If I were president, on Day One I would issue an executive order paving the way for Obamacare waivers to all 50 states. The executive order would direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services and all relevant federal officials to return the maximum possible authority to the states to innovate and design health-care solutions that work best for them.
As I have stated time and again, a one-size-fits-all national plan that raises taxes is simply not the answer. Under our federalist system, the states are “laboratories of democracy.” They should be free to experiment. By the way, what works in one state may not be the answer for another. Of course, the ultimate goal is to repeal Obamacare and replace it with free-market reforms that promote competition and lower health-care costs. But since an outright repeal would take time, an executive order is the first step in returning power to the states.
Well said, by the best qualified of the Republican aspirates. But for my support, the walkback from the Massachusetts plan to be a bit more overt. Go for it, Mitt!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI meant "aspirants".
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCordially,
WAP
So what is to prevent a future President from rescinding the 50-state waver (or, In Obama's case, a 57-state waver)? Worse: such a waver would lessen the push for an outright repeal. It is like taking aspirin to treat cancer.
If Republicans cannot muster the courage to repeal the monstrosity called ObamaCare by any means necessary, then they should simply go out of business and stop pretending to be a major political party.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBy 2014, there will be an auto parts store in Cleveland and four guys in St. Louis who don't have Obamacare waivers, and boy are their taxes gonna be high.
I got my waiver last month. Only cost $299.
The Obama Administration...
C'Mon In! WE'RE DEALIN'!
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse... and thus the honorable Governor Romney would precipitate a constitutional crisis by invalidating the law of the land by executive fiat.
The Executive is not a legislator, regardless of party. Most conservatives know this. I wonder why Romney doesn't?
No, wait... no, I don't wonder.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI must be confused. Lower health care costs? I thought we've been told time and again that the goal in Massachusetts was to get everybody covered and that getting costs down wasn't one of the goals. Now it is? Did we learn something with that so called experiment? If so, why can't it ever be acknowledged and discussed? Thus the reason the Governor has lost somebody who voted for him last time around.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGreat! Mitt Romney as president would unleash fifty governors like Mitt Romney to experiment with socialized medicine in every state.
Not for nothin' Mitt, but I'd feel a lot better about you if you owned up to the fact you let a band of Hibernian Highwaymen on Beacon Hill take you for a ride.
You got rolled by Sal DiMasi. Why would anyone think you would stand a chance in the majors when you were blanked by a minor league hack?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePoor Mitt. He's doomed to carry this around like the Ancient Mariner:
Ah! Well a-day! What evil looks
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHad I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the albatross
About my neck was hung.
While the "laboratories of democracy" has a nice sound... I think someone should check into it's origins and tread carefully. External Link
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseClearly ObamaCare is a disaster, and clearly Mitt is not a fan. Despite his misstep in Massachusetts (which was a product of the state more than of Mitt), the man is clearly not going to allow ObamaCare to stand.
Overall, I'm good with Mitt, as long as he takes the border, immigration enforcement and E-Verify seriously. That, for me, is the litmus test for a politician of conviction versus a politician governed by his pandering instinct.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou can't say in one sentence that you want each individual state to decide their own solution and in the next say;
"Of course, the ultimate goal is to repeal Obamacare and replace it with free-market reforms"
Which means that each state will decide until the Government eventually tells it what to do!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf this is the position being run up the flagpole, no one is saluting.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI would have been more favorably impressed had Mr. Romney emphasized empowering individuals, instead of merely empowering a different level of government. It may be that he could not do so by executive order, but at least he could have cited restoring individual autonomy as an important goal.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuseyo mittens,
job 1 is to repeal every page of this 2700 monstrosity so future communist can't restart it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuseby any means necessary...
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Which means that each state will decide until the Government eventually tells it what to do!"
Isn't the point to have the State Government of each state free to make their own choices? Weird, that sounds Constitutional...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMore tripe from the CFR's next pick.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMitt Romney is the godfather of socialist healthcare in America
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRomney is stealing from Gingrich already....
Newt made this point about Executive Orders weeks ago....
External Link
Too bad Bay Staters can't "waive" out of their socialized healthcare disaster
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSaid the man who passed the same thing in Massachusetts. FAIL
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