40 Good Reasons to Elect Mitt Romney

In a previous blog, I wrote about 36 good reasons to defeat Obama in this election.  Now is my chance to write 40 good reasons to elect Mitt Romney (now that we've seen the first debate).   Yes, I see where Mitt is adjusting some of his positions, but I'm seeing more of what I want to see.   See for yourself:

1. Romney is someone who has started a business, a business that specializes in business turnarounds.  It's just what America needs.  We need a turnaround specialist.
2. He is a typical Mormon: squeaky clean, doesn't drink alcohol, industrious, and salt-of-the-earth.  They don't call Utah the 'beehive' state for nothing.   He's not a Chicago political animal or 'pawn'.
3. Massachusetts has the highest ranked public school system in the country. Romney must know something about that since he was governor from 2002 to end of 2006.  It's clear that he had some role in that high ranking as policies tend to bear fruit well after they are implemented.
4. Romney's right, $90 billion in "support" to Solar energy or "Green energy" companies would have hired a lot of teachers!  
5. He understands that increasing business regulation in a recession or near-recession (EPA for instance) is the wrong thing.
6. He understands that raising taxes on businesses and individuals in a recession, or near-recession is the wrong thing to do.  There has been no appetite at all in Congress for new taxes for the past 4 years.  Only Obama himself is repeatedly calling for more taxes. None have passed except the taxes associated with ObamaCare.
7. He understands the way forward is true tax reform to lower top marginal rates and lower some taxes while reducing tax credits and deductions to spur final demand (stimulative) while cutting government spending at the same time (contractionary).  The intent is a "pro-growth" policy position and will be a delicate balancing act.  He's correct in that only growth will solve the current budget imbalance.
8. Romney understands that the European emphasis on tax increases (less or no emphasis on spending cuts) where applied in Spain and Greece, have further hurt growth and have lowered tax revenues even further.  It's become clear that their budgets will never balance in that approach.  France is trying only taxation-which is failing in the same way before it even starts.  It's a vicious downward spiral.  Obama is prescribing France's approach.
9. Romney's correct that raising the top individual marginal rate affects a large number of small businesses who file as Sub-chapter S on their tax returns.  A higher top marginal rate puts an extra burden on those businesses who happen to employ a large number of people and may hire more. Conversely, a lower top marginal rate lowers small business burdens and will help this group.
10. He's promised to end an era of near-infinite free and 'easy' money, dollar debasement and end the massive monetary "experiment" being conducted by the Federal Reserve by replacing Bernanke. Normalizing interest rates is the correct thing to do to help savers and prevent more market bubbles and the subsequent bursting of bubbles.  (The gov't created the housing and personal debt bubbles that got us into our current mess and subsequent 'fixes' are adding more mistakes)
11. He's correct about the immorality of passing massive and mounting debts to the next generation(s).
12. He's correctly understands that the EPA has gone way beyond the Clean Air Act which doesn't include regulating carbon dioxide.  (CO2 is still a measly 0.038% in atmosphere or 380 parts per million, is required by plants and is hardly a threat to human health!  Exhaled human breath contains 40,0000 parts per million or 4% CO2!)
13. He's against the war against coal and against Obama's plan to force coal power plants to shut down (and replace with what?).  It might all be a moot point since natural gas is so cheap now.
14. He's correct that Solar power is not currently a "real" solution to our energy needs. Romney doesn't have a "fetish" for "green" energy.   He's a realist.  He's a businessman, not an academic.
15. He's for the Keystone Pipeline and the resulting improved energy alliance with Canada. This approach enhances US national and energy security
16. He's promised to increase energy exploration in the lower 48 and Alaska unlike the current administration. He's correctly called out the current administration for actually reducing drilling permits on Federal land (about 40% reduction).  However, he didn't 'gig' Obama on his over-reaching Gulf of Mexico drilling ban that was over-turned by a Federal judge as "too broad."  Because of the overly broad ban, drilling rigs in the Gulf left..  That's why oil and gas production declined on Federal Lands in the year after the ban.
17. He's correctly pointed out that gas production has risen on private land and fallen on Federal lands (offshore).  Oil production would have risen much more if it hadn't been for the drilling ban.  Obama tried to claim that he's a big supporter of oil and gas when he's anything but. 
