Republican Mitt Romney’s Stand on the Issues
Abortion/Birth Control- Against abortion and people being able to find
places to get one. He previously supported it. He does say that Roe v.
Wade is the law at this point in time and should be followed unless that law
is changed. He also would like to see Roe v. Wade overturned so states
can decide on the abortion issue themselves. Finally, he would like to stop
sending money to Planned Parenthood.
Courtesy of archives.com
Debt- Wants to cut the amount of money we owe other people by stopping the spending of the national government
by $500 billion and balance the budget by 2020 so we are not spending more than we have. He doesn’t give specific
details on how he is going to do this. He would also increase the amount of money spent on the military. He wanted
banks helped out when we had the financial collapse but was against helping the car industry.
Economy- Wants to lower taxes, make new trade deals with other countries, and balance the amount of money the
government spends versus the money the government has. He wants to lessen the strict rules that were passed on
businesses. He feels this is how the economy will get better.
Education- Supported the No Child Left Behind Law and wanted to make sure kids and parents come first before
teachers’ unions. He thought President Obama’s Race to the Top made sense but doesn’t think the national
government should have so much say in education. He thinks the national government controlling education is what
causes the cost of college to rise.
Energy and Environment- Promises the United States by 2020 will not have to go anywhere outside of North
America for energy. He wants more to be more aggressive in finding coal, oil, natural gas, and other resources within
our continent and also wants to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. He wants to open new areas for drilling and
expand the number of drilling permits where resources have been found. He says the cause of climate change is not
known and green energy is not a good alternative right now. Blames high gas prices on Obama for limiting oil drilling
and wants to remove carbon dioxide as a pollution causer in the Clean Air Act and change clean air and water laws
to make them more reasonable.
Foreign Policy- Thinks that Iran is more dangerous than we think when it comes to possibly producing a nuclear
weapon. Wants to work with other countries who are against Syria and make sure these countries have the military
supplies to beat Syria if needed. When it comes to Israel, he agrees with the Israeli president that Jerusalem is the
capital and doesn’t recognize the Palestinians’ claim to the eastern sector of Jerusalem. He also thinks Russia is our
number one opponent right now and wants to label China a “currency manipulator” which could cause trade between
the US and China to go down.
Associated Press writers Ben Feller, Matt Apuzzo, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Stephen Ohlemacher, Alan Fram, Dina Cappiello, Ken
Thomas, Jim Kuhnhenn and Christopher S. Rugaber contributed to this report.
Courtesy of washingtonpost.com
Gay Rights- Does not believe in recognizing same-sex marriage and wants a constitutional amendment that says it.
He also doesn’t want civil unions if they are seen as the same as “marriage” but states can decide what
rights/benefits civil unions would allow. Agrees that some partnership benefits are okay but others are not. He would
not look to bring back gays being in the military as illegal. Has said that equality for gays and lesbian should be
supported but marriage is “between a man and a woman”.
Guns- Opposes stricter gun control but after the Colorado shooting said gun laws need to be better enforced. He
signed a ban on assault weapons when governor of Massachusetts. He raised the fee to get a gun license but loosed
the rules and made the length of the license longer.
Health Care- He will get rid of the Obama health care law because he says states should decide how to handle the
uninsured, even though this law was modeled after his universal health law he had in Massachusetts. Wants to
increase the number of individual medical savings accounts that can be used to pay for insurance and medical bills.
Would let insurance be sold across states. Says he will protect people with pre-existing conditions but his plan only
protects those who have and keep insurance; this idea is not a major change from Obama’s health care law.
Immigration- Wants a U.S.-Mexico border fence and does not want illegal immigrants to be able to obtain an
education. He does not want to allow illegals to become legal unless they serve in the US military. Would want to
punish businesses who hire non-citizens. Proposes to allow illegals who have a US college degree or job offer in the
fields of math, science, engineering to be able to live in US permanently.
Social Security- Wants to raise the retirement age for getting full benefits by one to two years and lower increases in
benefits for richer people.
Taxes-He wants to keep the tax cuts put in place by George W. Bush, lower the current tax rates by 20% (35%
down to 28% and 10% down to 8%). Wants to lower deductions, credit for rich people and cut the business tax 10%.
Does not give specifics on how he will pay for these cuts in taxes.
Terrorism-“ No constitutional rights for foreign terrorism suspects. In 2007, refused to rule out use of waterboarding
to interrogate terrorist suspects. In 2011, his campaign said he does not consider waterboarding to be torture.”
War- Wants to increase the amount of money spent on the military. He supports the war in Afghanistan and the end
of combat scheduled for 2014. He wants to add more troops and warships to the military which would add about
$100 billion to the budget. He criticized the lowering of the military budget in terms of money spent.
Associated Press writers Ben Feller, Matt Apuzzo, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Stephen Ohlemacher, Alan Fram, Dina Cappiello, Ken
Thomas, Jim Kuhnhenn and Christopher S. Rugaber contributed to this report.
Courtesy of washingtonpost.com