Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
When pressed on the question of Romneycare, Mitt Romney repeatedly reverts to the claim that this was a program designed for the people of one state and that they are happy with it, which allows his partisans to make the following argument:
| BThompson: You can attack Romneycare from the right, but Obama won't be doing that. Obama can't attack it from the left. You think Romney won't be able to hurt Obama on the issue as hard as you'd like, but he doesn't need to. He just needs to assure independents that don't like Obamacare that they won't have to live with it. The general electorate is not going to be as hung up on the differences/similarities as the GOP primary electorate is. Romney promises to replace Obamacare with something more market oriented, using competition to control costs, not bureaucrats. He won't raise taxes nor cut medicare. He won't require you to buy more insurance than you want. He makes reforms that delink insurance from employment, making it more portable. Those will all be popular reforms Romney can emphasize as distinctions. What's more, where Obamacare might be fairly popular, like Massachusetts, or even swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin, Romney offers them the option at the state level to keep aspects of Obamacare. That could prove an asset in purple parts of the country. It's just not that big a deal. |
With this argument, there is, however, one insuperable problem. When his proposal was passed in Massachusetts, the proud father of Romneycare recommended it to the rest of us as “a model for the states.” Then, he suggested it as “a model for the nation,” and in the hardback version of his campaign book No Apology, which came out in March, 2010, he wrote, “From now on, no one in Massachusetts has to worry about losing his or her health insurance if there is a job change or a loss in income; everyone is insured and pays only what he or she can afford….We can accomplish the same thing for everyone in the country….”
Barack Obama will go to town with this -- and to date Governor Romney has not evidenced an awareness of the trouble he is in. Had Rick Santorum hammered him with the significance of these statements in the last debate, he would have done an even greater public service than he did. Is it not time that Romney's partisans jettison the attempt to defend the indefensible and admit that the man has a serious problem -- that he is the public proponent of a reprehensible program?
As regular readers of Ricochet know, I am inclined to think Mitt Romney the least unacceptable of the Republican aspirants. If I were on the man's campaign team, it would sit him down and ask him how he is going to deal with the attacks he is going to face. Not all of the campaign promises in the world will save a candidate who presents himself to the public as an outright hypocrite.
We should stop kidding ourselves. If Mitt Romney does not find a way to distance himself from his handiwork, he will lose in 2012 -- and those among his admirers who fail to bring this home to him in the bluntest terms will be party to his defeat.
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Apr '11
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
Pro forma, since Prof. Rahe knows it: The passage in the book, in the hardback edition, is talking about the model being available to everyone and explicitly supports it as state rather than federal reform. He wrote the book after his 2008 run, which saw him run on a fairly similar healthcare reform to his plan today.
Aside from that, I really can't see Obama suggesting that there wasn't any difference, nor do I think he'd be believable if he did claim it.
Jul '10
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
Not all of the campaign promises in the world will save a candidate who presents himself to the public as an outright hypocrite.
True, but I don't see Obama making an effective, believable case here.
Models are models, not dictates to you, which is what Obamacare is. As a general rule how much do you think WI, or OH voters care what the law in MA is?
It seems (at the least) highly counterintuitive to me that Romneycare will be insurmountable in the general. The primary electorate is where the voters who hate it reside. If he manages to survive it there, it probably won't bring him down.
While Obama will be tough to beat, he is vulnerable, and a much worse candidate this time in at least one respect:
his record is no longer merely "present."
Jul '10
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
Can someone explain to me why nominating a candidate who takes one of our top campaign issues off the board is a good thing? Are they giving points for degree of difficulty now?
Apr '11
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
It's not off the board. If you don't want a mandate, vote for Romney. This does not apply to you if you live in Massachusetts, but it's not a helpful issue to the GOP there anyway.
Jan '11
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
James Of England
If you don't want a mandate, vote for Romney.
I've been trying to understand how someone can see a mandate and yet tell others there is no mandate to see. If you meant it as parody or sarcasm, you have to work on that.
James, if you can't see that Romneycare includes a mandate, just as Obamacare includes a mandate, it must be because, for some reason, you really like Romney and you want to believe that.
James, you're being hoodwinked; there isn't even a pig in that poke. Please read a summary of Romneycare. . Drop as much of the emotional thing and the rose-tinted glasses as you can and read the summary.
Romney is who he is, but to understand that you have to not only look, but to see, as well.
Nov '10
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
I'm not a fan of Romney, but I really don't see how in the general campaign Romneycare can really hurt him, and in fact he can probably build on it. On the one hand, the Democrats really can't attack him on it, since it's similar in many ways to Obamacare but on a state level. From there he can build on the idea of states being the laboratories of democracy, and point to other state initiatives (like Oregon, Vermont, Connecticut, Maine) that have tried to address healthcare, and say that his position as president would be to encourage innovation, not to dictate results. As mentioned in Paul Rahe's article, he can also speak to things the feds could do, like breaking insurance barriers across states. If he wants to go whole hog he could argue for specified federal support to states that agree to meet specific baselines of coverage, without telling them how to do it (similar to the Canadian model) with a second tier of private medical coverage. I may not like it, but I think something along those lines would be pretty saleable.
