A: Well, my kids are all married, so I'd be surprised. But I have grandchildren. And I love my children and I love my grandchildren. And I would, of course, want them to be happy. My view is this, that individuals should be able to pursue a relationship of love and respect, and raise a family as they would choose. I would like to have the term "marriage" continue to be associated with a relationship between one man and one woman. And that certainly doesn't prevent two people of the same gender living in a loving relationship together, having a domestic partnership, if you will. I can see rights, such as hospital visitation rights, and similar types of things, being provided to those individuals. But marriage for me continues to be a relationship between a man and a woman.
It is not by growing a bigger and bigger government, that takes from some to give from others. That's what happens in other parts of world. If it doesn't work there, it'll never work here. The right course for America is to believe in free people & free enterprises. I don't want to redistribute wealth in America, I want to build wealth in America.
It's a critical time for our country. Where you're going to decide what kind of an America we're going to have. I know what it takes to get jobs back in this country. To see rising incomes again. I know how to work on both sides of the aisle. I was elected Governor of a state where 87% of my legislature was in the opposition party. But we worked together.
A: I'd tell him that this is a problem that we share, that this is not Mexico's problem. We have a responsibility in this country to reduce drug usage. The fact that there is a drug world, narco-crime and terrorism, and that these cartels are terrorizing the people of Mexico, and some of that violence spills over our border. That's due to the demand here in this country. And so the US must make a priority of helping reduce demand in this country, and communicating to our young people, and older people, that when they use these illegal drugs, they are contributing to the deaths of people around the world. So I'm going to make that a priority. That's #1. And #2, I'm going to let him know that we want to help, as we did in Colombia with intelligence work and surveillance work.
A: Well, we've got a pretty good model. If you look at my state, even before I got there, other governors and legislatures worked real hard to improve education. And they did a number of things that made a big difference. One is, they started testing our kids to see who was succeeding, making sure that failing schools were identified and then turning them around. They fought for school choice. When I became governor, I had to protect school choice because the legislature tried to stop it. And then we also fought for English immersion. We wanted our kids coming to school to learn English from the very beginning. We care about the quality of education. I want to pay better teachers more money. Teachers are underpaid, but I want to evaluate our teachers and see which ones are the best and which ones are not.
And let me tell how our kids are doing. Every two years, we test the kids across the country, the NAPE exam. Massachusetts kids came out number one in English in fourth and eighth grade, number one in math. In all four tests, our kids came out number one in the nation. These principles of choice, parental involvement, encouraging high standards, scholarships for our best kids -- these turn our schools into the kind of magnets that they can be for the entire nation.
Under that program, those who graduated from high school and passed our graduation exam, those who passed it in the top quarter of their high school got a four-year tuition free ride to the Massachusetts institutions of higher learning that are public. So I care. I care about your education and helping people of modest means get a good education and we'll continue a Pell Grant program.
A: We're going to continue a Pell Grant program. [Paul Ryan's] Republican budget called for a Pell Grants being capped out at their current high level. My inclination would be to have them go with the rate of inflation. I think it's important in higher education that we get serious about the fact that the inflation of tuition has been much faster than inflation generally. And my view is we have to hold down the rate of tuition increases and fee increases in higher education. We've got to find a way to keep those costs down and we'll be able to keep up with costs by having Pell Grants grow at the rate of inflation.
A: The best thing I can do for young people graduating is make sure that when you get out, you have a job. That's a key thing. Because right now, half the kids in this country that are graduating from college, half couldn't find a job or a job consistent with their college degree. We've always, as a nation, snapped up young people coming out of college. But that's changed in these last few years. And so the best thing I can do is not to [say], "Hey, I'll loan you more money." I don't want to overwhelm you with debts. I want you to make sure you can pay back the debts you've already got and that will happen with good jobs.
