Manufacturing is a tremendous part of our heritage as Americans and my heritage as a Pennsylvanian.  Raised in Butler, the heart of both steel country and manufacturing, I witnessed the decline of the manufacturing industry and the accompanying impact on struggling communities.  One of the contributing factors was the way that government headwinds made us uncompetitive against foreign competitors.  Thirty years later, the manufacturing sector across America has experienced substantial job loss and decline in output over the past decade, while our competitors like China are growing rapidly.   We still have one of the highest corporate tax rates in the developed world and overly burden industries with job killing regulations.  Over the past decade, the trade deficit with China eliminated 2.8 million jobs — 1.9 million of which were manufacturing jobs.    While some American manufacturers are prospering, the overall policies continue to undermine our international competitiveness

Under the Obama administration, American manufacturing has fallen further as Big Government policies, ObamaCare’s freedom offending mandates, and oppressive regulations make the job harder.  President Obama refuses to implement policies that will create a level playing field for American manufacturers to compete with China and bring American jobs back home.  He refuses to embrace free enterprise and manufacturing with anything other than rhetoric.  Instead, he has placed an additional burden on manufacturers that makes America a difficult place to competitively do business internationally.

The path to restoring America and opportunity for a wide swath of our citizens to its true greatness includes unleashing our domestic manufacturing potential, just as Pennsylvania is unleashing our domestic energy potential.   By reinvigorating this crucial sector of our economy, the multiplier effect on our entire economy will spur on economic and job growth not seen in three decades.  Rebuilding America’s manufacturing base will unleash new opportunities and expand opportunities and potential for hard working families.

In Pennsylvania alone more than 560,000 jobs are manufacturing related.  In addition, manufacturing compensation is just over 44 percent higher than other nonfarm employers in the state.  Nearly 15,000 businesses in Pennsylvania are manufacturing related.  Approximately 90 percent of these are small businesses, many of which are the backbone of their communities.

How can we build on this foundation and unleash the full potential of manufacturing in Pennsylvania and around the country?  We can achieve this with a simple concept that I’ve heard time and time again across America called “Made in America.”  The American people want and need “Made in America” not just for the pride of making things, but because Americans at the bottom of the income scale need the necessary skills, opportunities, and mobility that the manufacturing sector offers so they can support themselves and their families.  Across the country the average manufacturing job earns about $20,000 more than non-manufacturing jobs.  That means folks at the bottom end and the middle can move up that income scale, if we create a competitive playing field for American businesses.

Unlike President Obama, I have not raised taxes or pushed for taxpayer funded Big Government health care mandates like ObamaCare.  Instead, I have a concrete plan to reinvigorate manufacturing and make us competitive again.

My plan is to compete with China and others to win rather than to run in place or get further behind.  First, l will cut and simplify corporate tax rates by cutting them in half to 17.5% and eliminating them entirely for manufacturing activity.  America is 20% more costly than our top nine trading partners, and that’s excluding labor costs.  This policy will enable manufacturers to create jobs here in America, rather than outsourcing jobs to other parts of the world.   Second, I will eliminate the tax on profits repatriated back to the US when they are invested in US plants and equipment.  There is an estimated $1.2 trillion dollars sitting overseas which cannot be taxed.  We can use this money to put Americans to work.  Third, I will repeal every job-killing regulation the Obama administration has put in place that’s over $100 million.  The explosion of such regulations under President Obama has unnecessarily stifled America; we’ve gone from 21% of this country in manufacturing down to 9% and left the dreams of working men and women on the sideline.  President Obama has made it harder on manufacturing entrepreneurs like he has on all businesses through job killing regulations and higher energy prices.  Fourth, my “Made in America” plan is tied closely to a bold energy policy that unleashes America’s domestic energy production which will ensure lower energy costs, making it more cost effective for businesses to manufacture in America.

Revitalizing the manufacturing sector in America requires strong leadership and a strong record of support that President Obama lacks.  Unlike the President, I will not be soft on China, because I want America to compete with China and win.  While Senator of Pennsylvania, I voted to protect domestic manufacturers against illegal dumping from China.  As president, I will stand up to China on currency manipulation and confront the Chinese government when necessary when they are stealing American jobs unfairly.  I have a plan that will create manufacturing jobs right here in the United States and help us win the job creation race.  This is why the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association has endorsed me and my plan.

