Yesterday evening, a neighbor girl came over to play with my
girls and my niece while we celebrated my mom’s birthday with a few family
friends. During the meal, a couple of my
daughters came rushing in and breathlessly proclaimed, “Mom! Please don’t vote for Mitt Romney!” I explained that we were in the middle of
dinner, and that I would talk to them about it later.
Before bed last night, I asked them about the incident. They told me that the sitter said she had
been watching the news and that the news said that Mitt Romney wanted to get
rid of “ObamaCare” and he wanted the rich to pay fewer taxes and the poor to pay
more taxes. Lucy explained that when the
sitter had had to go to the ER to set a broken bone, it cost a lot of money. And “ObamaCare” would put 20 cents into a
bank account every month so that if the sitter ever had that happen again, her
parents wouldn’t have to pay so much money.
I took some time after that to talk to them about their
concerns on these two issues. I thought
I’d share them here because, sometimes, having things explained in simpler
terms makes things much, much clearer.
What follows here is what I told my daughters about Mitt
Romney and the things they were told about him by the neighbor girl.
Girls, I have watched a lot of news reports, and I’ve read a
lot about both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.
Not only do I know what they believe, I know their personal histories—where
they were born, what they studied in college, and things like that. Choosing our next president is a very
important decision, and I want to make sure I’m making the best choice possible
for my children, grandchildren, and our country. I don’t like the way our nation’s children
are dragged into the presidential campaigns and election. Children should be included in knowing what
is happening (at an age appropriate level), but contrary to what Nickelodeon’s “Kids
Pick the President” webpage says, it’s NOT up to kids. (http://www.nick.com/shows/kids-pick-the-president)
The first concern that was raised about Mitt Romney is that
he wants to get rid of “ObamaCare”.
First of all, health insurance, or any kind of insurance, is money that
is paid to a company every month so that if something happens, it will be paid
for. The way it works is that the health
insurance company takes my money and bets that I won’t get sick or hurt this
month, and I give them money knowing that I could get sick or hurt this
month. Most of the time, I am healthy
and safe. But when I’m not, I go to the
doctor and they give me medicine or patch me up, and instead of me paying for
it myself, my insurance company pays the bill because I’ve been paying them all
along.
Even though President Obama’s signature is the one on the
health care bill, it’s actually called “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”. I call it the “health care bill” and a bill
in this case means a law. Here are two
good things about the health care bill:
1.
It allows children to stay on their parents’
insurance until they are 26. This is a
good thing since colleges don’t always have good health care plans, and
sometimes after college is over, people have a hard time finding a full-time job
or a job that offers insurance.
2.
The health care bill makes sure that people who
were seriously sick even a long time ago can still get insurance. This is called a “pre-existing condition” and
it usually means cancer or other serious illnesses. Not colds, broken legs, or stitches. Before,
if a person got a new job, or changed to a different insurance company, the new
insurance company could tell someone that because they were very sick a long
time ago, the insurance company wouldn’t pay for anything now.
Here are two bad things about the health care bill:
1.
The health care bill requires people to buy
insurance if they don’t have any. This
is wrong because our constitution says that Americans can never be forced to
buy anything in order to not get in trouble.
2.
The health care bill doesn’t help all Americans
to have health insurance. The latest estimate
(that’s a fancy word for guess) for
the number of people who still won’t have health insurance is up to 30
million. That’s a lot of people! (http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/24/cbo-obamacare-to-cover-millions-fewer-than-before-supreme-court-decision/)
Mitt Romney wants to “get rid” of the health care bill so he
can change it—he wants to keep the good things (and make them better), but
change the bad things to good things so that it would work for most people. And write the new law so it costs all of us
less money. He did this in his own state
of Massachusetts when he was the governor, which is kind of like being the
president of a state. In Massachusetts,
98.1% of grownups and 99.8% of kids have health insurance. And it doesn’t cost as much as everyone
thought it would. (http://mittromneycentral.com/resources/romneycare/)
The second concern was about Mitt Romney wanting to make the
rich pay fewer taxes and the poor pay more.
Mitt Romney doesn’t want the poor to pay more taxes. He understands that many Americans have lost
their jobs, their homes, and other things they used to have. There are people who aren’t even getting
their basic needs (food, shelter, and clothing) met. He doesn’t expect those people to pay more taxes
with money they don’t have. His plan is
to allow companies more freedom and fewer taxes because he knows that companies
will hire more workers if they have the money to pay them. And then those workers will have money to buy
what they need from other companies, and then those other companies will be
able to hire more workers, and on and on.
(http://www.mittromney.com/sites/default/files/shared/presidentialaccountabilityscorecard_1_1.pdf)
Sometimes the news thinks they know what will be best for
everyone and so instead of giving the people watching or reading the news all
of the facts from both sides, they will give only part of the information or
they will put more of their opinion into the story so that it makes one side
look better than the other. This is why
it is important to get the news from many places, especially if they are sources
who are usually fair and factual—with very few opinions. This makes it easier to make one’s own
decision about things.
Also, I want to tell you a little more about Mitt Romney
besides what his plans are if we elect him to be our president. He is married to a very nice and pretty woman
named Ann. They have 5 sons who are now
all grown up and have their own families.
So that makes Mitt Romney a grandpa.
Here is a picture of Mitt Romney’s entire family. (http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/romney-family-photo-xmas-600px.jpg)
Mitt Romney has also done many nice things for other people
and often used his own money. One time,
he visited a hospital for soldiers. He
asked to see the books where the hospital keeps track of the money. Mitt Romney said that they were doing a good
job managing their money. He asked them
if there was anything they needed. The
man who ran the hospital told Mitt Romney that they really needed milk. They just didn’t get enough and couldn’t
afford to get more. For the next two
years, enough milk came every week. The
milkman wouldn’t say who it was from until it was almost time for him to
retire. Then the milkman told the man at
the hospital that it was Mitt Romney who paid for the milk out of his own
money.
There are many other stories like this about Mitt Romney and
his family. The news doesn’t tell these
stories, and Mitt Romney doesn’t like to tell them either. There are 2 scriptures in the Bible that may
explain why Mitt Romney and his family give so much to others, but doesn’t
share what they’ve done to help. The
first is Matthew 25:40—Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of
these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
This means that when we serve others, we are serving God. The other scripture is Matthew 6:4—That thine
alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall
reward thee openly. This means that when
we serve others and don’t share or boast about it, God will bless us. If we make a big show about what we’re doing
to help other people, that is the reward we get. These are lessons I was taught as a child
too, and I feel a lot of happiness when I help others in ways that no one else
notices. It gives me a warm feeling, and
makes me feel like God is near. I think
the entire Romney family feels the same way.
I don’t think President Obama is a bad man. I think he has done his best with the skills
and knowledge he has and has access to.
Sometimes a person’s plans look good and sound good, but they don’t
always work when they’re put into place.
I think everyone wants things to get better. This is why I am voting for Mitt Romney. After all of the reading and research I have
done for myself, Mitt Romney’s beliefs about how to help people get back to
work, and how to make America great again most closely match mine, and I want
to see how his ideas could work for our country.
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