Romney on the Offensive

Mitt Romney pulled no punches at a town hall meeting last night in Nashua, where he criticized President Barack Obama’s leadership while touting his own business experience.

Speaking to a packed room at VFW Post 483, Romney spared no time in .

“The president’s leadership has failed us,” he said.

The Republican candidate said “ObamaCare” would be one of the first things on the chopping block if he were elected president. His plan would be to return Medicaid money to the states and have each of them form their own programs.

Romney defended himself against questions on his own healthcare reform in Massachusetts implemented during his time there as governor, commonly known as “RomneyCare.”

“We had, in my state, a lot of folks who could afford their own insurance who learned they could show up in a hospital and get care for free,” said Romney. “We the taxpayers are not going to pay for people who can take care of themselves.”

The former governor added that the advantage to his healthcare reform at the state level was that Massachusetts citizens are able to change it, as opposed to a federal plan.

His focus on federalism continued when it came to questions on education, where he stressed that schools needed to be guided at the state and local level. He also said he would stand up to teacher’s unions, which he believes have gotten too powerful.

According to Romney, improving the quality of teachers is the best way to improve education, along with rewarding the “best and brightest” among them.

In response to concerns about the United States border problem with Mexico, Romney said the best method, besides securing our border, would be to crack down on businesses that hire illegal immigrants and attract more and more of them to our country.

He made sure to point out that legal immigration strengthens our country.

“We like legal immigration, we like people coming here legally,” said Romney.

When asked about veteran’s rights and the issue of redeploying disabled soldiers, Romney said that would be a discussion he would have with military leaders, but did say that our country does not do a good job taking care of our veterans.

On the topic of energy, he said that the federal government should become more independent invest in basic science regarding solar, wind and clean coal energy. However, he did not believe the federal government should pick “winners and losers” when it came to projects to improve our country’s energy.

A self-proclaimed Tea Party Republican stating that he “hated compromise” and “there is nothing in the middle of the road,” asked Romney what he would do about a balanced budget amendment.

Romney responded by saying he would cut federal spending and would not raise taxes on the American people. He said his cuts would focus on the middle class in our nation.

Regarding the issue of compromise, Romney later pointed out that he was able to work with Democratic leaders during his time as governor to cut spending in their budget. He said he did not abuse them in the press.

“We had enough respect for each other to do what was right for our state,” said Romney. He later added that he was “convinced Democrats love America just like we do, but they are not always right.”