Romney the reformer, and the risks of roadkill
A Republican's health reform is similar to Obama's health reform
Romney the reformer, and the risks of roadkill
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
It has been fascinating to watch Mitt Romney during these first days of the health reform era (or, as the Republicans call it, "Armageddon"). We've long known, of course, that Romney has a penchant for retooling his convictions to fit the exigencies of the moment, but what this presidential aspirant is doing this week - shedding his old image as a responsible, pragmatic executive; brandishing a pitchfork so that he can pander to the most irrational elements of the conservative base - is downright breath-taking.
There's no mystery why he's doing this. He wants to win the '12 GOP nomination (although he has yet to formally declare his candidacy), and he figures that the best way to win the key early contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina is to convince right-leaning primary voters that he too sees Barack Obama as a socialist/fascist/Kenyan/whatever and a betrayer of America besides. Which is why, on Monday, Romney claimed that the president has "betrayed his oath to the nation" by signing "unconstitutional" health care reform; and why, yesterday, he circulated an email asking his political supporters to donate money to the cause of repealing health care reform.
And yet, despite his latest fervently rightward tilt, I suspect that Romney may well wind up as roadkill after his rival contestants out him as a phony. It's a 30-second attack ad waiting to happen, and it has the advantage of being essentially true:
The Obama health reform law that Romney purportedly loathes actually resembles, in many key respects, the Massachusetts health reform law that Romney championed and signed as governor - starting with the individual mandate, the requirement that all citizens purchase health insurance. The same requirement that Romney now finds so objectionable.
Rather than having me list the provisions that the two laws have in common, let's turn the job over to Fox News. Seventeen days ago, host Chris Wallace sliced Romney to ribbons on this very issue. Here's Wallace: "Let's look at the plan that you signed into law in Massachusetts in 2006. You have an individual mandate. You have an employer mandate. You have subsidies for some of the uninsured. You set minimum insurance coverage standards. Again, a lot of emails I got from conservatives make this point. They say it sure sounds an awful lot like Obamacare....We got a lot of email from conservatives this week who said that you are the wrong man" to be making the case against Obama.
This is not good. A Republican presidential aspirant who runs afoul of Fox News might as well give it up and go sell shoes. At one point, Romney insisted that his reform law had "no government insurance, no government option, if you will." Wallace retorted, "Well, there's no government option in the Obama plan anymore, either." To which Romney sputtered, "No, that's right, that's right, and so what we did was entirely different..." It was ugly, watching this guy trying to shed his own record.
The record shows that, when Romney was governor and closest to his true self as a business-oriented executive, he worked overtime to cover the uninsured and require everyone to purchase coverage - with government subsidies, if necessary. He became the first (and he's still the only) governor to sign a health insurance mandate.
On April 8, 2006, shortly before signing the Massachusetts law, he talked up health reform on NPR, sounding much like Obama today: "We're spending a billion dollars giving health care to people who don't have insurance. And my question was, could we take that billion dollars and help the poor purchase insurance? Let them pay what they can afford. We'll subsidize what they can't."
He told NPR that the reforms would work only if everyone bought coverage. He said that those citizens who can afford insurance would be required to buy it - "otherwise, you're just passing your expenses on to someone else." Obama couldn't have said it better.
But my favorite part was when Romney attacked those who would defy the law and refuse to buy coverage: "That's not Republican, that's not Democratic, that's not libertarian. That's just wrong."
Today, it's clear that Romney 2.0 (or perhaps it's 3.0) would prefer that conservative Republican voters ignore the earlier Romney or, better yet, remain blissfully unaware. The latter scenario is not very likely. The conservative Club for Growth, the interest group that seeks to expunge all moderate impulses from the GOP, is already assailing Romney; as Club official Andy Roth reportedly remarked two weeks ago, "The individual mandate is diametrically against what free-market conservatives believe in," and if Romney thinks he won't be held accountable for his mandate, "then I think he is in the wrong party."
And wait to see what happens during the long presidential primary season (which, believe it or not, begins in a mere eight months, right after the midterms). Rival Republican candidates will likely bring up the Massachusetts law in the debates, and they will likely distill its essence in the TV ads. Just like in the Fox News gig, Romney will have to spend precious time on defense, explaining how his law differs from Obama's law. He who toils on defense is least likely to survive.
In theory, Romney could take the opposite tack - by pointing out that the health coverage mandate concept was actually hatched by the conservative Heritage Foundation back in the early '90s, as a way to get people to take responsibility for themselves - but, of course, it would be political suicide for him to suggest that conservatives are now behaving as hypocrites, attacking their own mandate concept only because Obama has embraced it. And besides, there's no way Romney can flip flop yet again, now that he has morphed into a placard-wielding populist who's apparently intent on assailing the mandate embraced by his former self. His new, overcompensating self may be his only hope for capturing conservative hearts, tenuous as those prospects might be.
So he'll have to twist in the wind indefinitely, even as the White House keeps twisting the knife. On Monday, press secretary Robert Gibbs mentioned the similarities between Obama's law and Romney's law, before adding: "I'm sure Gov. Romney hates every time I say that." You can bet on it.
