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Mitt Romney the healthcare 10ther -- will Republicans buy it?
The Los Angeles Times ^ | April 8, 2010 | Paul Thornton

Posted on 04/08/2010 8:07:54 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Mitt Romney has much explaining to do about his on-the-record support for liberal causes -- affirmative action and legalized abortion, just to name two -- if he hopes to fend off any conservative insurgency on his way to facing President Obama in the 2012 general election. From that standpoint, the darkest blemish on his record will no doubt be the healthcare reform bill he signed into law in 2006 while governor of Massachusetts, a program similar to Obamacare in that it levies tax penalties on those who willfully go uninsured, among other things

So how might Romney defend his record without coming across as a shameless political opportunist? Andrew Cline, editorial page editor of the New Hampshire Union Leader, offers a hint (via Politico's Ben Smith):

In a scheduled interview this morning, I asked Romney if Obama’s individual mandate [was] unconstitutional in ordering individuals to purchase a commodity.

"I'm not enough of a judge," he said. "I think it's unconstitutional on the 10th Amendment front."

He said he could not characterize every provision of the bill as unconstitutional because Washington might well have the authority to do many things that are included in the 2,700-page bill. But taking as much control over healthcare as the bill does, particularly its mandate that individuals purchase health insurance, encroaches on powers reserved to the states, he said. As a result, the whole reform might collapse if challenged in court, and he thinks it should be challenged on 10th Amendment grounds.

Nice legal argument, if his only objective is to prove that a state governor’s power to mandate buying health insurance isn’t explicitly barred by the federal Constitution.(continued)

(Excerpt) Read more at opinion.latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 10thamendment; 2012; acorn4romney; aig4romney; backstabberromney; bigdigromney; deathcare; deathpanels; dnc4romney; du4romney; fakebadgeromney; fascistromney; flipflopromney; gaymarriagemitt; msm4romney; nothealthcare; obama; obama4romney; obamacare; phony; rino; romney; romneycare; romneydeathpanels; saboteurromney; socialisthealthcare; socializedmedicine; truthers4romney
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If they do, we're SOL.
1 posted on 04/08/2010 8:07:55 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
While Gov.Palin and America were working to stop ObamaCARE
where was the RINO backstabber-in-chief Mitt Romney?


ANSWER: Hiding, sending out his manipulators,
selling his ghostwritten book,
helping Gore push the fraud of climate change,
and actually (true to form) attacking the "tea party".



2 posted on 04/08/2010 8:13:03 PM PDT by Diogenesis ("Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." --Thomas Jefferson)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Paul Thornton might want to waste his time on Romney, but I don’t.


3 posted on 04/08/2010 8:13:05 PM PDT by onyx (Sarah/Michele 2012)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Placemark


4 posted on 04/08/2010 8:14:31 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Slick Willard’s signing of RomneyCare established the blueprint for Obama’s healthcare. Thank Mitt Romney for OBamaCare.


5 posted on 04/08/2010 8:15:24 PM PDT by yongin
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To: yongin
ObamaCare’s Future, In Massachusetts Today ”Supporters of ObamaCare often argue that the new health care law is a lot like
Massachusetts’ reforms. But that program increasingly is running into problems with
costs and Bay Staters are becoming craftier about gaming the system.
Health insurers have filed suit against the state insurance commissioner:
Nearly a week after Massachusetts regulators disapproved 235 of 274 rate increases filed
by health insurers, citing the rising cost of care, a group of six companies is suing the
state for a move it says will “likely cause greater costs and confusion.”


“Many Massachusetts residents now have insurance coverage but can't find a physician.
…56 percent of Massachusetts physicians in internal medicine aren't accepting new patients.
…new patients fortunate enough to secure an appointment with a primary care doctor have an average waiting time of 44 days! .”


“Cahill bashes (MA) state -- and national -- health care reform law
State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, an independent candidate for governor, today offered
a wide-ranging and scathing criticism of the state’s universal health care law, saying it is
bankrupting Massachusetts and will do the same nationally, if a similar plan is passed in
Congress.
"If President Obama and the Democrats repeat the mistake of the health insurance reform
here in Massachusetts on a national level, they will threaten to wipe out the American
economy within four years,” Cahill said in a press conference in his office.
Echoing criticism leveled by Congressional Republicans in recent weeks, Cahill said, “It
is time for the president, the Democratic leadership, to go back to the drawing board and
come up with a new plan that does not threaten to bankrupt this country.”


“In his defense, Romney admitted to Fox that about half of the real costs of “extending
coverage to the uninsured” (aka forcing young, healthy people to buy expensive
insurance they don’t need) is covered by federal tax dollars. In other words, as expensive
as it is, without federal subsidies it would cost even more.
So when there’s a federal Obamacare plan, who do we taxpayers turn to for our
subsidies? China? The United Nations? Mr. Spock and the United Federation of Planets?”



“Mr. Romney's subsidized coverage is meanwhile doing what entitlements do: crowding
out private insurers, compounding the cost explosion, walking the state toward rationing.
So long as the former governor clings to these central points of his health plan, he's on
the wrong side of free-market policy and public opinion.

This isn't going away for Mr. Romney either, which is why he'd do better by writing off
his own plan as a mistake that Democrats have made worse, and replacing it with a
proposal that deregulates and reforms the private market to lower insurance costs
(thereby achieving greater coverage).”


From CATO (the whole article is worthwhile): “Before RomneyCare was enacted, estimates of the number of uninsured in
Massachusetts ranged from 372,000 to 618,000. Under the new program, about 219,000
previously uninsured residents have signed up for insurance. Of these, 133,000 are
receiving subsidized coverage, proving once again that people are all too happy to accept
something “for free,” and let others pay the bill. That is in addition to 56,000 people who
have been signed up for Medicaid. The bigger the subsidy, the faster people are signing
up. Of the 133,000 people who have signed up for insurance since the plan was
implemented, slightly more than half have received totally free coverage.


“Health Care Speechwriter for Edwards, Obama & Clinton Now Without Health Insurance”
I'm a critic because what Washington is talking about doing
has made health insurance unaffordable in Massachusetts.



“Small businesses bridle at health insurance hikes (Romneycare strangles Mass. businesses)
some really bad news from Blue Cross-Blue Shield: His company’s health insurance rates are going up 47 percent in January.”


“ Rationing medicine has already begun
… government-
run health care has introduced rationing and waiting lists and cost the lives of the people under its provisions.”


“DEATH PANELS OPEN FOR BUSINESS IN MASSACHUSETTS”


“President Obama's newly confirmed regulatory czar defended the
possibility of removing organs from terminally ill patients without their permission.”


“You can’t reap these savings without limiting patients’ choices in some way," said Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess.”


“State plan may place limits on patients’ hospital options( Mass. RomneyCare )”


"Romney Visits Nebraska, Talks Health Care [where he defends Romneycare] “


"Paying the Health Tax in Massachusetts [Romneycare]
Massachusetts requires every resident to have health insurance, and this
year, without informing us directly, the state had changed the rules in a way that made
our bare-bones policy no longer acceptable. Unless we ponied up for a pricier policy we
neither need nor want—or enrolled in a government-sponsored insurance plan—we
would have to pay $1,000 each year to the state.
How did we become outlaws? “


"National Health Preview - The Massachusetts debacle, coming soon to your neighborhood."
It was only a matter of time.
They're trying to manage the huge costs of the subsidized middle-class insurance program that is gradually swallowing the state budget.
The program provides low- or no-cost coverage to about 165,000 residents, or three-fifths of the newly insured, and is budgeted at $880 million for 2010, a 7.3% single-year increase that is likely to be optimistic.
The state's overall costs on health programs have increased by 42% (!) since 2006."


