of the massachusetts state house. this is just over 30 minutes. >> good morning. thank you for being here. my name is pat hazarddad. i'm the speaker pro tem of the house of representatives. it's so interesting to see people here who don't agree with us. and to see the props that they are using. bubbles, bubbles that were just like the promises that mitt romney made to us. filled with nothing and immediately broken. i'm here as a former middle school teacher and the former chair of the committee on education. mitt romney either didn't care what it takes or he just didn't want to do it. because his record as governor proves, and i know firsthand, that his view of education was that it was a luxury and not an economic engine for improvement. under mitt romney, who wanted to change the total way that we provided education, he wanted to privatize two of our most important colleges. he wanted to tell people that it was a luxury to be able to go to mass maritime. he said that mass maritime kids did not contribute to our econo

the red sox do this year. it has worked really well in massachusetts. on of people who now have health insurance in massachusetts is 98%, 98% of people in the state are insured. that is the highest rate in the nation.ç nearly 100% of massachusetts' kids are insured. 90% of doctors in the state say the quality of care has improved since the reform law went into effect and massachusetts residents like it by a nearly 2-1 margin and even that poll was taken in the middle of the republican presidential primary when candidates were talking about how awful the massachusetts plan is because it's the same as what president obama did for the country, so even with a national political campaign where everybody's slagging off the massachusetts' health plan, a, it works, and, b, massachusetts likes it. here's the thing, though, the most important political thing about health reform at the national level is this difference in this chart. within a year of this law being signed in massachusetts, it was going into effect, within a year, the major reforms were taking plac

so what's the massachusetts' republican party to do? how can they replace these ron paul revolution no-good-nicks with real republicans? two words -- loyalty oaths. for the first time ever, they distributed affidavits demands that they swear under penalty of perjury that they would support mitt romney's presidential nomination. take that, ron paul supporters! sure enough, the tactic worked. some of these delegates were so horrified at what the state party was asking them to do that they said no. and that was how the state republican party cut some of the ron paul folks out of the state delegation, by using a pledge of allegiance to mitt romney. according to the "boston globe," but no time like the present, right? yeah, so you young people who decided to get engaged in public affairs for the first time, you may have gone through the legitimate process and worked hard and got the votes and earned a slot on your state's delegation convention, but you weren't what the party had in mind. so loyalty oath. pledge allegiance to the dear leader o

same thing with-- >> and even though the national economy wasn't in recession, he did-- >> the massachusettsconomy was in good shape and unemployment peaking after romney in office and after that it came down and he ended up with lower overall job gains and the contrast is not good with president obama. president obama comes in 7.8% and now 8.2, oops. >> paul: what about the spending record. we've been critical of mitt romney on the health care plan precursor to the obama care, i think undisputable fact that's true, increased spending in massachusetts since he left. is the overall romney spending better than obama's? >> when you look at the state spending, they're obliged to balance an operating budget. that was balanced. and still if you compare that to obama. it's ridiculous. i think the increase for mitt romney was something like 6.7%, which is completely in line with governors in massachusetts. the increase for the obama administration is 134%. so, it's not -- what i find amazing about this, the more you talk about mitt romney's record and, you know, that the -- the desire to look back,

what is the massachusetts republican going to do? ese revolution with real republicans? two words, loyalty oaths. for the first time ever, they demanded that they swear under penalty of perjury that they would support mitt romney's presidential nomination. take that ron pohl supporters. sure enough, the tactic worked. some were so horrified of what they were asking them to do that they said no, and that was how they cut some of the ron paul phillips, by using a pledge of louis legions. according to "the boston globe," they never mention the rules and have never been required of delegates in the past. no time like the present, right? you young people that decided to get engaged in public affairs for the first time, you may have gone and worked hard, and what you were not what the party had in mind. sole loyalty oath, pledge allegiance to your door -- dear leader were moved out of a way for those who will. that's inspiring, right? shut the front door. right? woop-woop! franklin delano! [ male announcer ] hey! there's oreo creme under th

the country was growing jobs. he created one job in massachusetts. now at this point in his term, 40 months into his term, he created about 4,000 jobs. at this point in the president's term, massachusetts has created five times that amount in massachusetts. the reason the unemployment went down, in part, in massachusetts, is because a quarter of a million left that state. >> i like an opportunity to respond to the political attack and that is the magic number, here, george, 4.7%. that was the level of unemployment achieved by governor romney during his term in office in massachusetts. that's close to full employment. that meant, anyone who wanted a job had a pretty good chance of finding win. i have no doubt that president romney would happily trade his 8.2% rate for 4. .7%. >> it shows why america works as a currency union while europe doesn't. massachusetts had a terrible bust at the end of the '80s and the unemployment rate eventually came way down and no recovery in jobs. because people left. i don't think a president of the united states can solv

