Presidential Candidate Overview: Mitt Romney

October 26, 2012

We have talked about where the 3^rd party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein stand on the key isues as well as were current President of the United States, Barack Obama stands. Now we will discuss the key stance issues of the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney. Here is where Republican candidate Mitt Romney stands on some of the key platform issues:

The Economy and Taxes:

Romney wants to bring the marginal rates down to stimulate entrepreneurship, investment, and job creation. He plans to do this through the following methods.

Individual Taxes:

He feels high tax rates discourage work and entrepreneurship, as well as savings and investment. He wishes to enact the following:

Make permanent, across-the-board 20% cut in marginal rates
Maintain current tax rates on interest, dividends, and capital gains
Eliminate taxes for taxpayers with AGI below $200,000 on interest, dividends, and capital gains
Eliminate the Death Tax
Repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)

Corporate Taxes:

Cut the corporate rate to 25%
Strengthen and make permanent the R&D tax credit
Switch to a territorial tax system
Repeal the corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)

Immigration:

Mitt Romney will protect legal immigration and the 4.5 million who are waiting in line to enter the United States legally by taking a strong stand against illegal immigration. He believes that illegal immigration must end and has a proven track record of advancing that goal. He wants to secure the border, but also make it easier for legal immigration to take place.

He wants to attract highly skilled immigrants as well as make the temporary worker visa system more functional.

Education:

Romney wants to give students trapped in bad schools a genuine alternative by requiring four things: (1) such alternatives must exist, (2) parents must receive clear information about the performance of their current school and of the alternatives, (3) students must be allowed to move to a new school, and (4) students must bring funding with them so that new schools can afford to serve them. Mitt’s reforms achieve each of these objectives:

Allow low income and special needs students to choose which school to attend by making Title 1 and IDEA funds portable.
Provide incentives for states to increase choices for parents and develop quality alternatives.
Build on the success of effective charter and digital schools.
Expand the DC Opportunity scholarship program to serve as a model for the nation.

He also wants to reform the way teachers are rewarded and paid through the following methods.

Attract and reward great teachers through increased flexibility and block grants.
Eliminate unnecessary certification requirements that discourage new teachers.

Civil Liberties:

Abortion – Mitt Romney is Pro-Life.

Stem Cell Research – Romney feels that America cannot condone or participate in the creation of human life when the sole purpose of its creation is its sure destruction. He also thinks that adult stem cell research and alternative methods to derive pluripotent stem cells, such as altered nuclear transfer and direct reprogramming, are scientific paths that carry much promise and avoid raising ethical concerns. Mitt Romney will focus his energy on laws and policies that promote this kind of research to unlock the medical breakthroughs that our loved ones so desperately need.

Marriage – Believes that marriage is between one man and one woman.

These are just a few of the key platform issues and where Mitt Romney stands on each of them. You can check out Mitt Romney’s position on many other issues here.