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The Spectacle Blog
There goes the conservative neighborhood.
Or is that conservative majority?
Mitt Romney, newly minted candidate for the presidential nomination of America’s more conservative party, refuses to apologize for RomneyCare’s mandate to buy health care insurance.
Now Newt Gingrich, seeking the same nomination from the same conservative base, chimes in and says he too is all for a mandate that forces Americans to buy health insurance.
Incredibly, Gingrich went on Meet the Press to declare his liberal/statist Republican credentials by saying: “I am for people, individuals — exactly like automobile insurance — individuals having health insurance and being required to have health insurance.”
To which one can only ask, astonished of a man reputed to be a conservative: while every American is born with their health, which of us is born with a car? The first is a precondition of life provided by the Creator (as in the Declaration of Independence, etc etc etc); the second a choice of products and lifestyle. No one, of course, has to own, rent or drive a car. It’s a privilege, not a right from the hand — or the breath, as it were — of God.
Without doubt Romney — who is defending the right of the state to impose health insurance — and now Gingrich, who sees no difference between your health and a car, have both just sharply changed the Republican nomination race. Drawing a line in the sand very clearly between those who believe in mandating Americans to buy a product simply to draw what was once presumably a breath of free air — and everybody else. And once this “right” of the government is established — it isn’t rocket science to know that bureaucrats somewhere will be mandating everything from Kleenex to birth control pills to abortion. Can sex and DVD mandates be far behind?
Which quickly breaks the GOP fight down as presumptive GOP liberals/statists Romney and Gingrich against a conservative field.
Never has a race for a Republican presidential nomination seen two presumably major candidates effectively implode their credibility with conservative primary and caucus voters almost simultaneously and so quickly in a race. Joining Romney by in essence proclaiming himself a statist — make that liberal — Republican on health care (can you say President Specter?) the two have quickly positioned their understanding of the role of government precisely as the Wall Street Journal said (pre-Gingrich) of Romney: “compromised and not credible.”
What are these two thinking?
Not of being the first conservative president since Reagan.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for president, anyone?
View all comments (56) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Jeffrey Lord
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/05/16/gingrich-romney-implode-on-hea
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Clip of the Day
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Occam's Tool| 5.16.11 @ 12:41AM
That's two more down. Allen West, anyone?
Occam's Tool| 5.25.11 @ 8:17PM
By the way, did I state today that NHS suck, and why? Go to the New Zealand Herald (a very lefty newspaper---to the Left of the NYT), punch in District Health Boards, and read. As a former senior medical consultant with the NZ NHS I can tell you---it's all true.
Tom| 5.16.11 @ 12:47AM
Another absurd article from the American Spectator - out of touch with reality.
David W| 5.16.11 @ 8:26AM
Out of touch with reality? Really? Please explain? If the AS produces absurd articles why do you read it?
Patty| 5.16.11 @ 4:03PM
to lmao
Margie| 5.16.11 @ 12:49AM
Separating the wheat from the chaff?
And very early on, too.
This clears the way for the others, the more conservative candidates, like West, Cain, Rubio, Sarah, Bachmann and whoever else wants to step up and tell us what they believe. And what they stand for.
This is good, actually.
Tom| 5.16.11 @ 1:01AM
Great analogy Margie. So Romney is the chaff who wants to get children insurance, and the rest of the field is the "wheat" who doesn't?
I think you've forgotten who the great social justice mandator is - God.
simon templar| 5.16.11 @ 1:26AM
You can take your social justice and stick it up your commie ass. I am sick of your socialistic claptrap and social justice sham..the class warfare...the starving grandmothers, the children you care so much about ( except when they are inconvenient whereby you have no problem killing them in the womb), and your racist welfare programs that have destroyed the black community and on and on. Take it over to the Huff and Puff and puff over there.
Margie| 5.16.11 @ 1:45AM
Oh, simon, thank YOU!
Well said.
wodiej| 5.16.11 @ 8:01AM
yowsa...well said Simon.
Tom| 5.16.11 @ 2:02PM
Simon:
Are you a Christian? If you are then you're living inconsistently.
The MA health care plan is NOT SOCIALISM. A mandate is NOT socialism. I swear you wacko libertarians are so screwed up with your moral priorities it is truly insane.
You can't distinguish a mandate from socialism is the true indiucation of your utter and gross ignorance.
You claim that moral high ground on abortion but when the children are born into the world, then you claim that we don't have the moral imperative to treat children with social justice?
Absurd. Inconsistent and contradictory.
The fact is that you haven't thought these issues through - you like slogans and absolutes that are simplistic and self-serving.
Now, Simon and Marg, answer the question.
Is your priority care for children, yes or no?
What is more important?
NoLib| 5.16.11 @ 8:24PM
Wealth redistribution is State mandated theft, and there's nothing Christian about it, Leftie.
wodiej| 5.16.11 @ 8:04AM
Tom, I think you've forgotten that parents should not have kids and then refuse to take care of them.