A: You've got to think about who Fidel Castro is, and who Raul Castro is as well. We call them strongmen--dictators, totalitarian leaders. And yet these are individuals who are not strong. Look at what they have done: People wearing a wristband that says "change" are arrested--25 of them just for wearing a wristband. These Castro brothers are cowards, and we have to recognize they are cowards. And for that reason, the course for America is to continue our isolation of Cuba. It is not to say, as Barack Obama on the Democratic side said, that he would dignify the Castros with a personal visit to Cuba. That's not the way to go. Instead, it's to bring our friends together to isolate Cuba, to put together a strategy that helps all of Latin America, weakens Hugo Chavez who is propping up Castro. We need a Latin American policy that frees Cuba and that eliminates a threat of people like Hugo Chavez.
A: Well, I actually got the job done. Working with people across the aisle, we said: Enough is enough. Look, the best kind of prevention you can have in health care is to have a doctor. And if someone doesn't have a doctor, doesn't have a clinic they can go to, doesn't have health insurance to be able to provide the prescription drugs they need, you can't be healthy. And you need to have health insurance for all of our citizens. And I found a way to do that without requiring raising taxes, without a government mandate, without a government takeover. When I said government mandate, I meant employer mandate. Instead, we have personal responsibility. We allowed individuals to buy their own policies. Those that couldn't afford them, we helped them buy their policies. And you know what? It cost us no more money to help people buy insurance policies that they could afford than it was costing us before, handing out free care.
Massachusetts may not call its rules for employers a "mandate," but the state health care plan includes several "obligations" or "requirements," as the state dubs them, for employers, along with fees for noncompliance. The requirements for employers are much narrower than those for individuals, who indeed, according to the state, face a "mandate" to get health insurance.
But is a "requirement" a "mandate"? You be the judge: Employers with more than 10 full-time employees must pay at least 33% of employee premium costs or have a group health plan. Those that fail to do so must pay a fee of $295 per full-time employee per year.
Individuals in the state must have health insurance. If not, they'll lose their personal exemption on state income taxes in 2007--a penalty of $219.
The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation estimated that the state would need an extra $200 million each year for 2007 to 2009 to finance the health care plan, because more people enrolled in subsidized care than anticipated. That shortfall, however, is a projection, and a Boston Globe article on the budget gap said some money could be shifted from the free care fund, if there is money in that fund to do so. Additional dollars came from a Medicaid waiver granted by the federal government, which is set to expire in 2009. The Massachusetts government is negotiating with federal officials to renew that waiver.
A: I would repeal all of ObamaCare and replace it with I think the kinds of reforms we really need. Now and then the President says I'm the grandfather of ObamaCare. I don't think he meant that as a compliment, but I'll take it. I'm proud of the fact that in my state, after our plan was put in place, every child has insurance, 98% of adults have insurance, but we didn't have to cut Medicare by $716 billion to do that. We didn't raise taxes on health companies by $500 billion as the President did. And so we crafted a program that worked for our state, and I believe the right course for healthcare reform is to say for each state we're going to give you the Medicaid dollars you've had in the past, plus grow them with inflation, plus 1%, and you as the states are now going to be given targets to move people towards insurance and you craft programs that are right for your state. Some will copy what we did; others will find better solutions.
A: You know, I have the occasion to talk to people who have loved ones that are hoping to come to this country, to be reunited with family members. And they're staying in their home countries applying legally. I believe that those people ought to be the first ones to get to come to this country. Those who have come illegally, in my view, should be given the opportunity to get in line with everybody else, but there should be no special pathway for those that have come here illegally to jump ahead of the line or to be come permanent residents or citizens. They should be treated like everybody else who wants to come to this country. We're going to protect legal immigration. At the same time, we're going to enforce the law, show that we're a nation of laws, and welcome the people who have been standing in line first.
A: You know, we're a very compassionate people. We're also a people who follow the law. And the landscaper at my home is an old friend, and when he made a mistake the first time, I told him in no uncertain terms, you have to make sure that anybody that works on my property is legal. And he did his best, but he made a mistake. And apparently, two people he had there were not legal. And we terminated that relationship. And that became a big news story. But employers like this landscape company, and he's Hispanic American, he doesn't have a way to determine whether the people he's hiring are legal or illegal. That's why we need an employment verification system to identify the fact that legal aliens that come here are legal, are entitled to work.