Having grown up in Pennsylvania and represented its citizens, I know that a stronger manufacturing sector will spur the innovation and economic growth that America desperately needs.  Manufacturing once served as the backbone of America, and with a strong and robust plan, it will once again become one of our greatest strengths and an engine of economic growth and opportunity for all.

What type of future do I want for my children and future grandchildren?  I do not wish for them a future with a financially unsustainable, cradle-to-grave dependency on the federal government. Rather, I wish for those I love so much a future where the federal government encourages and empowers success, personal responsibility, and financial independence.  I also want a future where state governments, or the federal government, can provide fiscally sound, dependable safety-net programs to protect our most vulnerable citizens from a life of poverty.  We have a choice – government dependency, or a dependable, fiscally-sound federal government.  We cannot have both.  I ask America to join me in the fight to end the ever-growing cycle of government dependency – for our children and grandchildren – the fight for freedom and opportunity.

Liberals have continuously expanded entitlement programs far beyond stability.  They have created generation after generation of citizens more and more dependent on the federal government.  This has resulted in greater power for the federal government.  We need to do what is necessary to keep these programs from collapsing under a mountain of deficit spending.  It is a choice between saving and strengthening these programs, or further weakening and destroying the safety net programs that provide security and poverty protection to those most in need.

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Of the many wounds to America’s economy over the past few years, the majority have been self-inflicted.  But that unfortunate reality notwithstanding, you can’t seriously examine our long-term national economic and jobs outlook, particularly regarding manufacturing, without addressing the China question.

I was tempted to say “the China threat,” and certainly that would be accurate on many levels.  But in the vast intersection of the world’s two largest economies, there are many opportunities as well.

As president, I would start the task of spurring economic growth – and the job creation that comes with it – by dramatically cutting America’s uncompetitive corporate tax rate in half for all companies (to 17.5%), and zeroing it out for Section 199 manufacturing activity.  Home-grown manufacturing in many ways is the foundation upon which the rest of our economy is built.  It is also the playing field that China has most successfully managed to tilt in its favor.

Their wages will probably always be lower than ours, and their environmental and social protections as well.  But that doesn’t mean we can’t work to pry open their markets and press them to play by the rules of international commerce and currency exchange.  And when they do, I believe we can compete head to head with them or anybody else.  The Chinese people work hard, there’s no doubt about that.  But so do we.

Of course, there’s more to this bilateral relationship than trade.  It certainly doesn’t help our position that we continue to create huge debt for the rest of the world to buy.  But I think our current straits are also a result of a refusal on our part to confront honestly the true nature of what remains a brutal, authoritarian and nationalistic regime.  What does China stand for?  Largely, it stands only for itself.

Our response must be more than just a corresponding selfishness.  It must be rooted in our values.  That’s a term that gets bandied about pretty loosely, so what exactly are America’s values in this context?

 1) Free enterprise.  That means globally competitive, pro-growth corporate and manufacturing tax policies.  It means eliminating stifling, job-killing regulatory behemoths like Obamacare as well as all of the other new rules the administration has dropped on the business community.  It is 20 percent more costly to do business in the U.S. than our top nine trading partners, and that’sexcluding labor costs.

I support a fairer, flatter tax code because the current system punishes individuals, small businesses, and corporations competing globally.  I will fight to simplify the tax code by moving from six to two rates and lowering personal income tax rates to 10 percent and 28 percent respectively and eliminating deductions other than those for charitable giving, home mortgage interest, health care, retirement savings, and children.  I will also eliminate the oppressive and unfair Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and death taxes, and cut capital gains taxes by 20% to spur further economic growth and investment.

The American people are the greatest innovators in the world – this alone makes us capable of competing economically with all countries.  To the extent that government plays a role in the economy, it should be to protect the freedom to allow this innovation to blossom naturally, instead of trying to “spread the wealth around.”  We’ve seen how well that has worked over the past three years:  One in six Americans is now in poverty, one in four kids on food stamps – the president’s vision of fairness reminds me of Churchill’s definition of socialism: “An equal distribution of misery.”

