Romney's Health Care Answer: Worse than Silence
After Newt Gingrich’s quasi-quasi announcement about the 2012 presidential race last week, we’re now in the earliest stages of election season – a stage often most notable for candidates’ attempts to neutralize their liabilities.
One such attempted exorcism took place in New Hampshire over the weekend, where former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney was out on the stump trying to mitigate the effects of having spearheaded Bay State health care reform that looks uncomfortably close to Obamacare. If Romney sticks to the rationale that RealClearPolitics’ Erin McPike reported, he’s in trouble:
"Our experiment wasn't perfect - some things worked, some didn't, and some things I'd change," he said. "One thing I would never do is to usurp the constitutional power of states with a one-size-fits-all federal takeover."
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As for his own "experiment," he stressed that he did exactly what the Constitution intended for him to do: treat his own state as a laboratory of democracy by passing a healthcare plan just for the state. The constitutionality argument is notable specifically as the national healthcare law heads down a legal path that could wind up in the Supreme Court as the presidential race heats up.
Romney thinks he’s being clever by invoking federalism – now enjoying a long-overdue comeback as a conservative turn-on – but his rationale doesn’t stand up to even facile scrutiny.
Conservatives hold that federalism is a virtue because it decentralizes power and allows government to solve problems as close to the people as possible. But invoking the idea of states as “laboratories for democracy” (a time-tested cliché about the utility of federalism in determining best practices) won’t justify Romneycare to conservatives, any more than it would have if Romney had pushed for heavily progressive taxation or a cap and trade scheme.
A bad idea is still a bad idea even if it’s arrived at through a good mechanism (otherwise, we’d have to assume that every law Congress considers through its constitutionally enumerated powers is laudatory). Put another way: you can embrace the idea of the states as laboratories of democracy, without being enthusiastic about every Frankenstein they produce.
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Sep '10
Re: Romney's Health Care Answer: Worse than Silence
Paging EJHill....put bolts on Romney's neck. Lightning bolts in sky. Scar on face. "Ivan Drago" nickname - Mitt "The Experiment" Romney, the Dr Frankenstein of health care reform.
Dec '10
Re: Romney's Health Care Answer: Worse than Silence
Wouldn't the proper illustration be Mitt in a white lab coat with his RomneyCare monstrosity on the slab?
Sep '10
Re: Romney's Health Care Answer: Worse than Silence
Stuart Creque
Wouldn't the proper illustration be Mitt in a white lab coat with his RomneyCare monstrosity on the slab? · Mar 7 at 9:27pm
Yes, but you should have the Mass. tea party mob outside with lit torches coming for him.
Dec '10
Re: Romney's Health Care Answer: Worse than Silence
Here's Romney's problem: He cannot admit he was wrong.
May '10
Re: Romney's Health Care Answer: Worse than Silence
In his defense, you could take this as a promise that he wouldn't attempt something like this at the federal level. If you really want to be charitable, you could interpret it as a statement that he wouldn't have attempted something like this at the federal level, even if he had the chance to do so before Romneycare turned out so badly.
Oct '10
Re: Romney's Health Care Answer: Worse than Silence
AmishDude has it exactly right. To me, two of the strongest reasons to defeat President Obama in 2012 are to repeal Obamacare and begin to exert fiscal discipline on the federal government by reforming current entitlements. Romney’s explanation fails on both counts. He championed a government run health plan very similar to Obamacare, and this new entitlement has significantly worsened Massachusetts’ fiscal condition. Unless he admits he made a mistake in Massachusetts, he is not credible to me on these two points. Relying on the Tenth Amendment as an excuse does not absolve him in my mind.
Oct '10
Re: Romney's Health Care Answer: Worse than Silence
I'll probably sound like Peter Robinson but I just loved that last sentence. What a great turn of phrase on the metaphor. I'm impressed.
May '10
Re: Romney's Health Care Answer: Worse than Silence
Isn't the point of an "experiment" that it can be abandoned in case of failure? That's sort of the scientific method, right? Saddling your state with a nigh-irreversible entitlement is an experiment which immediately goes past the point of no return.
As a consistently profitable turf speculator, Romney is the most Vulnerable Favorite to come down the pike in years. Definite bet against. Toss him out of the exactas and look elsewhere.
Dec '10
Re: Romney's Health Care Answer: Worse than Silence
Win.
Sep '10
Re: Romney's Health Care Answer: Worse than Silence
Nickolas
Win. · Mar 8 at 7:12am
That, and the fact that he even had the impulse to impose a big governement healthcare solution in the first place.
Dec '10
Re: Romney's Health Care Answer: Worse than Silence
Troy Senik:
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That seems to me to echo his management consulting background. Consulting firms like Bain & Co. are used to parachuting into companies, implementing big programs that revamp all of the company's practices, and seeing what happens.
If you want to do an experiment, do it on a controlled number of volunteers -- not as a mandate on an entire state, much less an entire country.
Nov '10
Re: Romney's Health Care Answer: Worse than Silence
I think if Romney admitted his healthcare effort was a mistake, he'd win. He could say something like "I know what Obama is trying to do, because I tried it and it didn't work etc". Defeating Obama and defeating Obamacare are one in the same. He can either use his experience with Romneycare to his advantage, or try and defend it, thereby sinking his presidential hopes right off the bat. He seems to be choosing the latter.
Jul '10
Re: Romney's Health Care Answer: Worse than Silence
Romney's problem is that he is too vain to see he is wrong. Stupid, statist, death panelicious, budget busting plan.
Nominate Romney and I will vote for whatever petting zoo animal the Libertarians put forward next. That might become the first election where the entire country emigrates before election day!
Nov '10
Re: Romney's Health Care Answer: Worse than Silence
The thing to remember is that Romney has already been accused of being a flip-flopping used car salesman who's willing to change positions on a dime to win the primary. That's what happened to him on abortion in 2008. So now he's trying to avoid that charge and stick by his record... and the GOP voters are calling him a statist thug no better than Obama.
The guy's caught in a catch-22 where it seems like no matter what he does people will use it as a justification to vote against him. Invoking federalism probably is the best he can do given the darned-if-he-does-darned-if-he-doesn't situation he's in.