Alvenada : now I missed your last. Maybe I should start drinking ...— still_independent- Still: Yes, I see it, but this stuff cuts both ways in and in no way should be used to demonize the political oppostion as a whole. . Whoever is doing this stuff will get caught. The real issues are what do we do with the 13 trillion in debt, our unfunded obligations to the programs we already have, taxes, deficits, jobs, Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan.— Alvenada
- Alvenada : agreed. But that's different than some that pretend it doesn't happen. Or those that only decry it when it's "the other guy" doing it.— still_independent
- Tal Vendada: I heard both Chase Utley and Jason Werth are Republicans. What are going to do now!— Alvenada
- Back to the real issues/ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36025681/ns/us_news-life/— Alvenada
- MOCKY: You'll be missing the fireworks of this cocktail. You take pols who yell "baby killer," apologize, and then push for donations based on their misspeaking. You add right wing talkers calling Dems the enemy on a daily basis. You add health care with a civil-rights implication (taxpayers paying health care for welfare deadbeats. What color are welfare deadbeats? What's the first color that comes to a Conse 'Pub's mind? You add militia members looking for an excuse to defend America from Muslims like Obama with rifles. As you know, Obama is deliberately trying to ruin the country, and they want their country back. This cocktail is blood red, funereal black with the intoxicating taste of a constitutional revolution. We are at the point of property damage, and the next step is a physical example: human pain, human maiming or human death. Fireworks are boiling to the explosion point. All we need is a hero with a rifle and bullets to tell some how to take their country back from the deadbeat in The WH.— Talvenada
- MOCKY: The good thing about baseball is I don't care if Curt Schilling is a Conse 'Pub. Only what he does on the field.— Talvenada
- MOCKY: I don't care about demonizing 'Pubs, but if they start taking physical action against congressmen of only one party, there is no both sides do it.— Talvenada
- This is why I don't trust Romney.— Falls Ed
- Romney is another big government, overspending politician, just like his pals McCain, Obama, Clinton and Bush. When these guys have the Oval Office within grasp, they have no convictions, no scruples and no shame. The presidency has become too big a prize, with more power than ever. Congress needs to hold the executive branch in check, as outlined in our Constitution. But no, they prefer to be doormats as long some pork comes their way. The public is growing steadily impatient with their ways and would prefer a return to the limited government that was chartered by the Constitution.— Mark Glaeser
- Chris Landee, yes, you can get and continue coverage if you can pay for it. Hence my question which you failed to answer. What is so magical about Obamacare that the people you mention will be able to afford their coverage? It is not free, right? They still have to pay for it, right? A family of four making $50,000 still will have to pony up about $4,500 for their coverage, money they probably do not have just lying around. So, what is the panacea about Obamacare?— tom - wilmington, de
- still_independent, yes, you can change your mind and not be a hypocrite. However, it would be great if the mind change is explained, if the person came out and said "I was wrong, and this is a good idea", especially if they originally openly mocked the idea. As to the happenings surrounding those who voted for the measure, bricks through windows and faxed nooses are done by extremists and should stop. As to calling out of names, that is a constant ploy of the left. Remember the person who shouted "kill him" at that Scranton rally? The secret service never found anyone other than that one reporter who heard it. Does that mean it did not happen? NO. But like a person without an alibi that can be corroborated, it leads to suspicion. As for death threats, these guys probably all get death threats as a matter of routine. Look at what happens to Ann Coulter? Does the left get outraged about that? No. After the prop 8 vote in CA, people's names were printed and property destroyed by a mob and, except on Fox News, was there any outrage? People lost their jobs, their businesses suffered when their names were publicized. Where was the outrage then, the silence was deafening. Sure, it may have been reported, but no condemnation. Those people and actions are justified, they are just carrying out their outrage of being denied rights, so that makes it okay. Death threats are a way of life for people in the public eye who rally to a cause, who get opinions riled, and who make controversial decisions. These guys should just get a cup and deal with it. My guess is it is not the first time it has happened, but conveniently now they can paint the right as the radicals doing it.— tom - wilmington, de
- And the band just keeps on playing. From Politico.."Democrats killed an amendment by Republican Sen. Tom Coburn to prevent the newly created insurance exchanges from using federal money to cover Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs for rapists, pedophiles and other sex offenders. The amendment failed 57-42..." Yep, those ads coming up to November will just keep getting better and better. Note to Alvenada, white wine and American Idol? Are you that hard up for getting some? Sheesh!!!— tom - wilmington, de
- From the same Politico story..."Democratic Sen. Max Baucus urged his colleagues to defeat the amendment. "This is a serious bill. This is a serious debate. The amendment offered by the senator from Oklahoma makes a mockery of the Senate, the debate and the American people. It is not a serious amendment. It is a crass political stunt aimed at making 30-second commercials, not public policy," he said." Sure, ED drugs for rapists and pedophiles is not a serious issue, is it? It may make for 30 second commercials, but what great 30 second commercials they will make.— tom - wilmington, de
- Why is this blog called "DP's American Debate"? Relentlessly posting one view point doesn't seem to be true to the "Debate" context of the title. Instead of 'Debate", perhaps "Soapbox" would be more apt.— PeterMyers
Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.
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