18. He's against the "sequestration cuts" of defense as if defense were a "pawn" in some political game. Obama, like European socialists, really wants to cut defense to spend more on "redistribution."  Think Europe where there is hardly any defense capability remaining AND their budgets and debt levels are still sky high.  There's no end to their spending!  Yes, unlike Mitt, I believe that defense spending needs to be reduced responsibly.
19. He's against cap and trade at this time. Capping emissions won't do enough, so why bother?
20. He's correctly called-out the NLRB as an example of an anti-business policy.
21. He's correctly argued about the folly of "Trickle-Down" government
22. He's correctly exposed government "investment" as largely a waste of money.  The idea of the Government picking winners and losers is the free market is wrong-headed.  
23. He's for State's rights
24. He's for letting The States be the "laboratory" for new policy including moving toward universal health coverage.
25. Devolving as many programs to The States as possible is a good idea.
26. He's proven to be able to work with both Republicans and Democrats in Massachusetts where the legislature was dominated by 87% Democratic majority.
27. He's right about repatriating jobs from Asia (getting 'tough' with China) and improving trade is a priority to help US growth.  It's probably too late to call China a "currency manipulator." However, it may bring them to the bargaining table for a change.
28. He believes that free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity.  
29. He knows more government programs of redistribution beyond our current entitlement programs is mostly wrong-headed.
30. He's correct about the need to focus on cost control for Medical costs (see controlling medical costs in the link)---it's killing everybody!  ObamaCare, with no effort to reduce costs, has and will lead to much higher costs and higher premiums.  You can't increase demand on the existing 'system' without increasing supply and expect prices not to go up!  Personally, I'm hiding out in Thailand due to rising medical costs in the US.
31. Repeal or modification of ObamaCare will likely reverse some of the cost increases/cost pressures.
32. Romney is right in that people are going to be shocked at the future cost of medical care under ObamaCare.   The cost shock was always put off to the 2nd term presumably because it would be "politically inconvenient" if the true costs were known in Obama's first term!  Well, they are only now becoming clear.
33. He's correct in calling out the President that the $716 billion cut in Medicare which will fund ObamaCare is a mirage. That magnitude of cuts can not be made in "reducing overpayments" or improvements in "efficiency".  Because it's a mirage, it won't be done and the deficit will rise.
34. A voucher system for distributing Medicare benefits seems like a sane way of managing uncontrolled spending and subsequent price increases. Government is largely causing medical cost inflation because government spending is out of control.  It can't continue out of control.  
35. He knows how to restore confidence in the US Gov't debt market by reforming the cost trajectory of Medicare and other entitlement programs.  Obama hasn't really lifted a finger. He's all talk and no action.
36. Romney's right, if we have to borrow from China (or worse, let the Federal Reserve 'print' more money by buying gov't debt!!), then we need to seriously consider a cut.
37. An un-elected board to limit or ration medical care--that is ultimately unaccountable to elected officials--is not the right way to go either.   Romney's right, limiting government spending with vouchers and providing choice in a marketplace is better.
38. Romney correctly reported that the CBO itself has said that 10's of millions of people to lose their medical policies at their work under ObamaCare--whereas Obama has always claimed that you'll get to keep your existing policies.   It's not true.  I wouldn't be able to keep my preference for a high-deductible policy!
39. Romney's right, doctor's are leaving in droves to escape ObamaCare.  So, Obama's claim that you'll be able to keep your doctor is in doubt.
40. He's correct that Dodd Frank has institutionalized the largest banks as "too big to fail" and that it hasn't solved taxpayer liability to the big banks.   Romney's mentioned bank leverage limits and for complete transparency in the debate.  Dodd-Frank with it's 1000s of pages of trying to out-think bankers with an attempt at detailed and prescriptive regulation won't work.  Bankers will figure out ways around it.
41. Romney's right, Obama has been a hyper-partisan instead of a "uniter".  The way ObamaCare was pushed through without bipartisan input, in the middle of the night, under a phony rush, without anyone reading it, the"waivers", the "bribes" to Democratic senators to coerce them to vote for the ObamaCare "administrative nightmare" was the worst spectacle in lawmaking in modern history.
42. Romney's right, that "the right answer is not to have the federal government take over health care and start mandating to the providers across America, telling a patient and a doctor what kind of treatment they can have.  That's the wrong way to go. The private market and individual responsibility always work best."