in the past six years, 439,000 massachusetts residents who didn't have health insurance got it, many vernment subsidies to buy it. the state went from 90% insured to 98%, the highest rate in the nation. school program director andrew herlihy enrolled inaise subsidized plan that costs $272 a month. >> i was always that guy who could dunk and was invincible, never got hurt in my life. >> reporter: until he blew out his knee playing basketball. the operation he needed cost $30,000, a cost he was spared because of insurance. >> worth its weight in gold, worth every pen tow me. >> reporter: the penalty for not enrolling can range from $19 a month to $105, depending on income. in massachusetts there is not just an individual mandate to buy insurance. there is also an employer mandate to provide it. almost 80% of employerses do. bakery owner george montillio is among those who don't. >> if we had to put health insurance into our company, that would totally make us unprofitable. >> reporter: with 30 full-time employees it would cost him $300,000 a year. instead, he chooses to pay an annual fi

david axelrod made the point about massachusetts' jobs record. >> the story about massachusetts under governor romney. it fell to 47th in jobs creation. he left his successor with debt and a deficit and manufacturing jobs left that state at twice the rate than the rest of the country. there was a reason for this -- the governor didn't have a plan to get the economy moving again. the country was growing jobs. now at this point in his term, 40 months into his term, he created about 4,000 jobs. at this point in the president's term, massachusetts has created five times that amount in massachusetts. the reason up unemployment went down in massachusetts, is because a quarter of a million left that state. >> i like an opportunity to respond to the political attack and that is the magic number, here, george, 4.7%. that was the level of unemployment achieved by governor romney during his term in office in massachusetts. anyone who wanted a job had a pretty good chance of finding win. i have no doubt that president romney would happily trade his 8.2% for his 4 .7% rate. >> it shows why america

governor romney supported the mandate in massachusetts. it's law now. what do you think the supreme court should say? >> he said i believe this week that the supreme court should make the right decision on this, that the individual mandate on a federal level is outside the bounds of the commerce clause and not something that the federal government should be allowed to. do so he hopes that the supreme court rules it unconstitutional, as do i. and i think that's the way they're going to go. we don't know for sure. we'll see. either way, the obama health care law is problematic and needs to be repealed. governor romney has promised to do so. >> let me make sure i have this right -- you think the law gives too much power to the federal government, but states should have the right to do what they like even if it means requiring team buy insurance? >> i'm not in favor of that approach necessarily. but i think that we do have a constitutional -- the constitution determines what the federal government is allowed to do. and the question before the supreme court i

the folks at massachusetts are not the same as the folks at maryland. >> breast cancer in massachusettss the same as massachusetts in maryland >> yes. that's true. but insurance programs, costs, all of those things are different, thomas. they are not the same. the cost of living, the cost of health insurance in south carolina is not the same as the cost in the northeast part of the country. so every governor looks at these situations and these economies within the context of their own environment and contrary to what the chairman just said, what thç government gives, the government will take away with all of the tax hikes that got the $3,000 tax cut will be spending a whole lot more in health care costs as you look at paying for the cost of medicaid increase, the .9% that will go up, et cetera. and governors look at this based on their own communities. >> governor, mitt romney has seen a flood of donations, over $4 million so far. 43,000 coming online. he's promising this full repeal but do you think he really can repeal if easy elected? >> thomas, this is the situation. the republicans

>> as you know the president himself now says massachusetts was basically the model for the affordable care act. i mean, you know, i'm not sure exactly if you can parce out what governor romney was trying to say but is this really fundamentally just a states right issue versus a federal issue? because i think for the average citizen they're going to say is that really that big of a difference? >> it's much more than that, sanjay. you said it right there. president obama said basically the same. the devil is in the details. they have some things they call similar to the massachusetts plan but there are so many huge differences and so many ways that president romney would not want to go in pursuing a federal approach to health care and ways that are different from the obama health care law. it raises taxes on innovators and medical devices. the obama health care law cuts medicare so there are a whole bunch of differences. >> let me bring up something else. governor romney has this standard speech line he has given a few times now specifically about the affordable care act. and it's about

