As a native Bay Stater, I have followed Mitt Romney’s
political ambitions for a decade.
Although I was only 13 years old when he first ran for governor in 2002,
I was a precocious teenager with an astute interest in politics at the
time. I decided to support him and his
policies despite my parents’ pleas not to.
I still remember all the arguments I had with my mother and father
around the dining room table about Mitt Romney and Shannon O’Brien, the
Democratic Nominee. On paper, he remains
one of the strongest candidates to ever run for the Presidency. It is a tragedy that I will not be able to
support him next week. Like the story of
nearly every tragic hero, this story has two parts: the first being the story
of our heroes’ rise and the second the tale of his downfall. Today, I present the former; tomorrow, I will
present the latter.
Mitt
Romney’s legacy as governor of Massachusetts remains a largely successful
one. He continued the successful
educational reforms initiated by his GOP predecessors such as encouraging the
opening of more charter schools in the Boston School District as well as making
it mandatory for students to pass a standardized exam before they
graduate. Romney also established the
John and Abigail Adams Scholarship, which awarded a full tuition scholarship at
any public university to anyone who scored in the top 20% of their high school
class on the MCAS, the commonwealth’s standardized exam. As a result of the John and Abigail Adams
Scholarship, many bright and ambitious youth who would otherwise have been
unable to afford to pay college tuition have now been empowered to pursue their
hopes, goals and dreams.
Despite the
great strides Massachusetts has made in order to become the state with the
highest ranked public education system, the premiere social welfare
accomplishment of Governor Romney will always be his widely successful
implementation of universal health care insurance reform. Working with the Massachusetts legislature,
Romney persuaded Massachusetts’ Democrats to support a conservative,
free-market alternative to single payer health insurance. This happened within the context of Democratic
supermajorities in both the General Court and the State Senate. Romney’s efforts to negotiate with others
shined here, as it did when he took the helm at the Salt Lake City Olympic Games
in 2002.
Supreme
Court Justice Louis Brandeis once called the states of the United States, “the
laboratories of democracy” and Romney’s reforms, which are sometimes labeled
spuriously as ‘Romneycare’, presented the United States of America with a grand
opportunity to experiment with a conservative plan that had been discussed for
decades, but never put into action. The
origins for Romney’s reforms came in 1992, when President Bill Clinton attempted
to implement a universal health care plan.
Clinton’s plan was derived from leftist and socialist ideals regarding socialized
medicine. Clinton’s conservative
opponents needed an alternative plan to contrast with Clinton’s plan, so they
adopted ideas derived from The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think
tank. The Heritage Foundation plan was
grounded in the conservative ideal of personal responsibility. More specifically, the plan included a
“personal mandate” that would require all Americans to purchase coverage or pay
a penalty. The logic behind this
proposal was sound; as long as the United States Government was willing to
spend public funds to provide care to the uninsured, it should be an
individual’s responsibility to contribute an appropriate amount to his or her
own care. Without this provision,
“free-riders” could take unfairly advantage of government subsidies.
The
personal mandate of the Heritage Foundation plan made its way into Romney’s
health care reform package. This allowed
Romney to end discrimination in the health insurance market based upon the
concept of “preexisting conditions”. It
also allowed for many previously uninsured Bay Staters to purchase coverage on
the health care exchange thanks to government subsidies. This health care exchange, enabled consumers
to pick and choose the right health care policy for their families by presenting
clear information regarding differences in benefits, premiums, deductable and
other parameters. Other beneficial
reforms came into effect as well, such as a provision that enabled young adults
to remain on their parent’s policy until their 26th birthday.
With his
two crowning achievements in the spheres of education and health care, Romney
is a very compelling candidate for President.
The fact he accomplished both of these objectives without increasing the
burden on Massachusetts’ taxpayers is simply incredible. Governor Romney inherited a $1.5 Billion
deficit and reversed it in four years, ultimately creating a surplus.
