On Friday, I had a chance to take a few minutes with Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the former Governor of Massachusetts. I found him to be a very engaging and articulate person with whom to speak. Below are some excerpts* from our interview…

Governor Romney was in Orange County where he appeared at two fundraising events — one an exclusive ‘pre-sell’ event at the Irvine home of businessman John Clarey, and the other a reception with hundreds of guests at the posh St. Regis Resort in Dana Point. We took along the "FlashCam" and so you can see all kinds of video — they are on the main page now — and I will try to post them into this Commentary in a bit…

AN INTERVIEW WITH MITT ROMNEY
Jon: My first question has to do with Governor Schwarzenegger’s healthcare proposal. I don’t know how familiar you are with it or not but when he introduced his proposal he kind of touted it as being mirrored after yours in Massachusetts. But I don’t think your plan — his plan calls for several billion dollars in tax increases on payroll taxes and income taxes for doctors. And I didn’t know if you had any comment about a plan that would call for tax increases for expanding government-run healthcare.

Mitt: What we endeavored to do was, in Massachusetts, to find a way to insure our uninsured citizens by having them take responsibility for buying their own private market-based health insurance. And it was critical to me that we not raise taxes to do so. The legislature presented a proposal that called for a payroll tax and I told them I would veto that. We negotiated and battled for some time. They ultimately ended up with a relatively small, I think it’s about a $25 a month fee, for people who aren’t insured that is imposed on employers. I vetoed that but they overrode my veto. So I’m not in favor of taxes or new fees being imposed to get people insured. And in our state we were able to propose a plan which did not raise taxes. And this very small fee is something that was unnecessary. I vetoed it, but it’s still there.

Jon: Well, what would you say to, because I’ve talked to a lot of conservatives who are concerned about the Governor’s proposal which he, again, says is mirrored after yours, when they pass a law that requires people to have healthcare insurance and kind of the idea that that flies in the face of the notion of individuals taking responsibility for their own action and kind of putting the state involved in putting mandates on people.

Mitt: Well, my proposal in Massachusetts was people either pay for their own healthcare and demonstrate their ability to pay by having a sufficient health savings account or other savings account or they buy insurance, because currently in this country if someone does not have health insurance and they don’t have money of their own, then they go to the hospital and they get free care. And that’s not an option that should be available to people who can afford insurance. So I agree that — and I want to make personal responsibility mean that people either pay for their own healthcare or they buy insurance, one or the other. But no more showing up and expecting other people to pay your way. That’s not personal responsibility. That’s the welfare state. And currently what we have, and I think this is something that people don’t often appreciate, currently what we have in most of America and in California, like Massachusetts, is a sick setting, where people don’t buy insurance, even those who can afford it don’t buy insurance and go get free healthcare. And that’s simply not personal responsibility.

Jon: Governor, we’re over halfway done here with my small set of questions here. The next one’s more back on the national level and it has to do with we saw President Bush and our former GOP-controlled Congress with a pretty bad record on fiscal restraint with federal spending increasing 41 percent over the last six years. That’s according to the Heritage Foundation. What would you do as President to reduce federal spending, because that’s been a big frustration for base Republicans has been the growth in spending?

Mitt: I have called for all candidates to sign or to adopt my own spending pledge and that is I will lay out to Congress the following: Discretionary, non-military spending may not grow faster than inflation less one percent. And if they give me appropriations bills which exceed that amount, I will veto them.

Jon: Well, that’s pretty straightforward there. That’s good to hear because, you know, this President hasn’t used his veto pen very much.

Mitt: I love vetoes. Of course, I had the line item veto. I have vetoed hundreds of millions of dollars of spending which I thought was unnecessary or where earmarks were employed. And think we need to see more vetoing in Washington.

Jon: There’s a lot of frustration because of the President and frankly Governor Schwarzenegger supporting amnesty for criminal aliens under the guest worker moniker and all Republican candidates seem to agree on the need for tight border security. But what do you think should be done or not done about the estimated 12 million people that are in this country now that are here illegally?

Mitt: I would like all of the 12 million to register so that they can receive a card which indicates their status. Now, we don’t know very much about the 12 million. Are they working here? Have they committed crimes? Are they on welfare? I want to learn who they are, how many there are and then make a determination at that stage as to what their prospects will be. They, of course, can get in the same line as everybody else to apply to come here and be here legally. But there should be no special pathway for people who are here illegally to become citizens.

Jon: I’m not going to take any more of your time. I promised your folks that we’d keep it concise.

* While I did not put all of the questions and answers up (for space considerations), please note that every answer is complete.