Politics & Government

Huntsman Champions Healthcare, Education Reform

Portsmouth voters grill Republican Presidential hopeful on those issues during event at city law firm Wednesday night.

If Jon Huntsman needed to be reminded that healthcare reform is still a major issue for many New Hampshire voters, they refreshed his memory Wednesday night in Portsmouth.

The former Utah governor had just finished telling nearly 100 Portsmouth area voters that, if elected President, he would repeal Obamacare when several voters pressed him on how he would effect meaningful healthcare reform.

When Huntsman said Obamacare is not scheduled to go into effect until 2014, Kaitlyn Dowling of Rollinsford spoke up, "It is affecting me right now."

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Dowling and several other voters wanted to know how Huntsman would create affordable healthcare reform if he did get rid of the national Healthcare Reform Act.

"What we need is an expanded healthcare marketplace, and we're not there yet," Huntsman said.

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He reemphasized his plan that he would meet with the 50 states' governors and let them craft the best solutions that would work for each of their states. While he governor of Utah, Huntsman said they created a "bare bones" compulsory health care plan that allowed everyone to obtain basic coverage where there was none before.

Huntsman met with Portsmouth area voters at the law firm of Coughlin, Rainboth, Murphy and Lown. The most recent Rasmussen Poll shows that Huntsman recently inched up in the New Hampshire polls to obtain 11 percent behind Texas Congressman Ron Paul (14 percent), Newt Gingrich (24 percent) and frontrunner Mitt Romney (34 percent).

Annie DeCossy of Portsmouth, a small business owner, asked Huntsman where he thought the best opportunities lie in education reform that would strengthen the country and the economy.

Huntsman replied that, if elected President, he would make it a priority to shore up vocational programs and job training programs as well as early childhood education. He also said he would be supportive of charter schools. By providing families with more educational options, Huntsman said each child could discover his or her "innate genius."

When Attorney Tim Coughlin introduced Huntsman, he pointed out the last three Presidents finished second in the New Hampshire Primary and that Huntsman has a great chance to achieve similar results.

Huntsman said he also likes his chances to do well in New Hampshire when voters go to the polls on Jan. 10, 2012.

"We have days remaining in this primary and we are moving up into the double digits," Huntsman said.


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