I’ve stated on several occasions here that my big beef versus former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is that he signed into law the model for what is now Обамаcare:
Think about how powerful Romneycare has been. In 2008 — when Обама was running for president and Ted Kennedy was towering over the Senate — nearly 70 percent of Massachusetts voters supported the plan. A mere 22 percent of right-wing holdouts opposed it.
After all, this is Massachusetts, where “universal health care” is a political mantra, like “collective bargaining rights” or “indicted House member.”
But after five years of actually experiencing this new universe, even the Kennedy Democrats have had enough. A new Suffolk University poll showed that nearly half of Massachusetts voters say the law isn’t helping, while just 38 percent say it is. As Michael Cannon at the Cato Institute pointed out, Romneycare is almost as unpopular here as Обамаcare is across America.
So, has Romney finally realized that he made a mistake in signing this into law in the Bay State? In May 11’s edition of USA TODAY, he writes the following:
…Unfortunately, with the passage of ОбамаCare last year, the president and the Congress took a wrong turn. ОбамаCare will lead to more spending, greater federal involvement in health care and negative effects on U.S. economic activity. The president definitely forgot the admonition to “do no harm.”
My plan is to harness the power of markets to drive positive change in health insurance and health care. And we can do so with state flexibility (unlike ОбамаCare’s top-down federal approach), no new taxes (as opposed to hundreds of billions of dollars of new taxes under ОбамаCare), and better consumer choice (as opposed to bureaucratic, government choice under ОбамаCare). This change of direction offers our best hope of preserving both innovation and value.
If I am elected president, I will issue on my first day in office an executive order paving the way for waivers from ОбамаCare for all 50 states. Subsequently, I will call on Congress to fully repeal ОбамаCare.
Better yet, a Congress totally in Republican hands can have said legislation waiting for his inaugural podium…and he could sign it during his address!
That said, Romney continues:
The reforms that I propose, which are based on the same philosophical tenets as the reforms I offered during my last presidential campaign in 2008, return power to the states, improve access by slowing health care cost increases, and make health insurance portable and flexible for today’s economy.
The big difference between his proposals three years ago and today is that Обамаcare is now the law of the land, and we have all seen what is in store for the USA…even before the full effect hits.
Even so, we must remain vigilant with Romney, since for the moment, he’s still the darling of the Mainstream Media.,,and we all know what that means.
Tags: Massachusetts, Obamacare, Romneycare
