Abortion
Romney says he changed his mind on abortion meeting with Harvard stem cell researcher – Romney claims the doctor said scientists “kill” embryos after 14 days, but doctor later said Romney “mischaracterized my position.”
Months after his “conversion,” Romney stated his commitment to upholding Massachusetts’ abortion laws and appointed pro-choice judge to state district court.
In October 2005, Romney signed bill expanding family planning services, including abortion counseling andmorning-after pill.
In December 2005, Romney “abruptly ordered his administration to reverse course … and require Catholic hospitals to provide emergency contraception medication to rape victims.”
Romney health insurance plan expanded access to abortion, required Planned Parenthood representative on state panel.
Romney endorsed legalization of abortion pill RU-486 access during his 1994 Senate race and backed federal funding of abortion, saying “I think it’s important that people see me not as a pro-life candidate.”
In 1994 and 2002, Romney confirmed his support for Roe v. Wade decision and forcefully positioned himselfas pro-choice in 1994 Senate race, saying “you will not see me wavering on that.”
Romney has refused to comment on bill pending in South Carolina legislature requiring that abortion doctors offer pregnant women option of viewing ultrasound
Bain Capital
Romney spent most of his business career as CEO of private equity firm Bain Capital – as of June 2007 he maintained an investor’s stake in the company.
Bain Capital has been criticized for relentless focus on bottom line at expense of workers and jobs.
Romney describes himself as a “business legend” in his campaign ads and once said of himself: “I’m basically in the investor’s Hall of Fame.”
Bain Capital financed 1988 buyout with junk bonds issued by Drexel Burnham – when SEC filed charges against the firm and CEO Michael Milken, Bain Capital maintained their business relationship; Romney later reminisced about “the glorious days of Drexel Burnham.”
In 2004, Bain & Co. received a multi-million dollar contract from the National Iranian Oil Company.
Romney sat on board of directors of Bain portfolio company Damon Clinical Laboratories, which in 1996 was fined over $100 million for Medicare fraud committed during Romney’s tenure.
Bain Capital owned company named Ampad that purchased an Indiana paper plant, fired its workers and offered to bring them back at drastically reduced salary and benefits – the firings became an issue in the 1994 Senate race when workers blamed Romney for their situation and appeared in Kennedy campaign ads.
After Romney became governor, Bain Capital teamed up with Chinese appliance maker Haier Group in 2005 in effort to purchase Newton, IA-based Maytag Corp. and send jobs overseas.
At least two Bain Capital companies – Stream International and Modus Media – focused on outsourced technical support services, expanding facilities abroad while contracting operations in the United States.
Bain Capital operated steel company called GS Industries which went bankrupt in 2001 after years of labor strife, closing a plant in Kansas City and laying off over 700 workers
Economic Issues
State spending increased at well over rate of inflation under Romney’s watch, estimated at 24% - more than$5 billion – over Romney’s final three years.
Under Romney, Massachusetts dramatically underperformed the rest of the nation in terms of job growth.
Romney has been criticized by experts for failing to deliver on issues of business development and economic growth after selling himself as the “CEO governor.”
2006 report issued by quasi-public Massachusetts Technology Collaborative warned the state was losing itsgrip as leader in “innovation economy” and that tech job was alarmingly slow.
Romney left his successor to fill a budget deficit exceeding $1 billion.
Romney raised state fees and taxes more than $700 million per year, according to independent experts.
Romney raised fees by roughly $500 million in his first year alone, a figure that was highest in the nation.
Romney quadrupled gun licensing fees and raised fees on first responders, real estate transactions, the blind,golfers and many others.
Romney implemented three rounds of tax changes (which he referred to as “closing loopholes”) which increased business taxes by an estimated $400 million per year.
Massachusetts’ corporate tax climate now ranks 47th in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation.
[The highlighted parts are my emphases]
There is MUCH, MUCH more. But a clear picture emerges: Romney talks a good game but his words are deceptive, and his willingness to change positions for the sake of political expediency is ASTOUNDING. His hypocrisy knows no bounds, and he habitually lies about his so-called "achievements". Dive into this, and keep one thing in mid as you do:
THIS ASSESSMENT COMES FROM REPUBLICANS!
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney solely blamed President Barack Obama on Monday for potential defense cuts that Republicans in Congress worked out with the White House and Democrats and left the misimpression that Obama has ignored free trade initiatives.
