Salon: 4 Years Ago, Conservatives Saluted Romney For Signing A Healthcare Law Similar To "ObamaCare"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Mitt Romney's hypocrisy and the GOP base
Just four years ago, conservatives saluted him for signing a healthcare law that's very similar to ObamaCare
Steve Kornacki

http://www.salon.com/news/mitt_romney/index.html?story=/news/feature/2010/03/22/mitt_romney_health_care_hypocrisy



It's not news when man bites dog, so why should it be any different when Mitt Romney makes a brash and insincere pronouncement?

And yet there was the one-time Massachusetts governor forcing his way into Monday morning's headlines with what may have been the most over-the-top of all of the over-the-top Republican reactions to the House's passage of Barack Obama's healthcare plan.

"An unconscionable abuse of power," Romney declared while asserting that the president "has betrayed his oath to the nation."

When Mitt starts talking like this, it's usually because he knows his own past record makes him vulnerable on the issue at hand.

And when it comes to healthcare, his hypocrisy is particularly galling. Romney is actually the only governor in American history ever to impose an individual health insurance mandate on his citizens. And an individual mandate, of course, is at the heart of Obama's reform package.

Nor is the mandate the only common ground between RomneyCare and ObamaCare; the Massachusetts plan that Romney signed into law in 2006 is essentially the blueprint for Obama's plan. Both rely on the same basic formula: a requirement that everyone purchase insurance and government assistance for those who can't afford it.

[aquart]

1. So? Everybody happy in Massachusetts?

[Toots]

5. Not as happy as they would be if they had single payer but a hell of lot happier than

those living in Alabama and Georgia.

[aquart]

6. Well, I don't think the insurance companies can sustain themselves

If they actually have to pay claims so, sometime in the next century, the government may finally get off its ass and admit the national necessity of guarding the health of American citizens.

[area51]

2. Of course.

Newt Gingrich was pushing mandates to buy private, unregulated, for-profit insurance. This bill has been a republican wet dream. They got their bill, democrats get to take the fall for it. Does the demo party even exist anymore?

[SpiralHawk]

3. Yes, but....Wide stance Hypocrisy is the Republicon trademark

so please pay no attention whatsoever to this latest example -- just move right along and forget all about it...
:sarcasm:

[Leopolds Ghost]

4. Guess who has the highest private health insurance premiums in the nation?

Minus the government assistance part they have in MA. Besides, MA public policy since Romney has been to ensure there are no indigent who can afford to live in the area -- they only want people with favorable cap rates to move there.

[upi402]

7. self delete, it didn't post???

[upi402]

8. self delete

[upi402]

9. self delete

[upi402]

10. Aren't the Rethugs really backing away from repeal?

They'll also enjoy making us buy their corporate crap soon when they get power. Like Neil Bush's baby Einstein tapes or whatever that was... or guns, NRA membership, tarp & duct tape, vaccinations...

Salon's pretty good actually. I always like their pundits on the TV propaganda machine.