A: The Constitution indicates that those that are born here do become US citizens by virtue of being born here. But if they're born here from parents who come across the border illegally and bring them here illegally, in my view, we should not adopt, then, these chain migration policies that say, you've got a child here that's a US citizen, and the whole family can come in. That, in my opinion, is a mistake. We are a nation of laws. We're going to enforce the laws. We're not going to cut off immigration; we're going to keep immigration alive and thriving. But we're going to end the practice of illegal immigration. It's not inhumane. It's humanitarian. It's compassionate. We're going to end illegal immigration to protect legal immigration.
A: Let me respond more broadly and then get to the specific of young people who were brought here through no fault of their own, and are now going to school here. The immigration system, I think we all agree, is broken and it's been a political football for years and years. It needs to be fixed. Also, instead of having our diversity visas offered, we provide instead the chance to pull families together. I want that to be the favored system for immigration. I also believe that we should have temporary work visas consistent with the needs of the employment community and by the way, if the student does so well that they get an advanced degree, I'd staple the green card to their diploma. For those young people who, for instance, serve in our military, that they should be able to become a permanent resident.
A: My view is that we should put in a place a permanent solution. What the president did was take no action; he put in place something he called a stop-gap measure. Temporary. These kids deserve something better than temporary. They deserve a permanent solution.
Q: But, with all due respect, you are reluctant to provide details on a permanent solution? Are you going to deport the DREAMers or not?
A: Well, we're not going to round up people and deport them. That includes the kids and the parents. I would be in support of a program that said the people who serve in our military could be permanent residents. Marco Rubio's "Dream and Achieve Act" had a number of features that said kids that get higher education could become permanent residents. I will solve it on a permanent basis consistent with those principles.
Q: So you're going to allow them to stay?
A: I'm not going to be rounding people up and deporting them.
A: I believe people make their own choices as to whether they want to go home & that's what I mean by self-deportation. People decide if they want to go back to the country of their origin and get in line legally to be able to come to this country. Look, legal immigration is critical for America. I love legal immigration. But at the same time, to protect legal immigration we have to secure our borders and what I like about the Arizona law was the employment verification system.
Q: Should the whole country follow Arizona's immigration laws?
A: The reason there's an Arizona law is because the federal government, and specifically, Pres. Obama didn't solve immigration problem when he came into office. The right answer is ultimately to have a federal solution; [then] we don't have to have states trying to find solutions of their own.
A: My plan has five major parts, and I know you don't want me to go into detail on all five. I'd take over the whole show. But let me describe what they are.
A: This is a campaign about the 100%. Politics has driven us apart in some respect. So my campaign is about the 100% of America. And I'm concerned about them. I'm concerned about the fact that over the past four years life has become harder for Americans. More people have fallen into poverty. More people we just learned have had to go onto food stamps. When the President took office 32 million people were on food stamps. Today 47 million people are on food stamps. Now I know that I'm not going to get 100% of the vote. And my campaign will focus on those people we think we can bring in to support me. But this is a campaign about helping people who need help. I have a record. I've demonstrated my capacity to help the 100%.
A: Let's talk about our mission there. This is not just about strategy & allies. It's not about oil. It's not about just the economy. It's not just about standing up for the fact that we've been there for a long time. It's about human lives. What we're doing in Iraq relates to protecting the lives of American citizens, here, around the world. It relates to lives throughout the world. It relates to dignity & freedom. We're in Iraq because we want to make sure that Iraq does not become what Afghanistan was under the Taliban: a place that they could recruit and train and launch attacks against us on 9/11, and other attacks throughout the world. The last thing America could stand for would be to have Iraq become an Afghanistan. Fortunately, the surge is working. It's going to keep that from happening. We're going to have stability and security there and American lives will be saved by virtue of the extraordinary sacrifice of American servicemen.
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The above quotations are from Media coverage of political races in Univision News.
Click here for other excerpts from Media coverage of political races in Univision News. Click here for other excerpts by Mitt Romney. Click here for a profile of Mitt Romney.
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