ReplyDeleteA closer look at some of the Republican presidential nominee's statements in his foreign policy speech:
ROMNEY LIED: "I will roll back President Obama's deep and arbitrary cuts to our national defense that would devastate our military."
THE FACTS: "Arbitrary" defense cuts do not belong to Obama alone but also to congressional Republicans, including his vice presidential running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan. The first round of cuts in projected defense spending is the result of a bipartisan deal in August 2011 between Congress and the White House to wrestle down the deficit. Unless a new budget deal is reached in time, additional spending cuts will begin in January across government, and the cost to the Pentagon would be $500 billion over a decade. Lawmakers are working to avoid that. Separately, Obama wants to slow the growth of military spending, now that the war in Iraq is ended and the war in Afghanistan is drawing to a close. The Pentagon's budget, including war costs, is $670 billion this year, or about 18 percent of total federal spending. Even setting aside the costs of the wars, military spending has more than doubled since 2001.
At its heart, Romney's statement marks a disagreement with Obama over the proper level of military spending but also skips past a deficit-reduction deal that he recently criticized Republicans in Congress for negotiating.
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ROMNEY LIED: "The president has not signed one new free trade agreement in the past four years. "
THE FACTS: Obama hasn't opened new trade negotiations, but he's completed some big ones, overcoming opposition from fellow Democrats to do so. After taking office, he revived a free-trade deal with Colombia that had been negotiated by his Republican predecessor but left to languish without congressional approval and sought similar progress with South Korean and Panamanian free-trade pacts. The president delayed submitting the three deals to Congress while he tried to placate Democrats who opposed some of the terms, but finally submitted them in 2011, and Congress approved them.
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ReplyDeleteROMNEY LIED: "I will recommit America to the goal of a democratic, prosperous Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with the Jewish state of Israel. On this vital issue, the president has failed, and what should be a negotiation process has devolved into a series of heated disputes at the United Nations. In this old conflict, as in every challenge we face in the Middle East, only a new president will bring the chance to begin anew."
THE FACTS: With this statement, Romney has moved toward the balance enshrined in U.S. policy from one administration to another on the question of Israelis and Palestinians and away from his provocative remarks to a May fundraiser that recently came to light.
In those remarks, he said "the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace," ''the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish," Palestinians are "committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel" and it would be "the worst idea in the world" to put pressure on the Israelis to give up something in hopes Palestinians would respond accordingly.
Now he is appearing to put faith in a negotiation process he all but dismissed before.
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ROMNEY LIED: "As the dust settles, as the murdered (in the Libya consulate attack) are buried, Americans are asking how this happened, how the threats we face have grown so much worse, and what this calls on America to do."
THE FACTS: It's unclear whether terrorism has gotten worse. There has been no incident even remotely comparable in scope or symbolic meaning to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. After a score of counterterrorist successes, the Obama administration has been knocked back on its heels since the attacks' 11th anniversary, when assailants stormed the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. There has also been an uptick in attacks on American troops by supposedly friendly Afghan forces. But many counterterrorist experts say al-Qaida has been significantly weakened and the threats of global terrorism significantly better countered over the last decade.
ROMNEY LIED: "When we look at the Middle East today — with Iran closer than ever to nuclear weapons capability, with the conflict in Syria threating to destabilize the region, with violent extremists on the march and with an American ambassador and three others dead likely at the hands of al-Qaida affiliates — it is clear that the risk of conflict in the region is higher now than when the president took office."
THE FACTS: Risk is always a matter of perception, so it doesn't fall easily into the realm of truth vs. fiction. But for the United States and the region, it's not clear that conflict has increased in the last four years. Obama entered office in 2009 with the United States still engaged in a conflict in Iraq. U.S. troops are no longer there. And he came as Israel and Hamas just finished a three-week war. That was two years after another war between Israel and an Iranian-backed force, in that case, Hezbollah in Lebanon.
There has been no significant Israeli military conflict since Obama has come into office. That said, Syria's conflict has become the region's deadliest since the Iraq war. The U.S. has stayed out of that conflict under Obama.
http://news.yahoo.com/fact-check-one-sided-story-trade-defense-190815851--election.html
always interesting to read opinion pieces. As a registered dem, still leaning to vote for romney based on his financial prowess to get this country and its finances averted from the cliff. Havent seen any financial acumen coming from the present administration.
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