Dec '10
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
Palaeologus:
It seems (at the least) highly counterintuitive to me that Romneycare will be insurmountable in the general. The primary electorate is where the voters who hate it reside. If he manages to survive it there, it probably won't bring him down.
I disagree that only the primary electorate hates the individual mandate. I don't think the Republican sweep of 2010 was possible without many in the middle and even some conscientious Democrats swinging our direction. And I think it had a lot to do with the jam down of Obamacare and the outrageous federal spending.
Which is why I've been wondering if Romney has the guts to play the ace up his sleeve. If he confessed to the reality of Romneycare -- popular, but at the expense of rising premium costs, longer waiting times, funded by federal tax dollars via Medicaid and, like all European social democrat solutions, ultimately unsustainable --I think there'd be a massive swing in his direction across the political spectrum.
Instead, I'm guessing he believes it "probably won't bring him down." It's not much to hang our hopes on.
Jul '10
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
Pseudodionysius: If Obama pushes Mitt Romney too hard, he'll get angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry. When he's angry he'll open up a can of awesome with Vice Presidential nominee: Bob Dole.
Don't Mess with Kansas.
Wow. A candidate that hides behind Bob Dole for cover. Awe inspiring, ain't it.
Jul '10
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
Western Chauvinist
...
Which is why I've been wondering if Romney has the guts to play the ace up his sleeve. If he confessed to the reality of Romneycare -- popular, but at the expense of rising premium costs, longer waiting times, funded by federal tax dollars via Medicaid and, like all European social democrat solutions, ultimately unsustainable --I think there'd be a massive swing in his direction across the political spectrum.
Instead, I'm guessing he believes it "probably won't bring him down." It's not much to hang our hopes on.
Romney has misrepresented RomneyCare, its terms, its effects, and its similarity to ObamaCare. He is the GOP pro-ObamaCare (rebranded for extra deception) candidate. We have heard him built up as capable and honest since the political mutiny on ObamaCare to keep the federal government, and especially Congress, deeper and deeper into the lucrative trade of making winners and losers in the worlds largest health care market.
I will vote for neither Romney nor Obama. Both are wasted votes. I will (and am) working to defeat both of them. If all of their pluses were combined into a single candidate, that candidate would lose too.
Dec '11
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
I think, for Romney, the key to this is to get beyond trying to make philosophical distinctions and start focusing on the tactical changes he'll make, i.e, decoupling the positive aspects of the ACA (portability of insurance, etc.) from the parts that need to be eliminated, and outlining the new innovations he'll push for (national competition, etc.). That's really the only conclusive way to end the Obamacare/Romneycare linkage.
Jul '10
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
Western Chauvinist
I disagree that only the primary electorate hates the individual mandate. I don't think the Republican sweep of 2010 was possible without many in the middle and even some conscientious Democrats swinging our direction. And I think it had a lot to do with the jam down of Obamacare...
I agree with you about this. The point I was weaving toward is that most people who don't live in MA don't care about the individual mandate (or other laws) in MA. They definitely care if their own coverage will be impacted.
The folks who have a philosophical (it's bad, don't ever do it), rather than practical/personal (don't do it to me) objection are heavily concentrated in the GOP primary electorate, because that's where principled conservatives are.
Western Chauvinist:
Which is why I've been wondering if Romney has the guts to play the ace up his sleeve...
Maybe that would work, but I think his change on abortion (which is great!) precludes it. One flip too many kills his chances.
You're right that "probably won't bring him down" isn't an oak.
It'll be close, really close.
Dec '10
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
Palaeologus
Maybe that would work, but I think his change on abortion (which is great!) precludes it. One flip too many kills his chances.
You're right that "probably won't bring him down" isn't an oak.
It'll be close, really close. · 12 minutes ago
That's the conventional wisdom, and if Romney is anything, he's conventional. He's already been labeled a flip-flopper by the Democrats. Did you see Axelrod tearing into him? Romney doesn't stand a chance, unless does something bold, like cop to the truth.
Jul '10
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
Western Chauvinist
Palaeologus
Maybe that would work, but I think his change on abortion (which is great!) precludes it. One flip too many kills his chances.
You're right that "probably won't bring him down" isn't an oak.
It'll be close, really close. ·
That's the conventional wisdom, and if Romney is anything, he's conventional. He's already been labeled a flip-flopper by the Democrats. Did you see Axelrod tearing into him? Romney doesn't stand a chance, unless does something bold, like cop to the truth. ·
Perhaps, but I don't agree.
