Mitt Romney
Town Hall
Humboldt, IA 12/15/07
TRANSCRIPT:
MITT ROMNEY: What are some differences? Well I've described for instance with regards to military policy, I do not think the President's administration is an 'arrogant bunker mentality" administration. I believe that this President has done everything he could do to keep us safe. Does a president make mistakes? Of course. Will I make mistakes? Of course. But the last thing you're gonna hear me say is that the President of the United States, George W. Bush, is a person who is arrogant with a "bunker mentality." That's simply wrong and uhhh not something I would ever do. Let's turn to other areas, like this one [he points to banner behind him], immigration Umm, when I was Governor, a bill came to my desk. The legislature passed it, the liberals liked it. And it said that the illegal aliens in our state should get a tuition break, they should get lower tuition charges, that citizens from other states should get. And I vetoed that. I said no way are we gonna give illegals, tuition breaks to go to our University. You don't want to create a greater magnet for people to come here illegally. Now Governor Huckabee, when he was Governor, uhh fought in favor of a tuition break for illegal aliens and tax-payer funded scholarships for illegal aliens. So we have a very different view on that aspect. On uhh spending. When I was Governor I tried to hold down spending. My first year, I actually reduced spending. I don't know that if that ever happens anywhere. I'm not just talking about slowing the rate of groowth, uhh growth. I actually brought it down from the year before. And overall, during my four years, it grew, according to the Club for Growth, at 2.2% a year. Governor Huckabee took his budget from $6.7 billion, when he came in, to $16 billion, an increase well of over 100%, almost 150%. So a very different perspective, on how you spend money. And of course, he raised taxes as well. Now he lowered some taxes, but he raised taxes. And net-net he increased taxes by 500 million dollars. I don't like raising taxes. And so we have a very different view on spending and taxes.There is another area of some difference, and that relates to crime. And this is a uhh difference in philosophy. Umm, as a Governor, it's a very unusual thing that happens, I was only in office, maybe a couple months when my chief of staff came in and said, with a whole stack of manila folders. She said these are requests for pardon. These are convicted criminals who want you to pardon them, and let them out of jail... And I said I can't understand why you'd pardon someone who had been duly convicted by a jury of their peers and let them out of jail. And then we talked about it and I realized, there might be some circumstance where perhaps new evidence, DNA evidence, proved someone was innocent. That would certainly be a reason... But after 4 years in office, with all these pardon requests coming through, the number of pardons I gave out was zero. I felt that people convicted should be in jail to the end of the term, as directed by the judge and by the jury. Now, in Governor Huckabee's case, he granted 1,033 pardons, including 12 to murderers. I find that a very different philosophy. And so we have different views on some important issues, and I consider myself more conservative on those issues. Now, there are some places where we stand together. First of all, we're great friends. Number two, we're both pro-life, strongly pro-life. Number 3, we're how many numbers am I up to? [laughter] Number 3, we're uhh, we're in favor of traditional marriage. We both favor a federal amendment to the constitution, defining marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman [applause]. And so we have places where we're the same and places where we're different. But together were a lot closer than the folks on the other side of the aisle.
LABEL: MR IA 12-15 (GR#17) ASE - Clip B
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What a gigantic pile of steaming BS.
jodale1972 3 years ago