Tom| 5.16.11 @ 2:04PM
Gee Wodiej, really? And what parent can accurately predict the future of their lives?
Your comments are stupid, callous, and inconsisten with the Christian principles you SAY you hold dear.
You can protect a fetus but once born you abandon the children.
Absurd, inconsistent and contradictory.
The American Spectator stinks to HIGH HEAVEN.
NoLib| 5.16.11 @ 8:28PM
You're a Leftist who only cares about power and control who pretends to care about the "children." Forced wealth redistribution is theft and NOT Christian.
Occam's Tool| 5.25.11 @ 8:18PM
That's what CHIP is about, Tom. By the way, we do OK for ourselves in MN without RomneyCare.
Tom| 5.16.11 @ 12:53AM
Jeffery,
What planet have you been living on for the last 20 years?
The mandate has been in every Republican proposal for the last 20 years.
It's in Ryan's recent overhaul proposal!
Jim Demint said in 2008, that he ENDORSED Romney precisely because of Romneycare.
And where are the myriads of articles between 1990 and 2011 about how horrible the mandates are for Republicans?
The truth is, there isn't a SINGLE Republican candidate that is going to say that the mandate is INCONSISTENT with conservative principles.
The absurd argument, that is the Libertarian extreme knee jerk reaction, is that mandates ALWAYS lead to bigger mandates. As if to say, that if a State has one mandate, it must have all of them.
Absurd logic - incoherent, inconsistent, unsound, and invalid.
I am sick to death of inconsistent libertarian principles I could vomit.
Interested Conservative| 5.16.11 @ 1:10AM
What mandate hasn't led to more mandates?
Why is there rent control in NYC?
What has been deregulated since the airline industry under A. Kahn, and, unbelievably, Jimmy Carter?
As Friedman said, you can have open borders or a welfare state, but not both. Does the mandate close the borders, and if so, how?
Just a few questions.
Tom| 5.16.11 @ 2:07PM
Mandates don't cause themselves. People cause them. They can be used responsibility says the last 20 years of Republican proposals.
Flip-flopping now only shows that you can't reason through this issues.
You speak in vague generalities of socialism, and welfare and but can't solve health reform issues.
NoLib| 5.16.11 @ 8:31PM
You're just a Progressive. You can't solve health reform issues either, but you certainly are destroying our country.
Tom| 5.17.11 @ 9:14AM
It is a sign of wanton ignorance when a person refuses to distinguish between limited use of a mandate and the extreme use of a mandate.
Progressives are for Obamacare Mandates
Republicans are for State mandates.
See the distinction?
NoLib| 5.17.11 @ 4:34PM
RINOs are for big government, that's why we don't want Mitt.
simon templar| 5.16.11 @ 1:13AM
What planet have you been living on for the last 20 years?The mandate has been in every Republican proposal for the last 20 years.
I thought it was earth, third planet from the sun. As I recall, universal health care was proposed in the 1990's by Presidents Hillary and Bill Clinton and was resoundingly rejected by the public and the GOP. I seem to remember another earthling by the name of Ronald Reagan who who spoke against it his whole life starting in the 1960's. Mandate? People have been arguing about this for years and have been calling any such ideas as crazy and unconstitutional.
BASMD| 5.16.11 @ 12:56AM
Gingrich has the most well reasoned healthcare position of any major political personality today.
Only an individual without much experience in healthcare would dismiss his arguments with the above reasoning. We all pay for the uninsured healthcare $$ NOW...so we are punished financially by others irresponsibility. Please try to respond with a more coherent and reasoned rebuttal than "while every American is born with their health, which of us is born with a car?".
Tom| 5.16.11 @ 1:02AM
Every American is not born with good health.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 5.16.11 @ 6:05AM
Nor are they born with good cars.
wodiej| 5.16.11 @ 8:10AM
The problem w your argument is mandating it doesn't mean everyone will pay for it. Many will be paying for their own plus the lazy loafers.
Tom| 5.16.11 @ 1:03AM
"This clears the way for the others, the more conservative candidates, like West, Cain, Rubio, Sarah, Bachmann and whoever else wants to step up and tell us what they believe. "
But none of these can appeal to independents to win against Obama.
When are libertarians going to wake up and stop playing games with the lives of Americans?
Interested Conservative| 5.16.11 @ 1:11AM
How do you propose to solve the moral hazard argument?
simon templar| 5.16.11 @ 1:19AM
Who the hell are you and who appointed you God of the independents. Oh, sorry..that's right your a liberal troll. The last time I checked polls show a majority of americans rejecting Obamacare and the mandate. These people include independents. This is a center right nation. You could run a chicken against this commie fool and win.
Margie| 5.16.11 @ 1:55AM
LOL, now THAT is truly funny.
Moi, a Libertarian?!!!!
Sir, you know me not.
