Mitt vs. The Mayor
Clear policy differences emerge between the leading Republican candidates.
June 13, 2007 — -- Now that Rudy Giuliani, the national poll leader, has joined Mitt Romney, the leader of key state polls, in releasing a point-by-point sketch of where he wants to lead the country, differences of emphasis are discernible between the two Republican presidential candidates on issues ranging from education to immigration to the war on terror.
On education, Romney's plan, which was released in 2006, is silent on school choice, preferring instead to focus on "raising the bar on education" by "making teaching a true profession, measuring progress, providing a focus on math and science, and involving parents from the beginning of a child's school career."
Giuliani's plan, which was released Tuesday in New Hampshire, embraces "real school choice" as a strategy for improving education. Giuliani views the public education system as a "monopoly" and he regrets not pushing harder on school choice as mayor. Though he did not detail how his education proposal would work, his staff confirmed that his ultimate goal is to bring the option of private or parochial school within the reach of more families.
On immigration, both the former Massachusetts governor and the former New York mayor call for securing the border and cracking down on illegal immigration. But while Romney's plan focuses on tackling the problem at the point of employment through a "biometrically-enabled and tamper-proof documentation and employment-verification system," Giuliani backs a farther-reaching proposal: he wants the federal government to "identify every non-citizen" in the country and to enter their names into a single national database. The purpose of this proposal is to uncover all non-citizens working in the underground economy who might be engaged in things such as drug dealing, human trafficking, or plotting a terrorist attack.
Another immigration split between the candidates pertains to Romney's explicit call for expanding the number of legal immigrants allowed into the United States. Giuliani's plan remains silent on this front.
