Posted on 12/01/2010 8:20:04 AM PST by SeekAndFind
They haven’t even finished counting 2010 midterm ballots (New York’s 1st congressional district is still undecided), but already potential Republican candidates are testing the presidential waters for 2012. Among the early frontrunners will be former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
Romney will have several powerful advantages: name recognition, plenty of money, a strong organization left over from 2008, and a reputation for business competence during an election in which economic issues and job creation are likely to dominate. But he will also have one enormous albatross hanging around his neck: the Massachusetts health-care program.
One of the clearest lessons of the 2010 elections was that voters remain strongly opposed to President Obama’s health-care reform. And if voters in general dislike Obamacare, Republican voters positively loathe it. According to the most recent Rasmussen survey, voters overall support repealing Obamacare by a margin of 58–37. Among Republicans, 84 percent favor repeal.
Romney’s problem is that, despite his demurrals, the parallels between Obamacare and his 2006 Massachusetts reform plan are striking. Both plans are built around an individual mandate requiring citizens to purchase a government-designed insurance plan. Both plans dramatically increase government subsidies and Medicaid eligibility. Both plans use an exchange to redesign the individual and small-group insurance markets, creating a “managed competition” model for insurance. And both Massachusetts and Obamacare prohibit insurers from managing risk, shifting costs from older and sicker individuals to the young and healthy. Neither Obamacare nor Romneycare includes any substantial cost-containment mechanism.
Romneycare has proven to be a disaster in Massachusetts, providing a clear vision of the future under Obamacare. The number of uninsured has been reduced — at great cost — but the program has failed to achieve the promise of universal coverage. The subsidies and other costs have proven an enormous burden for the state budget. Insurance premiums have continued to rise, leading Massachusetts to attempt to impose premium caps and even a global budget. Insurers are losing money and threatening to pull out of the state.
It isn’t very hard to imagine his primary opponents preparing their 30-second attack ads.
Already, Tea Party activists are raising alarms. Romneycare is “something he’s going to have to explain,” warns Christen Varley, president of the Greater Boston Tea Party, “and it might just be a disaster for him.” Plymouth Rock Tea Party founder Lisa Martin says her distaste for Romneycare has forced her to consider other potential candidates, such as Sarah Palin. And presaging national discontent, Tea Party Express president Amy Kremer told the Christian Broadcasting Network that Romney’s Massachusetts health-care reform will “absolutely not pass muster with members.”
Romney has taken to making three arguments in his defense. First, he criticizes Obamacare for its $669 billion in tax increases, claiming that the Massachusetts plan did not increase taxes. That is technically true — if you consider only the legislation as Romney signed it. However, it is also true that the legislation relied heavily on federal subsidies — more than $300 million — and was still underfunded. Romney’s successor was forced both to cut back on some benefits that the plan originally offered and to raise the state’s cigarette tax by $1 per pack ($154 million annually) to help pay for the program. The state also imposed approximately $89 million in fees and assessments on health-care providers and insurers.
Second, Romney correctly points out that he used his line-item veto to challenge several objectionable provisions of the bill, including its employer mandate, but had his vetoes overridden by the Democratic-controlled legislature. To some degree those vetoes were an exercise in political theater, since the override was always a given. In the end, Romney signed the bill itself, even knowing that the objectionable provisions would be put back in. And he continues to support some of the plan’s worst aspects, notably the individual mandate.
Finally, Romney criticizes Obamacare as a “one size fits all” federal plan, whereas his plan was implemented in only one state. That’s true. Governor Romney only messed up the health-care system in Massachusetts, while President Obama has messed up health care for the entire country. Of course, as governor, Romney didn’t have the power to impose his model outside of his state. He now says that he opposes any national plan, calling for states to experiment with different approaches as the “laboratories of democracy.” That would certainly be an improvement over Obamacare. On the other hand, he has repeatedly said that he sees the Massachusetts plan as a model for the nation and has urged other states to copy his approach.
Other than the defenses above, Romney has so far been surprisingly stubborn, refusing to back down from his backing of the Massachusetts plan, calling it “a conservative plan.” In March, he told Fox News, “I think our plan is working well. And perhaps the best thing I can say about it is that it is saving lives. It is the ultimate pro-life effort, if you will, because people who otherwise could have lost their lives are now able to get the kind of care that they deserve.”
As a candidate who has been accused in the past of switching positions in order to curry political favor, Romney may have no choice but to stick with this one. But it is not going to make his road to the White House any easier.
– Michael Tanner is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and author of Leviathan on the Right: How Big-Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution.
So ... the GOP is basically asking Romney to change his position on his RomneyCare and...
EVERYTHING IS FORGIVEN AND ROMNEY BECOMES SO SMOOTH FOR PRESIDENT AGAIN?
Are they mad?
If Romney had said it was a mistake and it didn’t work, I could see forgiving him - after all good people do make bad policy every now and then. But what’s inexcusable is he defends RomneyCare after it increased costs and made health care worse in his home state. Its not principled to defend a bad policy and its even worse politics as well. I don’t think Romney gets the mood among conservatives and in the country.
RE: I don’t think Romney gets the mood among conservatives and in the country.
And that in a nutshell, is the problem with a lot of Democrats and RINO’s.
If you make a mistake owe up to it, yes. But Romney won’t do that and is digging a big hole. He didn’t have to go there but there’s no way RomneyCare will fly with conservatives. I don’t see how he’s going to get out of that one.
already potential Republican candidates are testing the presidential waters for 2012. Among the early frontrunners will be former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
HUH? did any RINOs get elected in the past election? Was the Republican Party not listen to what the voters said with their ballots? NO MORE RINOS! I am n ot going to cast another ballot while holding my nose and then going home to take a shower! Yes if you (Repubican party) want Obama or whoevet the Dems run winning, then so be it. You either learned the lesson in 2010 or you are going to learn in in 2012!
See tagline.
No RINOs.
His being a Mormon disqualifies him in the Bible belt as President.
Obamacare is communism.
NO NO NO NO NO!
It’s him being a Massachusetts Moron that disqualifies him. After all, would an intelligent person puts a gun to his own head and pull the trigger making himself a member of the walking dead zombie corps?
Mitt blew up his chance for the presidency with his own hand using that idiotic Romneycare. Obama used it as a model to build Obamacare. It’s a serious drain on Massachusetts. Why doesn’t Mitt just admit it doesn’t work? He still thinks it’s a good “conservative” idea. Just listen to him.
According to Mitt it’s “a conservative plan.”
And, “It is the ultimate pro life effort...” Really Mitt?
What is truly galling about that statement is that Romneycare provides the people of Massachusetts with $50.00 abortions. So his “ultimate pro-life” program is murdering innocent unborn children at cut rate prices; truly a pro-life statement. That multiple faced liar would not know the truth if it crawled down his throat.
Federalism, shmederalism. The bottom line is that romneycare has an individual mandate that is against the rights of the people.
One of the dirty little secrets of "ObamaCare" is that both Democrats and Republicans are in full support of it -- though perhaps for different reasons. This is why there will be NO repeal of it (except perhaps for some minor changes) no matter which party controls Congress and/or the White House.
He's as much of a Mormon as he is a red snapper.
Mormons don't believe in baby murder (abortion on demand). Mitt does.
Mormons don't believe in faggot "marriage". Mitt does.
Fortunately most of my "Bible Belt" neighbors aren't so bigoted agaist Mormons. They can find plenty of other reasons to disqualify the Mitt.
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