GOP-proposed budget for fiscal year 2012 authored by Paul Ryan. The GOP budget included proposals to convert the federal share of Medicaid to a block grant to states. It also called for converting Medicare for persons currently younger than 55 into a “premium support system” through which the government would pay private insurance companies directly for each enrollee. The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reported that “The Ryan budget plan would cut federal spending on Medicaid, which provides health care for the poor, and begin distributing money by block grant to states. The plan would do away with Medicare’s direct payment for health care for seniors, replacing it with a voucher system in which recipients choose private insurers. The Congressional Budget Office found that part of the plan, which would take effect in 2022, could nearly double out-of-pocket costs for seniors.” In an April 7th, 2011 editorial, the Newark Star-Ledger warned that Paul Ryan’s plan would “end Medicare as we know it.” [Vote 277, 4/15/2011; Ft Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, 4/16/2011; Newark Star-Ledger Editorial, 4/7/2011]

Heller Voted In The Senate For The Paul Ryan Budget Plan That Includes Privatizing Medicare.  Heller for a motion to proceed on House Concurrent Resolution 34, the House GOP-passed budget for fiscal year 2012 authored by Paul Ryan. [Vote 77, 5/25/2011]

Jon Bruning On Medicare And Social Security

Bruning Proposed Raising Social Security Retirement Age To 70, Capping Medicaid. "'Fixing this will involve serious conversations about entitlements,' Bruning continued. 'Nelson continues to vote toward layering on the entitlements. The problem is that we can’t get to the point where the government is involved in every point of people’s lives. We just keep spending whatever it takes and borrow it from the Chinese. We need to make Medicaid and Social Security stronger for the future — they are great programs but it can’t continue the way it’s being done.' Bruning suggests raising the retirement age to 70 and putting a cap on Medicaid allowances." [York News-Times, 9/9/11]

George Allen On Banking And Mortgage Reform

Allen Voted Against Requiring Financial Companies To Provide Truth-In-Lending Information To Homeowners. Allen voted against the Torres amendment requiring financial institutions to provide homeowners with truth-in-lending information within three days of applying to refinance a mortgage. [Vote 364, H.AMDT 789 to H.R. 5334, 8/5/92, Failed 153-268, D: 147-109, R: 5-159, I: 1-0]

George Allen On Education

Allen Said He Would “Take Back” His Vote For No Child Left Behind. “Allen is invigorating his campaign with fresh issues and themes, a new course that includes the surprising admission that his vote for the No Child Left Behind program to enhance the federal role in public education is ‘the one I would take back.’” [Human Events, 3/8/11]

Jon Bruning On The Environment

Bruning Filed A Lawsuit Opposing EPA Air Pollution Rule Cutting Emissions Of Acid Rain Gases. "Attorney General Jon Bruning will file a federal lawsuit challenging a new air pollution rule that could cost Nebraska utilities millions of dollars. Bruning announced Thursday that he will file a challenge of the Environmental Protection Agency's so-called Cross-State Air Pollution Rule in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, announced in July and set to go into effect Jan. 1, cuts allowable emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, the gases that cause acid rain. The EPA says the new standards will improve air quality significantly by reducing power plant emissions in 27 states." [Lincoln Journal Star, 9/22/11]

George Allen On The Budget

PolitiFact: Allen’s Claim That He Reined In State Spending Is False. “Republican George Allen is promising his unrelenting effort to curb federal spending if he’s elected to the U.S. Senate next year. He says he’ll bring to Washington the same kind of ‘sweeping reform’ he brought to Virginia as governor from 1994 to 1998. His campaign web site says that when Allen was governor, ‘He challenged critics and sentiment that suggested it couldn’t be done, reining in government spending and substantially reducing the size of the state workforce’…Allen could accurately say he fought to curb spending. But Allen says he reined it in. That creates an impression the bottom line shrank or was stunted in growth. We rate the statement False.” [PolitiFact Virginia, 9/12/11]