Romney brags about individual health care mandate in Mass.

9/30/2012 9:00am by 526

He’s flip-flopping again.

First Mitt Romney was proud of what he did with health care reform in Massachusetts. Then he was embarrassed by it (because core Republicans consider what Romney did “socialism”), so he stopped talking about it.

Then Romney started flip-flopping back and forth on the issue of “Obamacare,” which was inspired in part by what Romney did in Massachusetts.

First Romney ran from the Obama administration’s claim that he was the “grandfather” of Obamacare. Then Romney flip-flopped on his position on Obamacare, four times in 24 hours. Then he embraced it, and the appellation of being it’s “grandfather.” Then he ran away from it again.

And today, Mitt Romney is back on the socialism-lovin’ bandwagon.

LA Times:

In an interview, Romney touted the healthcare plan he crafted as governor of Massachusetts, his biggest liability during the GOP primary and something he rarely talks about on the campaign trail.

“Don’t forget — I got everybody in my state insured,” Romney told NBC News. “One hundred percent of the kids in our state had health insurance. I don’t think there’s anything that shows more empathy and care about the people of this country than that kind of record.”

The only problem?  Mitt Romney got everyone insured by passing an individual mandate requiring everyone in the state to buy health insurance.  The exact same thing he’s criticism President Obama for doing in health care reform.  And that’s why Romney has been running from his signature achievement, his own health care reform legislation, because he doesn’t think he can win the election unless he out-neanderthals the far right that controls the Republican party.

Never mind that Romney actively lobbied for the individual mandate in his state.  Yahoo News points out both flip flops for us:

Mitt Romney has distanced himself from the health care reform bill he signed as governor of Massachusetts amid criticism that the law bears more than a passing resemblance to Obamacare, which he’s repeatedly pledged to repeal if elected in November.

But a series of emails obtained by the Wall Street Journal reveals Romney was actively engaged in negotiating the specifics of the 2006 Massachusetts bill and that he and his top aides championed a provision identical to one in President Barack Obama’s law requiring individuals to have or buy health insurance.

Romney’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment about the emails.

Yeah, I’ll bet.

And let’s revisit that recent quote from Romney once again.

“Don’t forget — I got everybody in my state insured,” Romney told NBC News. “One hundred percent of the kids in our state had health insurance. I don’t think there’s anything that shows more empathy and care about the people of this country than that kind of record.”

Message: Romney cares. But there’s a problem in care-land. If Mitt Romney is going to say that the gold standard of “empathy” and “caring” is insuring kids, then he fails his own standard. Mitt Romney wants to repeal the President’s health care reform law. By doing that, Mitt Romney will take health insurance away from a minimum of six million kids who are currently on their parents’ plans as a result of Obamacare. (Romney would also jeopardize health care for 89m Americans.

Not very caring or empathetic.

Speaking of empathy, wasn’t it only a few years ago that Republicans were criticizing President Obama for praising empathy?  As Ann Coulter said when lecturing Whoopi Goldberg about what black people really think, “its a fact.”

Print FriendlyPrint
Tags: , , ,


@aravosis | Facebook | Google+. Editor of AMERICAblog, joint JD/MSFS from Georgetown, worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, and as a stringer for the Economist. A frequent TV pundit, he has been on The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline & Reliable Sources. Full bio and .

Share This Post
© 2013 AMERICAblog. All rights reserved. · Entries RSS