Skip to comments.
Mitt Romney: Instead of ObamaCare, I Would Require States Get Everyone Insured
The New American ^
| 05 November 2013
| Michael Tennant
Posted on 11/05/2013 8:46:08 PM PST by VitacoreVision
Mitt Romney told NBC News that if he'd been elected president, he would have replaced ObamaCare with a mandate that states guarantee that all their residents are insured.
Mitt Romney: Instead of ObamaCare, I Would Require States Get Everyone Insured
The New American
05 November 2013
Its official: If former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney had been elected president in 2012, ObamaCare would still be with us, albeit in slightly modified form. Last years Republican presidential nominee told NBCs David Gregory that as president, he too would have demanded that all Americans have health insurance; but unlike President Barack Obama, he would have ordered the states, rather than the federal government, to figure out how to make that happen.
Gregory began the November 3 edition of Meet the Press with a clip from a recent speech in which Obama praised Romney for doing the right thing on healthcare when he signed the 2006 legislation mandating that all Bay Staters have insurance. That law, of course, became the prototype for ObamaCare. In crafting the federal law, the Obama administration even consulted some of Romneys former advisors.
Gregory then asked Romney why he reject[ed] Obamas compliment a good question considering that while he was still running for president and ObamaCare hadnt begun visibly imploding, Romney said he took it as a compliment that Obama had called him the grandfather of ObamaCare. Today, with Healthcare.gov barely functioning, insurance rates skyrocketing, and insurance policies being canceled left and right, Romney wants nothing to do with his grandchild.
I think the president failed to learn the lessons that came from the experience of Massachusetts, Romney said. First of all, the Massachusetts experience was a state-run plan. The right way to deal with health care reform is not to have a one-size-fits-all plan thats imposed on all the states, but recognizing the differences between different states populations, states should be able to craft their own plans to get all their citizens insured, and to make sure that preexisting conditions are covered.
Romney also pointed out that Massachusetts phased in the requirements of its healthcare law over time to prevent major problems like the ones ObamaCare is experiencing, and he chastised Obama for telling Americans that they could keep their health insurance if they liked it. I think that fundamental dishonesty has really put in peril the whole foundation of his second term, he asserted.
Clearly, the fact that Obama was not forthright about his healthcare plans effects on peoples existing insurance policies was the main talking point Romney wanted to get across in this appearance. He kept returning to it every time Gregory tried to point out the similarities between Romneycare and ObamaCare.
Romney admitted that his healthcare law had cost many Bay State residents their insurance and suggested that Obama had to have known the same thing would happen under ObamaCare but kept it from the public as indeed he did. He also confessed that health insurance is more expensive in Massachusetts than anywhere else in the country and attributed that, at least in part, to Romneycare something he was loath to do prior to last November. And youre going to see, as a result of ObamaCare, premiums going up dramatically across the country, he added. That, too, is already occurring.
Despite all these negatives not to mention the fact that Romneycare has caused such high healthcare costs in Massachusetts that the state has imposed price controls on healthcare Romney still stands by his law as the right plan for Massachusetts, and possibly for the rest of the country. For all his paeans to federalism, Romney has long said the Massachusetts law should be a model for the nation.
In 2007, as Gregory reminded him by playing the tape of his appearance, Romney said, I think youre going to find, when its all said and done, after all these states that are laboratories of democracy get their chance to try their own plans, that those who follow the path that we pursued will find its the best path, and well end up with a nation thats taken a mandate approach.
You dont believe all the states should have adopted this, but you do believe that the entire nation should take a mandate approach, Gregory said. If it was good for Massachusetts, whats so wrong with taking it national?
The obvious answer, that a federal plan similar to Massachusetts is unconstitutional, did not escape Romneys lips, but he did again say that each state should be able ... to put in place the plan that works best for them.
This at least sounds like a man who understands that the federal government has no business dictating healthcare policy to the states. Based on his answer to a subsequent question, however, that is clearly not the case.
What would you have done? Gregory asked. Had you become president in my interview with you in the course of the campaign you said there were aspects of ObamaCare that you would want to keep, preexisting conditions, et cetera. What would you have done?
Well, Im not president so I cant be so clear minded as to tell you what I would have done, Romney replied. But my own plan was to say to each state, Youve got a requirement to move to a point where all your people are insured, and where you cover preexisting conditions. Were going to give you flexibility from the federal government level to help you be able to do so.
In other words, a President Romney would have sought to replace ObamaCare with ObamaCare Lite: a law enshrining the same faulty premises and mandates as ObamaCare with a thin veneer of federalism. This, of course, is no more constitutional than ObamaCare, and its effects would be roughly the same. After all, as Romney pointed out, ObamaCares failings are the same as those of Romneycare; and by requiring states to enact some variant of Romneycare, he would have ensured that those failings were replicated in each state just as surely as Obama has.
Anyone voting for Romney last year in hopes of ridding the country of ObamaCare got snookered.
TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: asshat; gope; healthcare; mittromney; obamacare; rino; romneycare
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80 ... 101-116 next last
To: mylife
Mitt Romney argued that it was unconstitutional Federally, but was constitutional in Massachusetts..Saying that he would FORCE states to do it, that is what would be unconstitutional. If a state did it freely that would not be unconstitutional. Just a mistake.