2) Education reform.  Another critical element for our manufacturing and economic success is relevant and quality educational options. The federal government now administers 47 different employment and job training programs at a cost to taxpayers of $18 billion.  I will fully block grant federal job training programs and most federal education programs to the states, giving states flexibility and resources, and strongly encouraging them – and their communities – to create quality vocational education options for students that are directly tied to what manufacturers and other businesses most need to compete.

We must dramatically reform our entire education system, returning decision-making to consumers and provide them with meaningful options that meet the needs of individual students and employers rather than governments or unions.  Barely half of the young people in our 50 largest cities graduate from high school on time.  While the solutions do not lie with the federal government, this should be unacceptable for all Americans who embrace expanded opportunity and are serious about expanding opportunity and addressing poverty.  It should also be unacceptable to those who want us to compete and win globally.

By 2018 it is estimated that only 37 percent of jobs will be open to workers with only a high school diploma, and they are not going to pay well.  Better education, better skills, and a better connection to job options for all of our students will help get us back on track.  Local business and education providers should be at the forefront of this strategy.

3) Peace through strength.  This is the opposite of President Obama’s “leading from behind,” which is such a pitiful expression of policy that it has made the French look bold by comparison on the global stage.

National defense is the number one constitutional priority of the federal government.  We don’t need to be cutting a trillion dollars from our defense and troops when the Chinese are moving in the opposite direction, adding large numbers of warships, submarines, fighter jets, and offensive missile capabilities that can knock out stealth aircraft and threaten our largest warships.

At the same time, it also means living within our means.  President Obama has created record budget deficits by spending 40% more money than we actually have.  We need to cut $5 trillion in federal spending over five years, balance the budget and pass a Balanced Budget Amendment capping federal spending at 18% of GDP to reduce government and so we don’t ever get in this mess again.

We must also unleash our domestic energy resources instead of trying to strangle their development.  My plan will create energy security that strengthens our national security and decreases reliance on unreliable and adversarial nations.  We need to expand domestic innovations and energy resources.  This includes oil, natural gas, clean coal, and nuclear energy.  As President, I will remove bans on drilling—both onshore and offshore—and will end federal energy subsidies, like those for Solyndra.  This will immediately increase expectations of future supply, thereby lowering prices.  It will create jobs and bring revenues to federal and state governments.

America is one of only a few nations in the world to put known large domestic supplies of oil and gas off-limits to exploration.  The result?  The Chinese, who generate less than one percent of their electricity from renewables, have purchased drilling leases from Cuba and will soon be drilling 45 miles off the coast of Florida while American workers sit on the bench and watch Chinese workers perform their jobs.

4) Standing up for liberty. When the Chinese government attempts to manipulate Internet service providers – even forcing them to provide information on domestic dissidents – it’s not just an economic issue.  It goes to the heart of the battle between freedom and tyranny.  We can’t leave these companies to simply fend for themselves in the face of this kind of oppression.  Likewise, we must stand with peaceful nations in southeast Asia, many of whom China has been attempting to intimidate by asserting ownership and control over the South China Sea.

In a nutshell, we must continue to stand for freedom and human rights, which  are hardly uniquely American values.  But they are at the core of our vision of a just society.  Certainly we help no one by relegating them to a distant second priority behind economic considerations.  Reticence on these issues does not convey the kind of strength and self-confidence that command respect in Southeast Asian cultures.  A robust human rights policy that is integral to our engagement with China will project confidence in our values that will reverberate through Burma, North Korea, Sudan, Iran and elsewhere.

We are on the right side of history, not just economically but on the value and dignity of all human life.  Ronald Reagan was able to walk and chew gum at the same time.  He stood with Soviet dissidents in prison even while he engaged and stared down to the Soviet Union.  We must likewise engage China economically while making clear that forced abortions through their one-child policy, religious repression and the torture and imprisonment of dissidents are simply not acceptable.

That might seem obvious or even pedantic, but it seems beyond the grasp of the current administration.  Just last summer, Vice President Biden went to China and announced that he would not “second guess” their one-child policy.  Not long before, President Obama held an elaborate official state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao – a tragic irony in which the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize hosted the man who was at that very moment imprisoning the winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize.

His name is Liu Xiaobo, and he is still in jail for no reason other than exercising his God-given right to speak freely.  As Americans, we believe not only in freedom of commerce but in foundational freedoms like religion and speech as well.  That is the subtext upon which we must engage China economically.  We are freedom people.

Rick Santorum, a former representative and senator from Pennsylvania, is a candidate for the Republican nomination for president.  

Two years ago, President Obama signed into law ObamaCare, his signature piece of  legislation.  As a direct result of that law’s unpopularity, Congressional Democrats suffered devastating defeats in the midterm election of 2010, losing more than sixty seats in the House.  It would be an understatement to say the President’s healthcare overhaul law is merely “unpopular.”  According to several recent polls, Americans still overwhelmingly oppose ObamaCare by a two-to-one margin.  Americans understand that not only is this the wrong solution to our healthcare needs and challenges, it is also an affront to freedom that makes our families’ health and country’s fiscal health more fragile.

The 2012 election should be an opportunity for Americans to elect a President committed to ObamaCare’s repeal and replacement with sound free-market competition.  But that is where this 2012 election has an unusual aspect.  The original architect of the Democrats’ unpopular healthcare law is himself also running for president on the GOP ticket.  Mitt Romney, one of the candidates in the race for the GOP nomination, authored and championed his own version of ObamaCare less than six years ago.

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Just when you thought Obamacare could get no worse, we learned this week that the fundamentally flawed and overreaching law will include a $1 abortion insurance payment surcharge.

That’s right. Obamacare now demands that Americans will directly pay for ending the life of an unborn child. So no matter if you oppose abortion on conscience grounds, as I do — and as Christians, Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and many others do — you will be forced to pay abortions under the new law. Whether you believe in the practice of abortion or not, your money will help someone get one.

How can that be? Because not only does it force faith-based hospitals and other social service providers and religious organizations to provide employees with health insurance that covers free birth control and sterilization procedures — including the morning-after pill — it forces them to also pay for abortions.

I firmly believe what is at issue here is a sacred principle of American life and one of the inalienable rights given by our Creator captured in the Declaration of Independence and written in stone by our Founders in the First Amendment: religious freedom.  Obamacare—whether through the abortion surcharge or the contraceptive mandate—violates the fundamental conscience rights of individuals and religious institutions. It represents a war on religion—one being waged by secular liberal elites who are willing to sacrifice basic liberties protected in the Constitution on the altar of the sexual revolution.

Obamacare also violates the law.  The Hyde amendment has long prohibited funding for abortion, as well as funding for insurance plans that include abortion. Federal law is clear: taxpayer dollars cannot subsidize abortion plans that include elective abortion. Under Obamacare, this new rule would do just that—even for late-term abortions. Once enrolled in the new health care program, pro-life Americans must cough up money to pay for someone else’s abortion. This is not “social justice.” It is a form of soft tyranny.

Indeed, severe penalties will be meted to institutions that do not comply with these regulations. Religious institutions — hospitals, schools, charities– that serve the poor and treat the sick will be forced to betray their basic religious tenets or else face millions of dollars in fines. The choice is clear: abandon your faith or go out of business. This is a radical assault upon Christians and faith-based organizations of all types.

But this goes beyond whether Americans are for or against abortion. Although the country may be divided on this issue, many are against their employers providing these services under health care. According to a recent New York Times/CBS poll, Americans strongly oppose Obamacare’s mandate and favor a broad exemption for religious groups and employers who do not want to pay for birth control drugs or drugs that may cause abortion.

President Obama and the liberal media have attempted to downplay the serious repercussions of these regulations by perpetuating numerous myths. The Obama administration would have the public believe that providing drugs for abortion is a necessary part of health care coverage. Abortion is not health care—in fact, it is the exact opposite. It is destroying the innocent life of an unborn child, as well as potentially harming the pregnant mother both physically and psychologically, as numerous studies have shown. Only rarely and tragically is it necessary to save the life of a mother.