Let me just say that I am a Rush Limbaugh conservative, and a Reagan conservative, and a Sarah Palin conservative.
If you went any further Right than me, you fall off a cliff.
And BTW~ the Libertarians here call me a "Neo-con".
And as to the individuals I named above, I believe that they DO appeal to the independent voters. WHY?
Because the independent voters are LOOKING for HONEST conservative people. They are looking for others who share their types of values and not the inside the beltway types.
And isn't this what Reagan was able to do? Bring in the Democrats and independent voters?
Yes, this gleaning of the field is going to work wonders.
And yes, the people are waking up and that's why the chaff is floating away right before our very eyes!
wodiej| 5.16.11 @ 8:11AM
well said.
PALIN 2012
Tom| 5.16.11 @ 2:09PM
Reagan MANDATED that all people be treated at hospitals whether or not they have insurance.
Do you agree with his mandate?
NoLib| 5.16.11 @ 8:32PM
Please provide a link, troll.
Tom| 5.17.11 @ 12:51AM
Passed in 1986 and signed into law by Ronald Reagan, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) requires hospitals and ambulances to provide care to anyone requiring emergency treatment regardless of legal status, citizenship or ability to pay.
NoLib| 5.17.11 @ 1:45AM
Guess you missed the operative word there--EMERGENCY! This was not for life like Progressive RomneyCare. C'mon now, you can do better!!
Tom| 5.17.11 @ 9:10AM
The issue wasn't whether Romney created Romneycare - the issue was whether Reagan created a MANDATE.
Mandates are consistent with the gipper's politics and methods for dealing with issues.
Romney is following in the footsteps of Reagan.
NoLib| 5.17.11 @ 4:35PM
No, the issue is Reagan was not a RINO like Mitt. Obfuscate all you want, Romney is no Reagan.
Occam's Tool| 5.25.11 @ 8:22PM
G-d, NO! That's why we are going bankrupt treating illegal aliens. EMTALA was a crappy idea!
Occam's Tool| 5.25.11 @ 8:21PM
Dear Margie,
I was a VEEP of YAF in college. My first and second Presidential votes were for Reagan. My residency classmates used to say that my politics were to the right of Atilla the Hun.
I thought Reagan was a puss, but he was the best we could do. My College Bowl team was named "First Strike" in the middle of the Nuclear Freeze movement.
But I'm a neo-con.
Sean| 5.16.11 @ 4:28AM
This doesn't really surprise me. Newt to me is pretty stupid. He falls for things like global warming ect. He is your typical mainstream candidate who claims conservatism, but really isn't. We now got his compadres Pawlenty and Romney also running. These guys are just plain crazy.
Ken (Old Texican)| 5.16.11 @ 5:26AM
Newt has a lot of good ideas. He also has an equal number of bad ideas. That's OK for an inventor...
But not for a President.
Michael L. Hauschild| 5.16.11 @ 6:52AM
Is it no wonder that there exists a grassroots Tea Party Movement? Gingrich and Romney have painted themselves into a corner. While they wait the required ten month timeframe for the mandated school nurse both of them need a stool to sit on and one of them pointed caps.
wodiej| 5.16.11 @ 8:12AM
Thanks to both for narrowing the field of possible nominees less two.
W| 5.16.11 @ 9:10AM
Newt is just plain annoying and not likable, regardless of his policies. Remember the ad with him and Pelosi for climate change, that should be enough to disqualify him.
Romney is a pompous statist, member of the Ruling Class, that cannot admit he made a mistake with his health ins plan. All he had to say was he tried it, did not work, so he has first hand knowledge about how obamacare will not work. But he thinks he is smarter than us and has to insist his plan is good, just needs more government management.
PattyMor| 5.16.11 @ 9:13AM
And, Romney and Gingrich are considered smart people? The populace is in conservative revolt and they come out supporting an insurance mandate. Talk about falling on your sword.
Then there is the picture of Newt sitting on the couch spewing the global warming mantra. Sorry but anyone who has embraced global warming is disqualified.
9th ID| 5.16.11 @ 10:20AM
I'm just glad that Newt, Mitt, and Ron Paul all self-ejected themselves from the GOP nomination in the space of one week!
albert | 5.16.11 @ 10:35AM
Finally, some sensible blog comments! Nice one guys.
NoLib| 5.16.11 @ 8:35PM
Glad to see you despise RINO Romney, too.
Tom| 5.17.11 @ 9:11AM
The Big Winner is Romney
He receives 30% of Huckabee's votes and 40% of Trump's votes.
http://www.gopusa.com/commenta.....is-romney/
The Republican Party will elect Romney - it is inevitable.
NoLib| 5.17.11 @ 4:36PM
Romney will NEVER be POTUS. He will just crash and burn like his fellow RINO McCain.
Count on it.
weddingdress | 6.29.11 @ 5:44AM
I'm just glad that Newt, Mitt, and Ron Paul all self-ejected themselves from the GOP nomination in the space of one week!