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Farewell to the Spectator
December 16, 2011 | 8 comments
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Tentative Praise for Ryan’s New Bipartisan Medicare Plan
December 15, 2011 | 3 comments
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The Day Ahead: Thursday, December 15
December 15, 2011 | 0 comments
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Examiner for Romney, National Review Against Gingrich
December 14, 2011 | 39 comments
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Paul Ryan to Introduce New Medicare Plan with Democrat Ron Wyden
December 14, 2011 | 4 comments
The Spectacle Blog
Last night’s debate featured perhaps the most vitriolic criticisms of Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts health care plan yet. Yet it’s becoming increasingly clear that none of the candidates is going to be able to hold Romney responsible for the mistake he made in Massachusetts. Romney was able to parry the others’ jabs with his usual prepackaged responses, and also to add, correctly, that the criticisms are getting old.
Take Rick Santorum’s attack on Romney last night. It was the best such attempt so far, yet Romney was able to shake it without much trouble. From the transcript:
SANTORUM: Mitt, the governor of Massachusetts just is coming forward saying we have to pick up the job left undone by Romneycare, which is doing something about cutting health care costs.
What you did is exactly what Barack Obama did: focused on the wrong problem. Herman always says you’ve got to find the right problem. Well, the right problem is health care costs. What you did with a top-down, government-run program was focus on the problem of health care access. You expanded the pool of insurance without controlling costs. You’ve blown a hole in the budget up there. And you authored in Obamacare, which is going to blow a hole in the budget of this country.
Here Santorum gets one big thing right: that both Obamacare and Romneycare were focused on expanding health insurance coverage without also aiming to control costs, and both will be fiscally disastrous. That’s right, but it misses the point that there’s more to health care than simply insurance status and cost. There’s also access and quality. Both Romneycare and Obamacare were intended to address one specific problem with health care in the U.S.: the number of people without health care insurance. But the underlying problem with health care is…everything: access, cost, and quality. Romney and Obama nominally addressed the first, by expanding the role of the government, without even addressing the first or second. It’s a shame that there’s no one on the Republican debate stage who can articulate that simple criticism.
View all comments (6) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Joseph Lawler
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/10/19/obamneycare-the-problems-not-j
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sarah| 10.19.11 @ 12:58PM
On April 2006, Romney signed Romneycare into law.
On Feb 2, 2008, Rick Santorum endorsed Mitt Romney for President.
Rick said:
““In a few short days, Republicans from across this country will decide more than their party's nominee. They will decide the very future of our party and the conservative coalition that Ronald Reagan built. Conservatives can no longer afford to stand on the sidelines in this election, and Governor Romney is the candidate who will stand up for the conservative principles that we hold dear.
Governor Romney has a deep understanding of the important issues confronting our country today, and he is the clear conservative candidate that can go into the general election with a united Republican Party.”
Thanks Rick!
And our Tea Party Leader Jim Demint also commented on Romney's efforts on health care:
“One of the reasons I endorsed Romney [in 2008] is his attempts to make private health insurance available at affordable prices,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.), a GOP kingmaker.” Source: Thehill.com
PattyMor| 10.19.11 @ 2:33PM
Mitt Romney is a technocrat; not a reformer. He's in the mold of Bush I & II. Let's just tinker around the edges and try to make 70 years of bad legislation better. No, no, no. We need a conservative warrior who will take a meat axe to the bureaucracy, rules, regulations, and taxes. That is NOT Mittens.
Dai Alanye | 10.19.11 @ 3:46PM
Santorum's endorsement in 2008 was an attempt to prevent McCain or Chucklebee getting the nomination, and as such was justified.
I despise the thought that we might be forced to vote for the Romneybot in order to defeat Obama. Something needs to be done to stop the man, and backing Cain looks like the most practical option at present, even with 9-9-9 in the offing.
As far as attacking Romneycare a two-pronged approach is needed. First, to regularly refer to it as Obamneycare. Second, to point out that the worst feature of both is the mandate. Makes no difference whether it's a national or a state measure, US healthcare is no place for mandates. And, of course, the criticism should be offered more in sorrow than in anger.
Bert| 10.19.11 @ 8:33PM
Its interesting to see the fantasy world that AS posters Joe and Larry live where you ignore that Mittens finally crashed and burned last night.
I realize the AS DC insiders have alot invested in this fellow clueless elite.
But Mittens got his clocked cleaned and your desperate and delusional spin makes its all the more interesting.
Mittens SNAPPED LAST NIGHT and actually grabbed Perry in a desperate attempt to shut him up.
Watching Mittens get mad and really red was great in the face . And Santorum ripped him to pieces for his creation of Romneycare/ Obamacare too.
But Joe go join fellow Romney bot blogger Larry in your safe zone where Mittens is your Superman !
Hey, Thanks for the Laugh.
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