A Very Sick Health Plan; Bay State’s ‘Grand Experiment’ Fails [RomneyCare]
"Initiated on Mr. Romney’s gubernatorial watch in 2006, this “experiment” has fallen on hard times, and predictably so. “


Health care in Massachusetts: a warning for America [Romney brings Mass. to its knees]
The Bay State's mandatory insurance law is raising costs, limiting access, and lowering care.

Three years ago, Massachusetts adopted a plan requiring all residents to purchase health
insurance, with state subsidies for lower-income residents. But rather than creating a
utopia of high-quality affordable healthcare, the result has been the exact opposite –
skyrocketing costs, worsened access, and lower quality care."


"‘Severe’ doc shortage seen hiking wait time
“The shortage is getting more severe”"


“Health costs to rise again.( RomneyCare )
The state’s major health insurers plan to raise premiums by about 10 percent next year,
prompting many employers to reduce benefits and shift additional costs to workers.”


“Nation’s ill-advised to follow Mass. plan [Health plan a failure]
September 17, 2009 The canary is dead.
Massachusetts, the model for the ObamaCare universal insurance plan, is the canary in
the health care coal mine. Yesterday, its obit appeared on the front page of both The Wall
Street Journal and The Boston Globe-Democrat “


"Bay State Insurance Premiums Highest in Country - Boston Globe August 22, 2009
Massachusetts has the most expensive family health insurance premiums in the country,
according to a new analysis that highlights the state’s challenge in trying to rein in medical costs
40 percent higher than in 2003. Over the same period, premiums nationwide rose an average of 33 percent..."


"Massachusetts: the laboratory for ObamaCare“


"Massachusetts' Obama-like reforms increase health costs, wait times [RomneyCare]
Premiums are growing 21 to 46 percent faster than the national average"


"Mass. Pushes Rationing to Control Universal Healthcare Costs (RomneyCare)
A 10-member Massachusetts state healthcare advisory board unanimously recommended
that the state begin rationing healthcare to keep the state’s marquee universal health care program afloat financially.


"1,000 cancer patients 'refused treatment'"


"Massachusetts Universal Healthcare System Breaking Down Already
ERs in Massachusetts have not seen a downturn in visits. On the contrary, it seems that ER visits are actually on the upswing in the Bay State. In fact, in 2007 they were higher than the national average by 20 percent...”


"Hospital patients 'left in agony'"


"National Health Preview - The Massachusetts debacle, coming soon to your neighborhood.
In Massachusetts's latest crisis,
They're trying to manage the huge costs of the subsidized middle-class insurance program that is gradually swallowing the state budget.
The program provides low- or no-cost coverage to about 165,000 residents, or three-fifths of the newly insured, and is budgeted at $880 million for 2010, a 7.3% single-year increase that is likely to be optimistic.
The state's overall costs on health programs have increased by 42% (!) since 2006
Mr. Romney should have known better before signing on to this not-so-grand experiment, especially since the state's "free market" reforms that he boasts about have proven to be irrelevant when not fictional.
Only 21,000 people have used the "connector" that was supposed to link individuals to private insurers."


A Very Sick Health Plan; Bay State’s ‘Grand Experiment’ Fails [RomneyCare]
… fiscal troubles aplenty within Repubican Mitt Romney’s brainchild, Massachusetts’ “grand experiment” in “universal” health care."
"Initiated on Mr. Romney’s gubernatorial watch in 2006, this “experiment” has fallen on hard times, and predictably so.
Even though the Bay State commenced its program with a far smaller percentage of uninsured residents than exists nationwide,
“RomneyCare” is threatening to bankrupt the state.“


"Dem Congresswoman Admits Obama Health Care Plan Will Destroy Private Health Insurance Industry"


6 posted on 04/08/2010 8:18:07 PM PDT by Diogenesis ("Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." --Thomas Jefferson)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"He said he could not characterize every provision of the bill as unconstitutional because Washington might well have the authority to do many things that are included in the 2,700-page bill."

Any provision of this bill is unconstitutionl since The Federal Government has absolutly no business sticking it's nose into it in the first place. End of story.

7 posted on 04/08/2010 8:20:40 PM PDT by blackbart.223 (I live in Northern Nevada. Reid doesn't represent me.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Mitt Romney the healthcare 10ther — will Republicans buy it?

NOPE


8 posted on 04/08/2010 8:25:15 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously... You'll never live through it.)
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To: Diogenesis

Romney’s last job was as a Fudge Packer?


9 posted on 04/08/2010 8:26:08 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously... You'll never live through it.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

As far as I’m concerned the darkest blemish on Romney is that he dropped out of the Primaries and supproted John McCain. In our caucus we voted for Romney over McCain. McCain threw the race. Romney could not have run a worse campaign than McCain. I think he sold us out to get McCain in the position to give us Obama.

Does that sound paranoid? OK! So be it. Mitt Romney played a role in getting Barack Obama into the White House. For that reason I wouldn’t pizz on him if he was on fire.


10 posted on 04/08/2010 8:28:47 PM PDT by SkipW
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To: Diogenesis

No. They are trying to set us up like they did with McCain by cramining this guy down our throat. A real conservative candidate is the best way to go.


11 posted on 04/08/2010 8:30:49 PM PDT by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Romney has tried to distance himself from the conservative movement while trying to attract it at the same time. He is as two-faced as they come.


12 posted on 04/08/2010 8:34:49 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (The US will not die with a whimper. It will die with thundering applause from the left.)
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To: Diogenesis
selling his ghostwritten book

Who might the ghostwriter be?

13 posted on 04/08/2010 8:36:58 PM PDT by cynwoody
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The passage of CommieCare spells the end of Romney as much as the killer paroled by Huckabee spelled Huckabee’s end


14 posted on 04/08/2010 8:37:00 PM PDT by Nateman (If liberals aren't screaming you're doing it wrong.)
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To: cynwoody

Bill Ayers?


15 posted on 04/08/2010 8:41:56 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/backroom/2312894/posts?page=242)
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To: SkipW
"As far as I’m concerned the darkest blemish on Romney is that he dropped out of the Primaries and supported John McCain."

That was Huckabee. And what is that guitar playing bullshit he does? We need some serious attention here.

16 posted on 04/08/2010 8:46:44 PM PDT by blackbart.223 (I live in Northern Nevada. Reid doesn't represent me.)
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To: blackbart.223

Huckabee played for FR in DC 5 years ago.
He did a good job.


17 posted on 04/08/2010 8:52:48 PM PDT by Diogenesis ("Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." --Thomas Jefferson)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Romney, Newt and Giuliani can have decent jobs in Palin’s first administration — but they do not get to make policy. They have forfeited first tier leadership roles through their idiotic liberal views on important conservative issues.


18 posted on 04/08/2010 8:55:53 PM PDT by PackerBoy (Just my opinion ....)
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To: Diogenesis
"Huckabee played for FR in DC 5 years ago. He did a good job."

Is that supposed to make me feel good about him? If it is I don't.

19 posted on 04/08/2010 9:02:29 PM PDT by blackbart.223 (I live in Northern Nevada. Reid doesn't represent me.)
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To: Diogenesis
Huckabee played for FR in DC 5 years ago.
He did a good job.

He may be a media star guitar player, but he's just as liberal as Romney. 

Serious times call for serious leadership, and neither the media whores in the GOP or Obama himself are willing and capable of rising to the occasion when it comes to serious leadership.

20 posted on 04/08/2010 9:15:31 PM PDT by BigSkyFreeper ("Ked Tennedy would have been plowed... I mean, proud today..." - Senator Max Baucus (Drunk-MT))
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