|
|
|
Special Feature:
Election Views
Strengthening
America through
Stronger Families
Throughout my life,
I have relished the
opportunity to lead
in the business
world, public sector
and government. As
the founder of Bain
Capital, I led a
company that
invested in start-up
enterprises and
turned around
troubled businesses.
As chairman of the
2002 Salt Lake City
Olympics, I turned
around a
scandal-plagued
Games and eliminated
a $379 million
deficit. As Governor
of Massachusetts, I
cut taxes for
families and
businesses, enabled
successful students
to attend college
tuition-free, signed
into law landmark
health care reform
and defended
traditional family
values.
Through it all, I
still consider
raising a loving
family to be my
life’s greatest
achievement. Earlier
this year, my high
school sweetheart
Ann and I celebrated
our 38th wedding
anniversary. Our
lives have been
profoundly enriched
by our five sons,
five
daughters-in-law and
eleven
grandchildren. My
experiences have
solidified my belief
that the most
important work in
America today is
taking place inside
the four walls of
the American home.
In order to
strengthen the
American people, we
must strengthen our
greatest institution
- the family. |
 |
|
|
 |
|
Former
Massachusetts
Governor
Mitt
Romney
is a
Republican
Presidential
Candidate
for
2008 |
|
|
As
President, I will protect
marriage, family and the
sanctity of life.
Ann and I
will use the bully pulpit to
teach America’s children that
before they have babies, they
should get married. It’s time to
make out-of-wedlock births
out-of-fashion again so that our
young women can complete their
educations and realize their
full potential. We must also
encourage a culture that values
all life, while promoting
greater parental involvement in
children’s lives.
Another
way to strengthen families is by
allowing them to keep more of
their hard-earned money. As
President, I will make the Bush
tax relief permanent, roll back
tax rates for all taxpayers,
abolish the death tax, make
health care expenses tax
deductible, oppose Social
Security tax increases and make
the corporate tax rate more
competitive with the rest of the
world. I will also allow the
middle class to save tax-free by
changing the tax rate on
interest, capital gains and
dividends to absolutely 0%.
Measures like these will allow
families to save more money for
their children’s education, to
buy a home and for their
retirement. Tax relief is not
only beneficial to our economy,
it is also fair and provides an
incentive to our entrepreneurs
to take risks, innovate and grow
their businesses.
Strengthening the family also
requires making health care more
affordable for the 47 million
uninsured Americans, a group
that includes 13 million
Hispanics. For this reason, I
have articulated a vision of
healthcare reform that puts
conservative, market-based
principles to work in order to
give every American access to
affordable, portable and quality
health insurance. On this issue,
other candidates are sure to
offer a broad array of
prescriptions, but I’m the only
one who has actually
accomplished something to
resolve this problem. I did it
in Massachusetts, and I can also
do it for the entire nation.
To
strengthen the family, we must
also improve our education
system.
Closing
the achievement gap in our
schools is the civil rights
issue of our time, and this
means we have to ensure all our
children are acquiring the
skills to graduate from high
school and then go on to
college. As President, I will
promote school choice. I believe
that when parents and kids are
free to choose their school,
everyone benefits. I will
improve upon No Child Left
Behind (NCLB) by giving states
additional flexibility in
measuring student performance.
We must also honor teaching as
the profession it truly is by
supporting performance-based pay
and other initiatives that
encourage our best teachers to
teach in our highest-need
schools. Our efforts must also
be re-focused on fields like
math and science while promoting
innovative approaches such as
charter schools and
public-private partnerships.
Together,
these initiatives will help
ensure that America’s youth have
the intellectual capital and
skills they need to compete in
the new global marketplace.
Another
issue that is on the minds of
many Americans, particularly the
Hispanic community, is
immigration. I believe we need
to end illegal immigration so
that legal immigration can
remain a source of strength for
America. I believe it’s
important to reform our
immigration laws in a way that
will secure our borders,
implement an employment
verification system and
eliminate incentives for illegal
immigration. In doing so, we can
give the American people renewed
faith in their immigration
system. There should be no doubt
that we want people from all
parts of the world to keep
coming to the United States as
they have been for centuries.
But we need to encourage them to
come through the legal channels
that exist and ensure that we’re
not putting those that are
waiting to come legally at any
disadvantage by doing so.
During
this campaign, I have been
blessed to meet men, women and
children from many diverse
backgrounds. I am proud to count
several extraordinary Latina
leaders in my National Hispanic
Steering Committee.
I am
honored to have their support
and, more importantly, be able
to count on their advice.
Together, we can confront the
new generation of challenges
America faces and build a more
prosperous and secure future for
ourselves, our children and
future generations.
By Mitt Romney |