>> alabama had a lower unemployment rate than massachusetts and they had the whole hurricane katrina crisis and still had a lower unemployment rate than massachusetts. >> we can talk about massachusetts and inheriting the bush economy. if people don't see a vision for the future for them and they will decide between romney or president obama, who is going to get us there. right now they don't have a lot of faith in what's happened in the last few years. >> has romney cast enough bright ideas or just focusing too much on commenting on what the president has. does he have ideas? >> has to come up and show his proposals. at the end of the day in politics, if you could make it a referendum on an incumbent, that's what the american also buy-in on. >> his proposals are basically the same proposals george w. bush offered. if we're offered a choice about the past and present, tax consultants fcuts for the wealthy, continue the foreign policy of the bush administration, no new investments in teachers. >> continue foreign policy as president obama. >> what do you have, you have the bush policy

the obama re-election campaign made today massachusetts day on the campaign trail. it began this morning when the obama campaign released this ad. >> we're going to have a stronger economy because i'm going to be governor. i have experience in the private sector i know how jobs are created and lost. >> i'll work tirelessly as governor to bring more good jobs to massachusetts. i know how to solve a budget problem. >> i stand very clearly for lowering the taxes. >> there are times when i watch mitt romney saying the sack same things now that he said here in massachusetts in 2002 in a robotic way that is completely hollow. it doesn't work here so i'm not quite sure why he thinks it'll work nationally. >> the obama campaign senior strategist david axelrod then set up a microphone in front of the massachusetts statehouse at the top of beacon hill, massachusetts lawmakers told stories about serving there under governor mitt romney. >> he never wanted to look for new jobs. he was always only looking for his next job. >> massachusetts under obama has had the kind of economi

still to come up, adding up the costs of the massachusetts healthcare law. >> glor: with the supreme court ruling on the obama healthcare plan expected as soon as tomorrow, new poll out tonight finds 61 percent oppose the individual mandate while a majority support many specific provisions of the law. another poll in massachusetts which has had a mandate for six years now finds two-thirds say they support the state's healthcare law however funding that plan remains a challenge. >> massachusetts once again is taking a giant leap forward. >> mitt romney's mandate in massachusetts that everyone, acquire health insurance was signed only nine months before he left office. so its fallen to his successor deval patrick to implement the law. >> i was skeptical of it when i first heard about it, but basic insurance idea that you get everybody in and you spread the risk widely so you keep the costs down for everybody, very, very smart. >> since the reform overall healthcare risen from 36 to 43 percent of the state budget, and massachusetts spends more per person on healthcare than any other sta

it web on to say we're happy to compare the 4.7% unemployment rate mitt romney achieved in massachusetts to president obama's weak record any day. michael, would the president be better served to look ahead to the future in his own policies rather than focus on romney's record? or is now the time? focus on that record in massachusetts and compare and contrast. >> i think politically speaking the obama campaign is trying to define mitt romney. we presuppose that had because there were all those debates and romney has captured the gop nomination, that the country has a fixed view of him. that's not the case and there are still a lot of minds that have yet to be made up relative to governor romney's record. i think they're trying to show that his businessman's credentials did not translate into job growth while he was the chief executive in massachusetts. >> david axelrod held a conference call and talked about this new ad. here's what he had to say. >> almost every measure, governor romney's jobs record in massachusetts was undistinguished and yet he positions himself as a job creator. >>

he got asked how the plan in massachusetts he worked on ended up being such a boog gi man. s response? this is to my mind the most blat ently obvious case of politics trumping policy i've ever seen in night life. this is an idea four or five years ago republicans are touting. a guy spoke at the bill signing in massachusetts about how good the bill was, romney's attempt to distinguish between obama's bill and his own is disingenuous. the problem is there is no way to say that because they are the same fing big. he can't have his cake and eat it too, it's the same bill. he can try to draw distinctions and stuff but he's just lying. how do you base your whole campaign for president on being against something that you did? it would be like john mccain running for president saying he was against his ownç immigrati plan. oh, wait -- in any case, the perfect disstillation is in the problem the surrogates are having, bobby jindal talking about obamney care. and you have marco rub rubio. this is perfection. >> he supported it at a state level, if he didn't like it in massachusetts,