It's easy pickings for Davey right now, as the GOP is divided.
That is not a way of saying: "get behind Romney."
Davey will have a much tougher time dealing with any GOP nominee than he does now. It's easy to bite at ankles while they're engaged with each other.
Even so, I think he's blown at least one attempt at an attack on Romney.
The "flip-flop" target will be painted all over Mitt. But that's a double-edged sword, now that Barry has a record.
Competence... basic, clearly projected, competence can beat Obama.
Edited on Jan 30 at 10:11pmJul '10
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
The "flip-flop" target will be painted all over Mitt. But that's a double-edged sword, now that Barry has a record.
Okay, that is worst mixed-metaphor ever.
Still, Barry does have a record now, and it will be much harder for him to convince voters that his Presidency is good for them than it was four years ago.
Edited on Jan 30 at 10:17pmFeb '11
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
Rush - quoted by Geraghty - deals with this issue effectively.
Sep '10
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
My despair is not with Romney per se, with the negative ads or even with Romneycare. We've had candidates like this before and even nominated some of them for president. What is driving me out of the party is how complicit they are in all of this. I can understand Romney going nuclear with his dishonest ads, but to see the Party join in the attacks on the man who is primarily responsible for the balanced budget and Republican House majority in the 90s is beyond depressing, it's demoralizing.
I used to think that the Republican Party stood for old-fashioned values. Now I see that they stand for nothing but raw power for themselves.
As for the original point of Paul's post, I don't think anyone at the Party level cares about Obamacare or Romneycare or liberty or capitalism. It's all so depressingly and transparently cynical.
Paul, you sit there writing about how Romney needs to square the circle with Romneycare, imagining that they actually care about it. First show me proof that they do, then we'll talk.
Meanwhile, God bless Allen West.
Sep '10
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
Paul A. Rahe: When pressed on the question of Romneycare, Mitt Romney repeatedly reverts to the claim that this was a program designed for the people of one state and that they are happy with it...
to date Governor Romney has not evidenced an awareness of the trouble he is in. · · 14 hours ago
What trouble is he in? Seriously, what's the problem here? The establishment has circled the wagons around him, he looks like a good bet to win the nomination and after that, where will you go? Are you going to vote for Obama? The Libertarians?
What makes you think anyone in the Party cares? I'm sure they're glad you work so hard writing essays about health care and gun control and they no doubt read with approval all of the defenses of Bain's version of capitalism written by the folks here on Ricochet, but in the end, who cares? It's off to another soiree at Citronelle that will be expensed to a K Street lobbyist's account.
By the way, have you contributed to the RNC yet? Only with your donations can the values you hold dear be defended!
Edited on Jan 31 at 6:30amSep '10
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
If his jaw had to be wired shut, how much of the expense would be covered in Massachusetts? Does anyone know?
Apr '11
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
Anon
James Of England
If you don't want a mandate, vote for Romney.
I've been trying to understand how someone can see a mandate and yet tell others there is no mandate to see. If you meant it as parody or sarcasm, you have to work on that.
James, if you can't see that Romneycare includes a mandate, just as Obamacare includes a mandate, it must be because, for some reason, you really like Romney and you want to believe that.
James, you're being hoodwinked; there isn't even a pig in that poke. Please read a summary of Romneycare. . Drop as much of the emotional thing and the rose-tinted glasses as you can and read the summary.
Romney is who he is, but to understand that you have to not only look, but to see, as well. ·
I guess I was unclear. You deleted the following sentence, where I said that it did not apply to Massachusetts. Other states lack a state mandate, meaning that Romney, who would repeal the federal mandate, would leave their citizens mandate-free. Of course, if you need a mandate free Massachusetts, no presidential candidate will help.
Jan '11
Re: Romney, Romneycare, and Obamacare
James Of England
Anon
James Of England
If you don't want a mandate, vote for Romney.
I've been trying to understand how someone can see a mandate and yet tell others there is no mandate to see. If you meant it as parody or sarcasm, you have to work on that. Please read a summary of Romneycare. Drop as much of the emotional thing and the rose-tinted glasses as you can and read the summary.
Romney is who he is, but to understand that you have to not only look, but to see, as well. ·
I guess I was unclear. You deleted the following sentence, where I said that it did not apply to Massachusetts. Other states lack a state mandate, meaning that Romney, who would repeal the federal mandate, would leave their citizens mandate-free. Of course, if you need a mandate free Massachusetts, no presidential candidate will help. · 29 minutes ago
Sorry, I thought you wrote "If you don't want a mandate, vote for Romney."
Of course if you had written that, I would say you're looking but you're not seeing.
Romney will go with the flow and sign a mandate bill.