They haven’t even finished counting 2010 midterm ballots (New York’s 1st congressional district is still undecided), but already potential Republican candidates are testing the presidential waters for 2012. Among the early frontrunners will be former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
Romney will have several powerful advantages: name recognition, plenty of money, a strong organization left over from 2008, and a reputation for business competence during an election in which economic issues and job creation are likely to dominate. But he will also have one enormous albatross hanging around his neck: the Massachusetts health-care program.
Advertisement
One of the clearest lessons of the 2010 elections was that voters remain strongly opposed to President Obama’s health-care reform. And if voters in general dislike Obamacare, Republican voters positively loathe it. According to the most recent Rasmussen survey, voters overall support repealing Obamacare by a margin of 58–37. Among Republicans, 84 percent favor repeal.
Romney’s problem is that, despite his demurrals, the parallels between Obamacare and his 2006 Massachusetts reform plan are striking. Both plans are built around an individual mandate requiring citizens to purchase a government-designed insurance plan. Both plans dramatically increase government subsidies and Medicaid eligibility. Both plans use an exchange to redesign the individual and small-group insurance markets, creating a “managed competition” model for insurance. And both Massachusetts and Obamacare prohibit insurers from managing risk, shifting costs from older and sicker individuals to the young and healthy. Neither Obamacare nor Romneycare includes any substantial cost-containment mechanism.
Romneycare has proven to be a disaster in Massachusetts, providing a clear vision of the future under Obamacare. The number of uninsured has been reduced — at great cost — but the program has failed to achieve the promise of universal coverage. The subsidies and other costs have proven an enormous burden for the state budget. Insurance premiums have continued to rise, leading Massachusetts to attempt to impose premium caps and even a global budget. Insurers are losing money and threatening to pull out of the state.
It isn’t very hard to imagine his primary opponents preparing their 30-second attack ads.
Already, Tea Party activists are raising alarms. Romneycare is “something he’s going to have to explain,” warns Christen Varley, president of the Greater Boston Tea Party, “and it might just be a disaster for him.” Plymouth Rock Tea Party founder Lisa Martin says her distaste for Romneycare has forced her to consider other potential candidates, such as Sarah Palin. And presaging national discontent, Tea Party Express president Amy Kremer told the Christian Broadcasting Network that Romney’s Massachusetts health-care reform will “absolutely not pass muster with members.”
I will not be able to vote for Romney. Romneycare has proven to be a disaster in Massachusetts and it is terrible. I don't want Romneycare or ObamaCarer. They both suck. I want the best health care in the world, the care we had before Obama took office. This man would gladly see us all die young than admit he was wrong. I want the medlers out of my business. My healthcare is not the busines of the Unites States government. It is my business and they are meddling in my business against my will.
I liked your article about Mitt Romney much more than the those silly liberal attacks that don't explain Romney's side. However, if that is all that is at issue with Mr. Romney than the pro's outweigh the con's. I would vote for Mitt Romney in 2012.
Besides Mr. Romney defending the Massachusetts Health plan, shouldn't The Heritage Foundation do so as well. I believe the HF sat at the table and help design this plan right along with Mitt Romney. I've never known Mitt Romney not to have a brain bank of people to help him to solve any problem that involves the public interest.
What you guys do not understand is that health care is a state issue. So I do not fault Romney for what he did in Massachusetts. That was what the state decided to do, and the state was within its constitutional right. It may not be working as planned, but they can fix it. So I do not see why this should be held against Romney on the National stage. Health care is a state issue!
It's the fact that Romney has been groomed his whole life to be president - since his daddy, George, lost the nom to Richard Nixon in 1968. He wants revenge and redemption for the Romney family name.
Hence, all the flip flops to win whatever election he happens to be running for. It's not about service, it's about winning one for the family name.
Ask any candidate at any level the question: Why are you running?
Then after he answers for the health care law he passed in Mass, he has to figure out how to explain his Mormon racist beliefs.
How can someone who wants to be the leader of the United States of America believe in books and writings that clearly discriminate against people of color?
If he admits that it is a failure, and akes responsibility for the mistake, then that will be OK. The problem is that he continues to deny deny deny. The denial is a lie.
His plan would have worked, but
Romneycare never passed. The Mass democrats filled his proposed bill with so much pork, he vetoed the bill due to the excessive costs. The democrat legislators overruled him.
Romney is the type of establishment RINO that the grassroots are fed up with. It is telling that his signature "achievement" is almost identical to Obama, Pelosi and Reid's. I'll never forget him saying "I like mandates", then having a bewildered look when the statement wan't embraced by the audience.
I'd prefer a 2nd Obama term to Mitt Romney. At least then we won't have to defend a statist and be blamed for the failure of his policies.
Gov. Romney will have to confront this issue whether he likes it or not. RomneyCare like ObamaCare is a Government takeover of Healthcare no matter how you try to dress it up. I would vote for him over Obama but in a Primary Election I would find someone who didn't try to defend a government takeover of any kind.
To reiterate steve dexo, it is a state issue and that is all Romney intended for that plan. JJ he doesn't need to explain the healthcare law or his religion, especially to you. You have the answers for the nations problems, than you run for president instead of blabbing about nonsense that never kept any president from being elected. I'm sorry everyone but all your concerns are just petty, even mine, and if we don't have the solution then all this rambling goes in one ear and out the other.
steve dexo
The reason RomneyCare is being held against Romney on the National stage is that during the last presidential campaign, he wanted to do to the nation what he did in MA. External Link
If Romney gets the GOP nomination I will campaign tooth and nail for Barack Obama. I would rather have a two-term bi-racial president who is a Socialist than a "conservative" President who believes in "compassion" by using the mechanics of government.
Illogical? Why yes, but so is the idea of anyone who wants to make Mitt Romney the GOP presidential candidate.
James,
You might have a small point about the democrat legislators, but as the Wall Street Journal said: “Mr. Romney should have known better before signing on to this not-so-grand experiment” External Link
Why would anyone think that a guy who got no traction in 2008 will have any chance in 2012 given the fact that healthcare has become such an issue and this guy is on the wrong side of it?
Let's also face fact, right or wrong, as a Mormon, he has no chance in any of the southern primaries.
Put another way, GOP primary voters are going to choose a NE RINO over a Palin, Perry, Thune, etc? I don't think so.
Criticism of Romney is clearly bigotry. As in 2008, he is the best qualified candidate in the GOP field. I'm so disgusted with the false statements and ideas about his Mormon faith. That is what so-called "Christian" conservatives dislike about him. Look, Mormons are Christians. They don't have the same view of the nature of Christ as traditional Christianity, but there are other Christian faiths with differing perspectives on the nature of diety, just talk to an Armenian Christian.
Christ is the center of Mormon theology. He is the Creator and Redeemer of the world. If that doesn't qualify as "Christian", I'd like to know what does.
As for jjtomlin's ridiculous claim that Mormons are racist. Do you have any idea of the worldwide diversity of its membership? If you aren't informed and don't understand Mormon doctrine, stay out of any discussion of it. You're just displaying your ignorance.
That is still an opinion jimr3. It may be a notible publication but still just an opinion. Thank you everyone for your opinions I see where everyone gets there facts and fictions from. Let's hear from someone that is not brain-washed by all the liberal garbage that few of you are getting your "facts" from.
If Miff Romney gets the GOP nomination I will fight for him tooth and nail. Romney will make a great president. Maybe there will be someone better in the Republican primary, we will see, but we have to get the communist out of the white house in 2012.
