A letter to Mitt

I met a staffer on Romney's campaign. He gave me permission to email him about questions I have regarding's Mitt's policies.

I think I was a little too enthusiastic about my open platform.

Here's the email:

Hi Jake,

This is Judy from LP2. Here is a list of questions that I have for Romney, or the staffer he is paying to answer questions people submit:

1. Health care reform

The Supreme Court's recent health care reform ruling upheld Congress's right to pass acts that tax citizens. Because they considered a penalty against US citizens that do not have health care as a tax, the act was considered constitutional. Romney has said that he will take down "Obamacare," but he enacted the same law in Massachusetts, mandating that all citizens have some type of health insurance. What is the reason for this inconsistency? 

Also, the health care reform bill address several issues in how health insurance treats its recipients. For example, the reform bill does not allow insurance companies to drop people with pre-existing conditions (ex: Huntington's disease), people who have previously been diagnosed with a chronic disease, and canceling policies of people who were previously healthy, but develop conditions later on in life. What is the Republican justification for insurance companies leaving sick people (who really should get the benefits of insurance) behind?

2. Views on corporations

A major problem I have with the Republican party is that it seems like they will allow companies to get away with anything if it is justified by "economics." It seems like protecting workers from on the site job injuries, abuse through unlivable wages, and protecting the environment and public health from industrial emissions is just not on the agenda. I think the website calls the environmental regulations "onerous." Despite evidence of the influence of air pollution on growing childhood asthma, cases in which industrial waste resulted in childhood leukemia and death (ex: Woburn, Massachusetts), I don't think environmental regulations are "onerous," I think they are necessary unless you want a population that is overexposed to pollution and put at higher risk for chronic disease.

One example I can clearly site is the Republican-dominated Texas government's disclosure laws of fracking fluids. I am not opposed to the idea of fracking - we need oil - but the laws are not written to protect people. There are too many loopholes - the disclosure is completely voluntary, testing wastewater is not required, health care personnel are not allowed to tell affected persons if their condition can be attributed to fracking chemicals, and the way that chemicals are reported is meaningless to real scientists and the lay public. 

The bottom line is that I feel like Republican policies choose profits at the expense of people. And that is not cool. 

3. Government reform

This is one area in which I think Romney actually will be useful. I worked for the government, and the main reasons it sucks, from an employee perspective, is because of the accounting system (it needs to be more flexible), the amount of paperwork required to do anything, and how the work changes depending on the party in power. If agencies are going to be more efficient, the parameters under which they function need to be more stable.

Also, I know Romney is going to tackle budget reform, which is great, but what is he going to cut? Does military spending fall under the budget reform? Because Republicans have a reputation of cutting spending on education and health, but not military spending. If the budget is going to get cut, I think every department should have some type of cut.

Have a great day!

- J