Is Romney telling the truth?

Let's take a look at what Gov. Romney is telling CNN:

"He may be conservative on social issues, but when it comes to economic issues like immigration, he's a liberal on immigration. He fought for tuition breaks for illegal aliens. He raised taxes time and time again as governor of Arkansas," Romney told CNN.
....
"I must admit that I find the vision and the direction that Ronald Reagan laid out for this country to be very powerful and very compelling," Romney said. "And I'll tell you, Ronald Reagan would have never raised taxes like Mike Huckabee did.

"Ronald Reagan would have never said let's give tuition breaks to illegals like Mike Huckabee did. Ronald Reagan would have never stood by and pushed for a budget that more than doubled during his term as president."

That sounds pretty bad. Does it play out though? Is it a fair statement? Put another way...is it spin or the truth. I'm calling it SPIN, damage control to stop his free fall. Now for the point by point and why it doesn't play out.


Gov. Romney claims Gov. Huckabee is liberal on illegals:

This is twice qualified as criticism of "tuition breaks" for illegal immigrants. Gov. Huckabee has fully responded to the charge already several times. Besides being a tired, tried, and failed excuse, it reveals something about Gov. Huckabee and conversely something critical about Gov. Romney.

Look at what we are really talking about. We are talking about kids. The children did not have a choice about coming here. They didn't really do anything wrong except to follow their parents. They grew up going to through the public school system and no one stopped them. They made it all the way to the doors of a college. Far exceeding what most of their parents achieved. They did all that under our noses without causing any harm. Graduates from the public schools. Seeking to still better themselves.

If then, they were found to be illegal AND chooses to pursue a LEGAL immigration process, the Governor supported them being treated as any other Arkansas student.

That's what Gov. Romney is calling "liberal". I think the problem is Gov. Romney is confusing "liberal" with "compassionate". So here is where the rubber hits the road. The test of a true leader.

Gov. Romney would have us believe that the right answer for such a student is to send them back to whatever country they came from because they are after all...illegal. Forget the fact that they are completely integrated into our society having grown up here and been educated here. Forget the fact that they really are willing to do the right thing and become part of our society. No, Gov. Romney wants to kick them out and send them to a country that they DO NOT KNOW...because they aren't citizens. How cold and cruel, Gov. Romney. Really.

Perhaps Gov. Romney can be ok with that because he grew up wealthy and has never been poor or had to struggle to make it on his own. I'm not sure.

Gov. Huckabee, however, grew up poor. Knows the struggles of the vast majority of your average Americans. He understands that sometimes it's really tough and he could put himself in the place of that child. That child that grew up an American but wasn't and he had compassion on them.

Now some people can call that being weak but I call that character. Principle. That's EXACTLY the type of trait I would want from our President.

Now mind you, the situation is completely different for those people trying to come across our borders illegally. First of all, they know they are doing wrong. They are motivated by greed, often times and sometimes by desperation. While we can certainly feel for their struggle, but, they are not ours, nor do their actions show that they want to be.

By all means we should look at our legal immigration process and determine if we need to fix something with it, but, that is the channel that those people trying to cross the borders should be taking, not breaking our laws to come here. I'm sorry but they are adults not children. They can follow the laws or not come here at all.

Gov. Huckabee supports tightening and properly funding our border security. He opposes all forms of amnesty for illegals. He wants to heavily fine those companies that hire illegals. In short, he is in fact tough on illegal immigration.

Perhaps even more interestingly, he promotes the fair tax which will tax illegal immigrants that are in the states just like every other citizen even though they won't see a dime of government social services.

Gov. Romney also claims that Gov. Huckabee raises taxes:

He claims that Gov. Huckabee "raised taxes time and time again". Again like with immigration, their is a grain of truth. There were some tax increases. There was some spending increase that he had control over. He admits it. You see, this is again a tired and tried attack. It goes along and is based on the taxhikemike and club for growth group. They were responded to by the campaigns lawyers for using verifiable false attacks. That letter gives most of the details of the allegations. Let's take a look:

Governor Huckabee has a consistent record as a fiscal conservative. While Governor, he doubled the state’s standard deduction and the child care tax credit. Some taxes he eliminated altogether, such as the marriage penalty and the capital gains tax on the sale of a home. He reduced the capital gains tax for both businesses and individuals. He indexed the income tax to protect people from paying higher taxes because of “bracket creep.” He left the state with almost $1 billion in surplus, setting the stage for further tax reductions. He cut welfare rolls by almost fifty percent, while balancing the state budget every year of his terms.

I see. So he did what should be done. Balanced the budget and built a surplus (which he has said he wanted to give back to the people). All while making the tax situation better for the average person. Wow. $1 billion (does mini-me pinky finger bite)

Ok, to be fair that's the upside. Some taxes were raised. The supreme court said he needed to fix the public school systems problems. That's a problem he inherited and to a large degree succeeded in doing but to do it they did have to reverse course on the tax reductions he was making.

They also had problems with roads, nursing homes, etc. Various taxes were raised to address the specific situations. I think that's fair. If the problem is nursing homes, the tax should be paid by those in the nursing homes. If the roads are the problem then take it from the people making the roads get run down (fuel tax). I mean, well duh.

Gov. Romney, seriously, is this the best you have?

Perhaps next, you will want to call a private party gift registry an "ethics violation"? I mean, seriously, are we going to give China state secrets for a blender that came from his wifes friends? Yeah, that would sway me.

Gov. Romney, what are you providing that's new and not - tired, tried, and calculated for your political gain?

Nothing. Thanks for playing. Try again in four years.