"Romney defends Mass. health care law; Points to differences from Obama overhaul" by Sasha Issenberg, Globe Correspondent | March 30, 2010
AMES, Iowa — Obama’s signing of a federal health care law has put Mitt Romney — a possible 2012 presidential candidate — again on the defensive over the most significant achievement in his brief career in public office. The former governor, who has been mentioned as a possible candidate again for president in 2012, had labeled Obama’s bill “unhealthy for America’’ and has called for its repeal, even as conservative critics say it was modeled on Romney’s policy.
Yesterday, Romney proudly acknowledged that his bill included a set of new insurance regulations that “President Obama always likes to talk about in his health care plan — the good stuff.’’ Romney trumpeted the achievement of near-universal coverage in Massachusetts, while declining to acknowledge that the mechanism he used to achieve that goal — a requirement that individuals buy private insurance — is the same as the much-criticized mandate of Obama’s plan.
What? Another political hypocrite?
The accounting of “some similarities’’ and “some differences’’ between the two systems was a more delicate comparison than Romney has offered recently, when he wholly rejected the idea that the two had anything significant in common.
“People often compare his plan to the Massachusetts plan,’’ Romney said in an interview last month. “They’re as different as night and day. There are some words that sound the same, but our plan is based on states solving our issues; his is based on a one-size-fits-all plan.’’
And here I have been told for months by the MSM that it was modeled on the Massachusetts plan. Sigh.
In the last week, many health care policy specialists, Democrats celebrating the bill’s passage, and Republicans condemning it have come to another conclusion. The difference between the two systems, they say, is slim.
“Basically, it’s the same thing,’’ said Jonathan Gruber, an MIT economist who advised the Romney and Obama administrations on their health insurance programs. A national health overhaul would not have happened if Mitt Romney had not made “the decision in 2005 to go for it. He is in many ways the intellectual father of national health reform.’’
That's going to be a tough one to live down, Mitt.
Related: Grubby Gruber
I thought I felt something slimy.
After Congress last week passed the national plan, considered the most expansive social legislation to become law in nearly a half-century, Romney wrote it was an “unconscionable abuse of power’’ that “will create a new entitlement even as the ones we already have are bankrupt.’’
I haven't heard Mitt call for an end to the wars, or aid to Israel, or corporate warfare, 'er, welfare to the war profiteers, or bank payouts.
********
Romney says he will not decide whether to run again until after the midterm congressional elections in November. Yesterday, his national tour promoting his best-selling book, “No Apology,’’ returned him to the early-caucus state of Iowa....
Oh, this is a FRONT-PAGE PROMOTION for his book, readers, as well as a hack job on the guy!!
Romney faced a similar predicament during his last presidential run, when opponents attempted, with various degrees of success, to portray his record in Massachusetts as evidence of liberal priorities. Over the course of his campaign, Romney went from touting his health care policy to lamenting it to saying it was not really his, often at a disorienting pace.
State legislators had made changes to the bill over his veto, Romney said, even though when he signed the law he called it “exactly what we’d hoped for.’’ Regardless, he argued during his campaign, he believed that the Massachusetts plan would not necessarily work everywhere and that states should be free to follow their own strategies.
Romney, who finished second at the Iowa caucuses in 2008, spent much of that campaign working to distance himself from Massachusetts’ political culture. Yet the farther Romney gets from his State House service, the more he finds himself having to discuss the details of his tenure....
Yeah, keep squirming, Mitt. Globe has you in its grip!
In his book, Romney describes a personal awakening on the issue of health insurance that has led him to share many of the assumptions underpinning the Obama plan.
Another one?
First Mormonism, then abortion, now this.
So when is the next flip, Mitt?
Both programs declare universal coverage as a goal, requiring individuals to purchase their own coverage and offering subsidies to those unable to afford it. That strategy sets him apart from many national Republican leaders, who rarely cite universal coverage as an objective and who have backed a lawsuit by state attorneys general asserting that the individual mandate is unconstitutional.
That's a fooley political fraud for public consumption.
“I’m not at all surprised to think I have differing views on some topics than my fellow Republicans,’’ said Romney. “I think it’s very important to get everybody insured.’’
--more--"
He's not going to be the nominee, I don't care how much money he spends.
And about that repeal:
"lawmakers on both sides acknowledge any repeal would be highly unlikely as long as President Obama remains in office, as he could veto any such legislation"
Also see: Disingenuous Democrats in Home Stretch on Health Tax
States Seek to Scuttle ObamaCare
"Arkansas staying out of health care fight; AG says any possible lawsuit lacks justification" by Peter Slevin, Washington Post | March 31, 2010
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. —There are memorials here to the events of 1957, when a previous Arkansas governor rejected federal authority and tried to prevent nine black students from attending all-white Little Rock Central High School. It took US soldiers to protect the students, who made history during an epic struggle over racism and federal power.
Oh my God, the divisive, agenda-pushing MSM is saying if you oppose the bill you are a racist!
Are there NO DEPTHS to which they WILL NOT STINK, I mean, SINK?
To Democratic Governor Mike Beebe and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, the lawsuits filed last week and a states’ rights measure proposed for the November ballot are unwelcome echoes.
I'm hearing some ringings of rage in my head.
F*** the god-damned Boston Globe!