41
posted on
11/05/2013 9:14:55 PM PST
by
jdsteel
(Give me freedom, not more government.)
To: VitacoreVision
Did he say this during the campaign?
To: VitacoreVision
And that’s why a lot of conservatives stayed home in 2012, Mitt.
43
posted on
11/05/2013 9:17:46 PM PST
by
OrangeHoof
(Howdy to all you government agents spying on me.)
To: jdsteel
So that is my point.
This fly’s in the very face of all Mitts arguments on Obamacare.
Unless I see him say it, I am not sure I believe it.
44
posted on
11/05/2013 9:18:04 PM PST
by
mylife
(Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
To: zerosix
Now we know what he meant when he said he would “repeal Obamacare and replace it.” He never outlined his replacement plan - now we know what it was and he still would have lost. Who does he think he is that he can DEMAND the states to implement their own healthcare plans? These jerks have lost the true meaning that the federal government receives its legitimacy from the states - not the other way around.
45
posted on
11/05/2013 9:18:41 PM PST
by
Catsrus
(A)
To: Seeing More Clearly Now
Yes, Mitt Romney said "Repeal and Replace Obamacare."
To: sickoflibs
-— And after winning re-election so easily in a Blue state you-know-who is next up.-—
I wonder if Coulter will jump back on the bandwagon.
Regardless, the Collaborators are through. The race is Cruz’ to lose.
47
posted on
11/05/2013 9:21:55 PM PST
by
St_Thomas_Aquinas
( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
To: VitacoreVision
Why is this imbecile still talking?
To: VitacoreVision
-— How on earth did Mitt Romney get the GOP nomination? -—
The same way RINOs always get the nomination. Four years before the election, the moneyed interests gather in a smokey room and choose their nominee. The rest is window dressing.
The old smokey backroom deal is the same as it ever was, just four years earlier in the election cycle.
49
posted on
11/05/2013 9:25:20 PM PST
by
St_Thomas_Aquinas
( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
To: St_Thomas_Aquinas
RE :”
Regardless, the Collaborators are through. The race is Cruz to lose.” I read the same thing here 2009 through ~ October 2011 over and over.
‘Sarah will brush Romney a side and easily take the nomination’
For Three years....
But somehow that didn't happen. Three years of Wishful thinking didnt make it so.,
50
posted on
11/05/2013 9:27:55 PM PST
by
sickoflibs
(To GOP : Any path to US Citizenship IS putting them ahead in line. Stop lying about your position)
To: sickoflibs
Sarah would be advised to take up residence in her Maricopa county home and challenge McCain.
51
posted on
11/05/2013 9:30:24 PM PST
by
mylife
(Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
To: VitacoreVision
He was endorsed by a ton of GOP establishment, ex-presidents, current governors, radio talk show hosts, FOX news personalities and commentators. And some also relentlessly bashed his opponents, such as Coulter savaging Gingrich.
The establishment is holding the party back every step of the way.
52
posted on
11/05/2013 9:30:30 PM PST
by
JediJones
(The #1 Must-see Filibuster of the Year: TEXAS TED AND THE CONSERVATIVE CRUZ-ADE)
To: mylife
53
posted on
11/05/2013 9:33:12 PM PST
by
sickoflibs
(To GOP : Any path to US Citizenship IS putting them ahead in line. Stop lying about your position)
To: OrangeHoof
No sh$t.
Mittens was a pussy nice Richy rich boy who didn’t even have to be painted as such by the evil media
How the Marxist islamoloving POS won a second term. All on him
Now. We’re paying dearly for our mistakes
There is no hope of impeaching this guy. His blackness trumps all
What a joke! ( he is). Although a really bad one
54
posted on
11/05/2013 9:33:25 PM PST
by
Truthoverpower
(The guvmint you get is the guvmint you deserve)
To: VitacoreVision
One socialist program for another. So much better, Comrade Willard. Thanks for revealing what “repeal and replace” means a year after your oh-so-memorable loss.
55
posted on
11/05/2013 9:34:07 PM PST
by
Olog-hai
To: MUDDOG
No, quite obvious. The Establishment was happy that Obama knocked down the doors. They just hoped that they would be in charge of the place afterwards. Their stated opposition to Obamacare was, therefore, as big a lie as what Obama was telling the country.
56
posted on
11/05/2013 9:37:03 PM PST
by
RobbyS
(quotes)
To: sickoflibs
I like Sarah but I often question how dedicated a soldier she is.
I understand why she resigned her Governorship, but you can’t ride in the catbird seat forever without taking up the charge.
57
posted on
11/05/2013 9:37:32 PM PST
by
mylife
(Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
To: JediJones
Romney had Obama dead to rights on Benghazi and he wet his pants when the moderator covered for obama
To: VitacoreVision
Did Romney clarify with what he’d replace Obamacare? If not, he didn’t grab anyone’s attention.
To: VitacoreVision
Hey Mott, you LOST. ONE of the reasons you lost was Romneycare.
So shut your mouth and go away, RINO.
60
posted on
11/05/2013 9:43:03 PM PST
by
ZULU
(Impeach that Bastard Barrack Hussein Obama)
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80 ... 101-116 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson