Romney Critical of Obama’s Defense Cuts

More criticism of the Obama Administration from our former governor…

Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says the Obama adminstration’s push for new social spending could hurt defense programs and endanger America’s national security.

Romney, speaking to the conservative Heritage Foundation today, called Obama’s proposal to cut missile defense programs a “grave miscalculation” in light of North Korea’s provocations. The former Massachusetts governor is seen as a likely contender for the GOP’s presidential nomination.

The speech was seen as a bid to enhance his foreign policy credentials among conservative Republicans.

Health Care Mismanagement in Massachusetts

The Heritage Foundation recently uncovered Health Care Reform mismanagement in Massachusetts, and they are blogging about it.

First Bear Stearns, then Fannie and Freddie … and now the Commonwealth of Massachusetts?

Last week Massachusetts received another short-term extension of its Medicaid waiver—which in part funds the state’s health care reform — until next Monday (July 28th) because the terms and conditions of its renewal are still pending. State and federal officials have mostly been silent on the details of their talks but there is no apparent sign that negotiations will come to an end by the next deadline.

In a recent memo I authored with my colleague Ed Haislmaier, we explained that the last renewal of this long-standing waiver in 2005 was the catalyst for Massachusetts adopting a package of major health reform measures in 2006. One key element was an agreement between state and federal officials that Massachusetts would begin redirecting federal Medicaid funds away from “safety net” institutions and to individuals instead.

The basic idea was that instead of giving heath care providers various “supplemental” Medicaid payments to subsidize them for treating the uninsured, the state would instead use those same dollars to — drum roll, please — subsidize buying health insurance for low-income uninsured adults.

According to the author of the blog entry, this financing shift can work if and only if state and federal officials keep the agreements they made in 2005…agreements that Senator John Kerry would like to ignore. Senator Kerry wants to see hospitals subsidized directly, and criticizes the Heritage Foundation for thinking that giving more money to Boston Medical Center and Cambridge Health Alliance is absurd–of course, forgetting the fact that these institutions already receive money.

The Heritage Foundation does not believe that you fix a budget problem created by double paying some of it health providers with a federal bailout. Why does John Kerry think so?

Tsongas Supports Bill That Fails Children

Since focusing solely on Iraq isn’t enough to win over the voters of the Fifth District, and considering her views on illegal immigration are way out of the mainstream, Niki Tsongas is now resorting to attacking Ogonowski with Democrat talking points on the deeply-flawed SCHIP expansion. Tsongas vows, if elected, to vote to override President Bush’s veto of the bill.

The bill, as passed by the Democratic majority, is extremely flawed and expensive, and contains hidden earmarks. The expansion goes far beyond its original purpose, and even includes 21 year-olds as “children” that would be covered.

The Heritage Foundation, through an extraordinary amount of research concluded that the Democrats’ SCHIP expansion actually fails children. “It’s hardly controversial to point out that all children deserve access to the best available health care, regardless of their economic circumstances. Unfortunately, if Congress has its way, our country will actually move further away from that ideal,” says John O‚ÄôShea, M.D.

The SCHIP expansion is a big step in the direction of HillaryCare, shifting children already on private health insurance plans onto the taxpayer-funded health plans. Despite Tsongas’s claims that the SCHIP expansion won’t expand coverage to illegals, it contains loopholes that most definitely will result in taxpayers footing the bill for health coverage for illegals.

But of course, Niki Tsongas doesn’t want you to know she actually supports taxpayer dollars supporting illegal immigrants. Between her support of the Democrats’ expansion of SCHIP to her support of giving in-state college tuition to the children of illegal immigrants… courtesy of taxpayer dollars.

The SCHIP expansion, as Tsongas supports it, would also cost our state millions of dollars… which will have to come from somewhere… so, if Niki Tsongas gets elected, get ready for a smaller paycheck.

Tsongas And The Expansion of SCHIP

Niki Tsongas may be proud of her support for the costly expansion of SCHIP, but an abundance of research from the Heritage Foundation gives plenty of reasons why the expansion, as Democrats have proposed it, is bad policy.

You Said It, Mitt!

When it comes to fighting terrorism, Mitt Romney seems to understand what needs to be done:

Romney suggested in an address on homeland security before the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday that the FBI should conduct electronic surveillance on mosques if they are preaching hate and terror.

He also suggested that the government might closely monitor students from countries accused of sponsoring terrorism.

But federal authorities need more evidence than just hateful speech to open an investigation, specialists said. Before the FBI can conduct wiretapping, for instance, the bureau must persuade a federal judge that there’s probable cause to believe someone is doing or planning something criminal.

Of course, his comments were not warmly received by the Muslim community, but Mitt is sticking to his guns…

Governor Mitt Romney, facing mounting criticism from civil rights and religious groups for raising the prospect of putting certain Muslims under surveillance, refused to back down yesterday, saying he would never sacrifice the security of the country for the sake of ”political correctness.”

You said it, Mitt!

…civil libertarians and Muslim groups showed up at Romney’s office yesterday morning demanding an apology. They left disappointed.

The groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and several mosques and Islamic organizations, delivered a letter to the governor around noon that read, ”Your desire to wiretap mosques is an affront to the values and principles that make America a great country.

I don’t recall “tolerating extremism” being an American value or principle. Remember, Mitt Romney specified mosques that “are preaching hate and terror,” so anyone who has a problem with what Mitt said must believe we should tolerate Muslim extremism…

To watch Mitt’s speech at the Heritage Foundation, click here…