Conservative Group Rips Romney For Declaring Romneycare “Conservative”
As you may have heard, Mitt Romney went on Fox News this past Sunday and described the universal health care plan he passed in Massachusetts four years ago as “the ultimate conservative plan.”
Romney made the eyebrow-raising claim because he aspires to the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, and thus wants to put as much distance as possible between Romneycare and Obamacare, which is loathed by conservative GOP primary voters — even though the two plans are very similar in various ways.
But guess who disagrees with Romney’s assessment? The Club for Growth, a powerhouse conservative group with a lot of sway in GOP primaries. A top Club official tore into Romney, telling us that if Romney believes this, then he’s “in the wrong party.”
“We can say unequivocally that that is not a conservative plan,” Andy Roth, Club for Growth’s vice president for government affairs, told our reporter Ryan Derousseau when asked for comment on Romney’s claim about Romneycare.
On Sunday, Romney elicited skepticism even from Fox’s Chris Wallace when he said: “There a big difference between what we did and what President Obama is doing. What we did I think is the ultimate conservative plan.”
But Club for Growth’s Roth dismissed this as bunk, citing Romneycare’s individual mandate as proof. “The individual mandate is diametrically against what free-market conservatives believe in,” he said, adding that if Romney thinks his plan amounts to a conservative policy “than I think he is in the wrong party.”
Romney would strongly protest this, arguing that his plan was state-based, whereas Obama’s is Federal. But the mechanisms the two plans employ are very similiar, and the Club for Growth’s criticism could complicate his efforts to sell this line to GOP primary voters.
Either way, for Romney to call his effort the “ultimate conservative plan” risks feeding the narrative that hurt him last time: He’s ideologically opportunistic and malleable.
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Romney won’t be able to run fast enough to get away from Mass health care system.
Overall, it’s strikingly similar to what’s being proposed by the Senate; individual and business mandates, all private insurance and *shock* it’s relatively popular in Mass to boot.
Look for Romney to soon claim that he was never Governor of MA.
“No, that was someone else. I’m from Michigan.”
“it’s relatively popular in Mass to boot.”
So popular that I believe a lot of people in Mass voted as they did in the belief they’d have to give that up for a national system.
And don’t I love the story about Palin going to Canada for medical treatment. OMG do I love that.
If Romney had not passed universal health care in Mass, then we would not have a Republican in Ted Kennedy’s seat right now. I say listen to Romney. Progressive Republicans can work with the president to solve the Medicare crisis. Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat no one wants their grand parents to go without health care. This is what will happen if we do nothing.
At least Mitt is pitching a solution.
“If Romney had not passed universal health care in Mass, then we would not have a Republican in Ted Kennedy’s seat right now.”
That is a leap of logic I can’t make – how do you get there?
He keeps touting the fact that he didn’t cut medicare when he signed that bill into law. My question is: Could he make cuts in medicare? it’s a federal program, right?
Let me ask it this way, Pat – are you saying that because Mitt passed what we might consider a Democratic plan, the voters of Mass view the GOP differently than they do elsewhere – that they view the GOP as moderate-evenliberal in Mass?
@PP: ” I say listen to Romney. Progressive Republicans can work with the president to solve the Medicare crisis.”
I heard Romney on NPR twice and all he did was lie through his cosmetically enhanced teeth. About the stimulus bill, the deficit and debt, HCR, and foreign policy. He consistently misstated facts, omitted facts that contradicted his talking points, and generally obfuscated the history of the last 10 years of repiglican rule, and how it relates to what is happening now.
Progressive republican is now an oxymoron. No elected repiglican has shown any signs of progressive or even centrist thought. If they a scintilla if progressivism in them they would support HCR as it is a painfully incremental, centrist, proposal that incorporates the 4 main points that repiglicans used to say should be the foundation of HCR: Mandate, exchanges (cross-state buying), cutting waste, fraud and abuse, and relying on private insurers (no public option).
Tena, if Mass was didn’t have romneycare, then people there would have been less inclined to support Brown, who opposed HCR. Mass residents used the “I’ve got mine” theory. I think that was his point.
“. If they a scintilla if progressivism in them” they have been purged from the GOP already. Cf: Lincoln Chafee, among many others.
“Tena, if Mass was didn’t have romneycare, then people there would have been less inclined to support Brown, who opposed HCR. Mass residents used the “I’ve got mine” theory. I think that was his point.”
I agree with that and in fact, that’s what I was saying in my earlier comment. I do think Brown got elected in part, and maybe it was the main reason, because the people of Mass do not want to change what they have already.
That’s why I was asking Pat to clarify – I thought that was what he/she was saying.
by 2012 Romney will be a pretzel trying to circle the square of all his policy contradictions. Can’t wait.
@Tena “And don’t I love the story about Palin going to Canada for medical treatment. OMG do I love that.”
Actually that story also brings into question Palin’s veracity. She told the exact same story in an ALASKAN town with the ONLY change being that she and her family had to take the ferry to Juneau to get treatment.
