Mitt's Minced Words
Here we go again: Mitt on health-care law and whether it's a penalty, as his campaign said, or whether it's a tax, as he says now.
Mitt's Minced Words
John Baer, Daily News Political Columnist
And so on the 4th of July, a day on which America celebrates its independence from taxation without representation, Mitt Romney chose to celebrate his own independence from his campaign's representation.
Yep, just two days after Romney's chief campaign spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said Romney's position and belief is that the health-care law mandate to purchase insurance is a "penalty" and not a tax, Romney himself said the mandate is "a tax" and not a penalty.
Here's a full report from Thursday's The New York Times.
There are those who might suggest this was done out of political convenience.
It does, after all, realign Mitt with Republican Party conservative leaders who, since the Supreme Court uphelp the law, have been calling the mandate a tax.
On the other hand, it separates Mitt from his own former position on his Massachusetts health-care law, which also has a mandate that he said was not a tax.
Some will see this as a version of Democratic Sen. John Kerry's famous line regarding his vote against $87 billion for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan: "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it."
No doubt there'll soon by TV ads mocking Romney with something like, "I actually did say a health-care mandate is not a tax before I said it is a tax."
Such political gymastics clearly are not about party. Maybe it's more a Massachusetts wealthy pol thing.
Whatever iit is, it's bound to stir the pot some more and add to Romney's perceived persona as a pol who'll say anything (not that that much separates him from the pack) to win or keep public office.
And all the rest of us can do is, well, grrrrrr.
Oh Mittens STILL can't find a position that everyone can agree on so he constantly changing his position in hopes that he won't offend anyone. What a jellyfish. No wonder most Republicans can't stand this guy. He makes John Kerry look absolutely resolute!
The GOP hitched their hopes to the wrong guy to argue against the Individual mandate. Mittens IS Mr. Mandate!
btw: it's not a tax, it's a penalty but now the GOP is worried about the taxing of deadbeats. Yes, let's all continue to pay our fair share and THEIRS!
Good grief! Still time to nominate Rick Santorum...lol— The Fundamentals of the Economy are Fine- I'm hearing that Willard shook his Etch-a-sketch screen yesterday, and thus his new position. — CommonSense in Philly
- Romneycare / Obamacare are laws of the land. Time to focus on jobs in America, instead of China and India.
Romneycare penalty impact has been minimal and confined to narrow group of free loaders. It is time for free loaders to pay as Governor Romney said.— Seed - It looks pretty bleak for Mitt. I think his only option at this point is to play the Mormon card...
http://mankabros.com/blogs/chairman/2012/02/07/mitt-romney-its-time-to-play-the-mormon-card/
— JillKennedy 
Comment removed.- Conservatives/Republicans should've listened to Rick Santorum. No doubt Rick is again this week giving himself high 5s all over the place, and doing his "I told you so" dance....LOL.— CommonSense in Philly
- wow how surprising that the media is running this hogwash story. even more surprising that this Baer guy actually thinks mincing words is the same as flip flopping on a vote. typical sheepish thinking from the left, still waiting for them to come up w an original thought LOL but hey who cares about the POTUS trampling the consitution and hiding documents, lets focus on beating down the GOP candidate for stupid stupid stupid reasons— 420Phillie
"Whatever iit is, it's bound to stir the pot some more and add to Romney's perceived persona as a pol who'll say anything (not that that much separates him from the pack) to win or keep public office."
unlike obama, you hack?? flip-flopped on gay marriage. flip-flopped on DREAM act. flip-flopped on closing guantanamo bay. flip-flipped on civil trials for al qaeda leaders.
and baer wants to play semantics on tax vs penalty? where did mr baer hone his journalistic skills, at Pravda?— barry m goldwater- The legal position advanced by the Obama administration was that the mandate was a tax, not a penalty. Today, Obama's campaign spokesman called it a penalty. Seems to me that he has minced words just as much as Romney.— jfar86
- lazy leftist Baer wants us go read the New York TIMES for the complete story, hahahahahahhahahah, that funny but we are glad to see you have some reality in this short comment from your article
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" Whatever iit is, it's bound to stir the pot some more and add to BARRY SOTOERO'S perceived persona as a pol who'll say anything (not that that much separates him from the pack) to win or keep public office.— goodsax - Old willard really will say anything to fulfill his father's dream. Politicians do flip flop on positions, but romney contradicts his own words so fast it is only to stay on the most current side of the issue and or get more money. There is really no issue that he is concrete on except cutting social programs and getting rid of taxes on businesses.— flavious27
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Thanks, John -- this is a fascinating post: "Mitt said something, and I don't know how it will affect the campaign, but it absolutely will or will not make a difference. Oh yeah, Mitt is just like that other guy from Massachusetts. I think. "
Seriously, did you phone this in from the beach? It smells like a urine-soaked nap. Next time, farm it out to that intern who keeps talking about the Twitter.— DiTurno
John is the author of the book "On The Front Lines of Pennsylvania Politics: Twenty-Five Years of Keystone Reporting" (The History Press, 2012). Reach John at baerj@phillynews.com.