In the face of an implicit request from 33 Republican state legislators to enlist in the court fight, McDaniel remains unmoved. “I would be abusing my office to bring a suit that I believe to be constitutionally frivolous,’’ McDaniel said in a telephone interview. “State budgets are tight enough right now without bringing actions that are entirely driven by political motivation rather than sound legal justification.’’
States seem to have plenty of money to waste in courts these days.
The Arkansas experience in the 1950s rubbed the state raw and delivered a resounding defeat to segregationists, who made arguments similar to the ones launched by opponents of the Democratic-led health care overhaul.
I'm offended at this.
It's over.
Today was the last day for the Glob.
I'm tired off paying for insults and lies just to become upset each day.
The central issues, according to many “tea party’’ protesters and Republican lawmakers, are personal freedom and state sovereignty and the role of the federal government in both spheres....
Take your racist, divisive, Zionist brush and smear yourself with it, agenda-pushing, war-promoting *ewpress!
Oh, yeah, and it turns out that all those RACISTS actually WORK FOR the GOVERNMENT!!
Looks like the GOP is starting to feel the agenda-pushing lash of the liberal media, Americans.
"GOP fears backlash over health care stance
WASHINGTON — Top Republicans are starting to worry about their health care rallying cry “Repeal the bill.’’ It just might singe GOP candidates in November’s elections, they fear, if voters begin to see benefits from the new law.
Yeah, forget the polls that say we hate it more than ever, and are angry at the way it was done. Just fold, Repugs! You really don't want control of Congress, and I can't say as I blame you.
Who wants to preside over the destruction of a nation and the end of an Empire?
Yeah, they are already there, aren't they?
Democrats, hoping the GOP is indeed positioning itself too far to the right for the elections, are taking note of every Republican who pledges to fight for repeal. Such a pledge might work well in conservative-dominated Republican primaries, they say, but it could backfire in the fall if more moderate voters turn out...
That is how Scott Brown won Ted Kennedy's Senate seat, dumbbells.
Repeal is politically and legally unlikely, and some grass-roots activists might feel disillusioned by a failed crusade. “It’s just not going to happen,’’ Senator Robert Corker of Tennessee said of repeal in a speech yesterday. “It’s a great political issue,’’ the Republican said, but opponents will never muster the 67 votes needed to override a veto in the 100-member Senate.
Related: Senate Republicans Roll Over For Fed
And he just rolled over for the insurance companies.
Republican leaders are moving cautiously, wary of angering their hard-right base. In recent public comments, they have quietly played down the notion of repealing the law while emphasizing contentions that it will hurt jobs, the economy and the deficit.
We aren't going to be fooled by the bulls*** anymore, guys!
DO WHAT WE WANT for ONCE, dammit!!!!!!!!!
--more--"
Yup, retreating despite winning:
"Overhaul vote complicates some reelection prospects
Even though they Democrats all told us we are going to love it?
Tough votes for Obama’s health care plan have further complicated the reelection prospects of dozens of already vulnerable freshman and second-term Democrats. There’s a chance the party could lose control of one or both houses in the midterm elections.
Oh, that is inevitable.
See: Googling Control of Congress
Hey, who do you think is running Washington?
Democrats and a few Republicans reported receiving threats to themselves and their families in the days after the vote. The FBI arrested a California man Wednesday who allegedly made threatening phone calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. On Tuesday, a Washington state man was arrested and charged with threatening to kill Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat.
In districts and states where the overhaul was most controversial, town hall meetings have been replaced with tightly controlled business roundtables and other gatherings with voters.
I, for one, am TIRED of the AGENDA-PUSHING SMEARS and LIES or the AGENT PROVOCATEURS promoted by the MSM PRESS!!
--more--"
"Wash. man held on charges that he threatened senator
SEATTLE — Federal agents arrested a Washington man yesterday and charged him with threatening to kill Senator Patty Murray over her support for the health care overhaul.
Agents say they traced calls to Charles Wilson’s home in Selah.
The idiot called her from his house?
--more--"
"Pa. man charged with threatening US congressman" by Associated Press | March 30, 2010
PHILADELPHIA — A man charged with threatening the number two Republican in the House was being held without bail yesterday pending a psychiatric evaluation.
Norman Leboon, 38, of Philadelphia is accused of trying to post a YouTube video in which he threatened to kill Representative Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia. Leboon is wanted by city authorities in another threat case, Assistant US Attorney Robert Reed said.
And this guy wanted to YouTube it, huh?
PFFFFFFFTT!
Yup, THAT'S WHAT THIS A SMELLS LIKE to ME!!
The threat against Cantor does not appear to be connected to the health care overhaul, though it’s not clear whether Leboon was upset with the House Republican whip about other issues, Reed said. Cantor is the only Jewish Republican in Congress, and Passover began yesterday at sundown.
Related: Hate Crime Hoaxes Appearing All Across America
I think we just found another agenda-pushing one.
Reed told a judge that Leboon appears to have major psychiatric issues.
Leboon calls himself the “son of the god of Enoch’’ in the video and calls Cantor “pure evil,’’ according to court documents. Leboon’s public defender declined to comment.
Cantor said through a spokesman that authorities had notified him of a threat over the weekend and had been keeping him posted on Leboon’s arrest.
He referred further questions to the FBI.--more--"
Also see: Turning Healthcare Into Hate
They did it, not me.
All I ever wanted was a single payer system that would take care of everyone.