Moreover, the cost of these drugs will not be “neutral” over the long-term, as Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has said. The cost of these drugs will be shifted to the religious employer in the form of higher premiums. This debunks the oft-quoted claim by HHS that these drugs will be free. They will not. For the Obama Administration as long as it costs someone else’s money, it is free.

But these rules are nothing new. My GOP rival, Mitt Romney, established a similar abortion surcharge under Romneycare while governor of Massachusetts. Under Romneycare, enrollees pay a $50 abortion co-pay, and in some instances there is no co-pay at all. Mr. Romney was a pro-choice governor; now he claims to be a pro-life presidential candidate. The reality is that Romneycare established the blueprint for Obamacare—including providing abortion coverage as part of universal health care.

Unlike both Governor Romney and President Obama, I have been consistent in standing for a culture of life. Throughout my time as a public servant both in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, I worked on over 25 different pieces of legislation defending life, limiting abortion, promoting adoption and protecting religious freedom.

In 2004, I supported a pro-life conscience clause within the Department of Health and Human Services that would protect the rights of pro-life doctors and nurses.  These are the very type of protections that President Obama has enthusiastically gutted.

I also successfully fought to end the gruesome and then-legal practice of partial-birth abortion by authoring the landmark Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. I actively defended President Ronald Reagan’s policy of not funding organizations overseas that promote or perform abortions. I co-sponsored and helped move legislation to make it a crime to transport a minor over state lines for an abortion in order to avoid state parental consent laws. I have also always opposed Planned Parenthood, while his family has donated to it and Romneycare embraced it.  Unlike Mr. Romney, I don’t just talk a good pro-life game. I have actually played it.

Obamacare is unconstitutional. It must be repealed—root and branch. Freedom of religion is the bedrock on which all other liberties are based. Our Founding Fathers understood this. They believed it was relatively easy to establish freedom in our Constitution; the harder task was to create an enduring system that withstood attacks on religious freedom. If we allow this health-care monstrosity to go unchallenged, we will be jeopardizing the freedoms our Founders worked so hard to ensure. Let us rally to make sure this does not happen. Let us stand with our Founders and with freedom.

Rick Santorum, a former representative and senator from Pennsylvania, is a candidate for the Republican nomination for president.

Mitt Romney highlights his business experience in the private sector but tries to hide his economic record in the public sector. He was a failed one-term Governor of Massachusetts, and by any objective measure, he would receive an F for his faulty fiscal stewardship there. Indeed, his economic record would not put him in the ring as a featherweight — let alone a lightweight — in any contest.

As heavyweight champ Joe Lewis once said, “He can run, but he can’t hide.”  And in Mitt Romney’s case, past performance really does indicate future results. Here’s a start.

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As President of the United States I would take an oath to defend the Constitution – the whole Constitution – and that includes the Second Amendment and the cherished “right of the people to keep and bear Arms.” Sadly, President Obama and his Administration have mocked, downplayed, and disregarded this right.

When I take office, I will restore our gun rights – in full.  I have been and always will be strongly committed to upholding this right that Americans rely on to defend themselves and their families, and for time-honored recreation like hunting and shooting sports.  I am a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association and I am proud to have earned an A+ rating from the NRA by working to protect Second Amendment rights in the Senate.  I will never distance myself from the NRA or from the millions of law-abiding, gun-owning American citizens represented by the NRA and other pro gun rights organizations.  Unlike President Obama, who mocks Americans for “clinging to their guns,” I applaud those who embrace their Second Amendment rights.

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There a lot of folks who want to make sure that President Obama gets voted out of office.  They are the same folks who want to see America vibrant again, with an economy that brings real prosperity to real people.  Let me tell you why I am the candidate who can defeat Obama, and grow the economy.

Mitt Romney is a creature of Wall Street who has shown repeatedly that he is removed from the concerns of normal Americans.  I am the guy who does his own taxes, and knows the economic pressures of raising a family on a tight budget.  Obama is going to wage a campaign of class warfare — who do you think will do better in that battle, him or me?

Mitt Romney has based his entire campaign on his ability to create jobs, but when he was Governor, his state ranked 47th out of 50 in job creation.  Every Republican knows that jobs are killed by regulations and taxes, but while he was governor, Romney increased both.  Who draws the bigger distinction with Obama —  him or me?

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I have traveled across this great country many times.  I have met countless Americans looking for jobs–real jobs, doing real work.  These Americans have lives to lead, families to feed, rent to pay, and gas tanks to fill. Their dreams are our dreams; their hopes are our hopes; their search for a better America is our search.

And yet in Washington, blocking the American dream has become political sport.  The Washington Establishment would rather fight global warming than fight for American jobs.

President Obama and his administration have decided to wage war against global warming and thus against the American worker. The Obama administration writes oppressive government rules and regulations that shut the factories and workplaces of American workers. Since January 2010, over 100 coal-fired plants have or are going to close. We are the collateral damage of the war against global warming.  His “just say no, no, no” to unleashing domestic energy sources energy “strategy” doesn’t help create jobs or lower energy costs for American families or businesses.  Those living on or near the Gulf Coast in particular know the impact these extreme environmental positions can have on the region’s economy.

In May 2010 the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office issued a report entitled “How Policies to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions Could Affect Employment.” The CBO report shows that emissions reduction programs would cause job losses in coal mining, oil and gas extraction, gas utilities, and petroleum refining.  It concluded that “job losses in the industries that shrink would lower employment more than job gains in other industries would increase employment, thereby raising the overall unemployment rate.”

My opponents for the GOP nomination, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, have supported the radical environmentalists’ measures to combat global warming at the expense of American jobs.

In his book No Apology, Mr. Romney wrote, “I believe that climate change is occurring. The reduction in size of global ice caps is hard to ignore. I also believe that human activity is a contributing factor.” Last year, Mr. Romney said he favored “reducing our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may well be significant contributors to the climate change and global warming.”

While governor, Mr. Romney supported restrictions on carbon emissions — especially, those targeting coal. He bragged that Massachusetts was “the first and only state to set CO2 emissions limits on power plants.”

Mr. Gingrich has also flip-flopped on this issue. He, too, was for emissions reductions before he was against it. The former House speaker once said that there is a “wealth of scientific data” of man-made global warming to warrant “urgent” government action.

Asked in a February 2007 PBS Frontline interview about President George W. Bush’s endorsement of mandatory carbon caps in his 2000 campaign, Mr. Gingrich said “there’s a package there that’s very, very good. And frankly, it’s something I would strongly support.” He also appeared in a 2008 television ad with then Democratic House SpeakerNancy Pelosi promoting the theory man-made climate change as fact.

That was then; this is now.

Romney and Gingrich have changed their views for one simple reason: to pander to Republican voters when the political heat is rising. They sought to ingratiate themselves with trendy liberal elites — despite lack of conclusive, verifiable scientific evidence. Their failure was not just intellectual, but moral. It showed weakness of character, inability to lead even when it’s not popular.

Global warming is the wrong war for America to fight.  While millions of Americans are suffering unemployment, their American dream is being blocked by the government rules Romney and Gingrich advocated.

Of all the GOP candidates, I am the only one who has not bowed, and will never bow, to this liberal orthodoxy.   I did not pander when global warming seemed cool to the press and to Hollywood.  We know that climate changes over time, that he earth warms and cools over time.  This debate is about whether human activity plays a role, and whether U.S. emissions cuts can have any effect when China and India refuse to go along. The apostles of this pseudo-religion believe that America and its people are the source of the earth’s temperature.  I do not.

I believe in conservation and good stewardship of our environment. It is our duty as Americans to combat industrial pollution and make sure our air and water are clean. But we can do that without hurting the American worker.  Like most Americans I treasure our natural beauty and national treasures, our national parks, and wildlife refuges.  I also appreciate the value of working the land, creating jobs, and strengthening opportunities for all American families.

In contrast, radical environmentalism has a blind devotion to the promotion of a radical agenda that ignores the interests and property rights of people.  Global warming became the litmus test of this movement.

I have a different view of America. There is a war worth fighting, and that is to restore the American dream and to stop those who think it is dispensable.  Left to the wisdom of individual Americans, our economy can and will prosper.  The role of our government is to allow individual Americans to live in liberty and pursue happiness, not to destroy our economy and everything we hold dear.

Rick Santorum, a former representative and senator from Pennsylvania, is a candidate for the Republican nomination for president.  

On Health Care, ObamaCare and RomneyCare Will Hurt Ohio Families

By Rick Santorum

Two years ago, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or as we all have come to know it – “ObamaCare.” ObamaCare is the trifecta of all that is wrong with this Administration: a massive tax bill, an unprecedented expansion of the federal government, and a combination of unaffordable entitlement programs that will burden the economy and stifle our ability to make personal decisions about our health.

ObamaCare hasn’t been fully implemented, but America has already caught a glimpse of how this law will harm our families.  Despite promises to the contrary, we know now that ObamaCare has led to price increases for Americans’ health-insurance premiums, and that medical device companies are making plans to send jobs overseas because of ObamaCare’s onerous taxes.

No one should be surprised at the broken promises of ObamaCare. The model for it is Mitt Romney’s RomneyCare which has already led to the same damaging results in Massachusetts.

First, we must repeal ObamaCare, period.

There are problems with America’s health-care system that need to be improved and reformed. But the reforms I want to implement must empower patients, reduce control government over individual choice and freedom, and strengthen the doctor-patient relationship.

The choice before Ohio voters is which presidential candidate can you trust to put forward policies that will constitute real health-care reform for Ohio families? Which candidate has a proven track record of advocating for patient-centered, health-care reform? The choice could not be clearer.

During my time in Congress, I fought to give patients control over their health-care dollars and health-care decisions. I have been an advocate for increased competition, which in-turn will lower costs.

Nearly twenty years ago, now-Ohio Governor John Kasich and I first authored what are now known as Health Savings Accounts – the free-market, patient-focused, consumer-driven alternative to government-run health care.

This is in sharp contrast with Mitt Romney, who does not have the vision, or record, to credibly push for the kind of health-care reforms necessary to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

When Mitt Romney was Governor of Massachusetts, he championed RomneyCare, the top-down government takeover of health care as the model for the country – going on talk shows and even writing opinion editorials about the importance of an individual mandate.  In fact, Romney’s own staff admits RomneyCare served as the template, and political cover, for President Obama’s national takeover of health care.

John McDonough, a senior health-care advisor to both Governor Romney and President Obama, was deeply involved in the design, passage, and implementation of both RomneyCare and ObamaCare.

As McDonough has pointed out, there are at least 15 key parallels between RomneyCare and ObamaCare.

Here are a few of the most offensive parts which undermine freedom and grow government.

Above all, they both act as an individual government mandate which forces citizens to buy insurance, dictates what type of insurance must be purchased, punishes small business that want to create jobs, and dumps significant numbers of people into an already-broken Medicaid program.

RomneyCare has dramatically increased the cost of health-insurance premiums in Massachusetts.  As a direct consequence of RomneyCare’s meddling in the private health-insurance market, health-care costs in Massachusetts have risen more sharply than anywhere else in the country. Per capita health-care spending in Massachusetts is 27 percent higher than the national average and the highest in the nation. Overall health-care costs in the state continue to rise at an average rate of 8 percent annually.

Mitt Romney’s job-creation record as Governor was 47^th in the nation.  He would like Ohio voters to believe that he has a stellar business record that makes him qualified to be President.

Yet the truth is that his policies have imposed huge burdens on small businesses in his home state and would undoubtedly have the same effect on businesses in Ohio.  He was given a D on a fiscal report card of Governors by the CATO Institute.

It is through RomneyCare in Massachusetts, that we see what awaits Ohio through ObamaCare.  We must stop the same damaging results of ObamaCare before they are felt across America.   I will.

Rick Santorum, a former representative and senator from Pennsylvania, is a candidate for the Republican nomination for president.