the school is in massachusetts called the judge rotenberg center. they claim that electric shocks and other forms of what they call aversive therapies are the only way to control some students who are a danger to themselves and others. recently outrage over the school exploded when the public for the first time saw video of a student being repeatedly shocked. his name is andre mccollins. the video showed him being shocked 31 times over the course of seven hours. it is difficult to watch. this was in 2002. mccollins was 18. he's no longer at this center. the video is part of a trial. those disturbing images also caught the attention of the u.n. central raptor juan mendez. he told a paper, the use of electricity on anyone's body raises the question of whether this is therapeutic or whether it is suffering tantamount to torture in violation of international law. he's looking for answers from the department of justice who launched this investigation two years ago. we asked the justice department for an update on the investigation, they told us it's ongo

the president's record. you have been dispatched to go after romney's record in massachusetts. the unemployment rate dropped while he was governor but he was 47th in job creation. not good enough? >> no executive in government can do their job without the partnership of a legislature. the president needs that partnership here. the president has bucked the trend. he has turned job losses into job gains. no one including the president believes these job gains are coming fast enough but it is clear he bucked the train as opposed to mitt romney who drove the train. doesn't mean he was a failure as a governor. we were out of recession when he came to power and he trailed the country. >> can i just -- help me understand the logic here. there was a recession. massachusetts came out of that with anemic job creation. the unemployment rate did fall. you are saying in president obama's case that that is his calling card that that is a success. >> in point of fact when governor romney was governor of massachusetts incomes were declining in massachusetts while they were increasing across the

on the steps of the massachusetts statehouse yesterday, obama adviser david axelrod argued that romney's experience in the governor's mansion does not bode well for presidency. >> it's not a prescription for leadership as we saw in massachusetts. he tried to bring those same principles to massachusetts and the middle class suffered this state lagged far beyond the rest of the country in job creation. incomes declined. that is what happens when you try and translate those values and those principles into the governance of a state or a country. >> and you might have heard it in the background. axelrod's remarks drowned out by a number of romney supporters there in massachusetts who were chanting throughout the event. later in the day, mr. romney came to the defense of the hecklers. >> most of the events i go to or many of the events i go to there are large groups of if you will, obama supporters there heckling me. and at some point you say, you know what? sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. if they're going to be heckling us, we're not going to sit back and play by very different

investments in the solar energy company cylinder turns out there romney did the exact same thing as governor of massachusetts much longer can mr romney avoid his record as governor and i talked a lot on the show about how republicans need to lie in order to win an election but they have a second go to strategy to tell you what it is and how we can stop it in tonight's deal you take. in the most of the rest of the news the paycheck fairness act which aims to reduce the wage gap between men and women who do the same work or pay differently is the latest piece of legislation under attack by house republicans as part of their war on women but as getting conservative in washington about this war they'll just brush it off and pretend it doesn't exist take a listen to what mitt romney's senior adviser eric fehrnstrom had to say this weekend. you're going to see the democrats use all sorts of shiny objects to distract people's attention from from the obama's formants on the economy this is not a huge social issue election george this is going to be according to latest polls that's far from the truth social issues ar

know who the real guy is well and in fact i'm still confused by his saying that he voted in the massachusetts election so just so you could vote against ted kennedy but at that time he was living in this mansion in california where he hired a lobbyist to build the to get the permit to build the elevator for his wife's second cadillac. how is it that this guy registers to vote in his son's unfinished basement massachusetts nobody's screaming about voter fraud but all these republicans are yelling about where's obama's person i don't get it i don't listen i don't get it either i really don't understand why this birth there is even an issue and i think they should i think mitt romney has personally himself repudiate what donald trump said about the president on top of. it why isn't romney's voter fraud issue it should be an issue it should definitely be an issue i think who's going to bring it up is a question i think the obama campaign is not going to go down that avenue and maybe they should i think they should talk about his for his record as massachusetts governor and on top of that how i se

given the relative size of massachusetts to the federal government, it was probably a bigger hit for them. seems like an awful lot of money to most people. i don't think either one were government at its finest hour in either instance. >> james, i think the solyndra thing was half a billion and in massachusetts we're talking about a million and a half. quite a difference in scale. nevertheless, one of the things we're seeing here is the obama campaign is determined to trip mitt romney coming right out of the gate. they want to define him negatively as an unacceptable republican. that's the focus of the campaign. they seem to be trying too hard. they're trying to force square pegs into round holes. the bain attack didn't work. now they have problems with this in that the loan was made by an independent before, etc. it was administrated by romney. but this is what happens when the guy with the 8% unemployment rate tries to attack the guy with the 4.7% unemployment rate for not doing as good a job. so this is the campaign that i think is off of a very rocky start. >> i thought massachus