Not that Sister Sarah has ever lied…or EVER said what might be expedient at the moment..or EVER pandered to her audience telling them what she thinks they wish to hear.
@ beyond left “Progressive republican is now an oxymoron. No elected repiglican has shown any signs of progressive or even centrist thought.”
While I completely agree with your original statement..if I might take it one step further…I’ve yet to see a republican have a critical thought…they’ve pretty much been reduced to a slimy puddle of Frank Luntz talking points.
“Look for Romney to soon claim that he was never Governor of MA. ‘No, that was someone else. I’m from Michigan.’”
BG. Good one. I think Romney may have finally changed his spots one too many times even for the dopes in the GOP.
…and, here is the result of running extremely progressive candidates against conservative ones in primaries.
“A moderate Democrat who had vowed to oppose any effort by party leaders to push a health care bill through the Senate with a simple majority vote is rethinking her position.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/09/blanche-lincoln-health-ca_n_491568.html
Here is the problem for Romney or any pol with an actual record. The repiglicans have truly become the party of hate..fear..and NO.
Again here in Florida the Republican State Party has launched their first series of ads for the Gubernatorial race. Nowhere in the entire :30 did they mention the Republican candidate. But true to their power point they did trot out their usual divisive bullshit. Alex Sink was a Bank President who made 8 million in salary and bonuses at the same time she was laying people off and her bank was foreclosing on homes.
Of course EVERY FREAKING bank president of a large enough bank is in the same boat…yes they ALL make a great salary…yes banks foreclose..and yes ALL businesses are sometimes forced to make layoffs…does that HONEST FACT matter to repiglicans? Not really they played the divisive card…”She is not one of us…she is one of them”
People who fall for this **** are pathetic. In my entire lifetime there has always been ONE major dividing point between Dems and Repubs…the Repubs HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THE PARTY OF THE RICH!!!! That’s just a simple fact. The Dems have been the party of the the middle class and poor. Simply check the legislation…
Huge tax cuts for the wealthy…Repubs..
Medicare…Social Security..virtually ANY program that benefits our society at large the Dems.
BTW I don’t really blame the Repigs for not mentioning their candidate or their policy positions..they have no policy positions other than cut taxes…and their candidate is an embarrassment as a human being.
It will be interesting to see what role the Club for Growth (which always reminds me of The Hair Club for Men) plays in this election cycle. They’ve had a big impact in state races, making sure the Repub is as far to the right as possible, with less fanfare than the TeaBaggers.
Where are they putting their capital for the November elections?
mikefromA – that is flat awesome! I have been very skeptical and I am going to be so delighted to be proven wrong – I have never hoped so much to be wrong about something.
That’s just stupendous news.
“It will be interesting to see what role the Club for Growth (which always reminds me of The Hair Club for Men) ”
me too.
Maybe “extremely progressive” was a stretch.
Lets just say more open to common sense ideas rather than ideology.
Mike, that’s telling news about Blanche.
PHA needs to be our strategy on this.
Primary His/Her Asss.
Governor Perfect Hair is the ultimate pandering phoney.
@oddjob “Governor Perfect Hair is the ultimate pandering phoney.”
You mean he doesn’t REALLY think Texas should secede from the union?
rukidding = I think oddjob was calling Mitt “perfecthair.”
Perry is “Goodhair” – I know it’s confusing – all the Southern Baptist GOP hair – have you ever seen such hair in your life? If they don’t have it, they get a toupee that looks like it: viz, Nelson.
I always feel that Romney might burst into tears at any moment.
It’s unnerving, especially in a presidential candidate.
All, look at these numbers, just awful for Dems
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/poll-nearly-half-of-dem-voters-not-enthusiastic-about-2010/
unless reform passes!
Tena…thanks for the correction…wouldn’t want to make good the enemy of perfect. LOL
Although that’s a really really tough call..whose hair is better…Ricky or Mitt?
This is totally OT but every time I see a post like this I feel compelled to bring it to everyone’s attention. Poverty in America is our dirty little secret. And Scott C. wonders why I’m trying to “coerce” him to part with a little of his personal fortune. We should all be ashamed and unafraid to ask for help in whatever form, education, health care, work programs etc. to raise our population out of poverty.
“At least 50 million people are ill-fed — up from 37 million just a year ago — including 17 million children. Hunger in America is now at an all-time high, and there are currently entire national geographic regions — the very large 15-state ‘South’ being one of them — where more than half of all public school students are poor and ill-fed.”
“And 100 million people, fully one-third of the entire U.S. population, are at or below “200% of the federal poverty line of $21,834 for a family of four”, which is a needs-measure made lame by the fact that no family of four can actually comfortably live on such a low annual income.”
http://www.alternet.org/economy/145950/our_dirty_little_secret%3A_who%27s_really_poor_in_america?page=entire
I’m also curious who Club-For-Growthers will support in 2012. Romney is at least a capitalist businessman. They would presumably want a capitalist like Steve Forbes who they supported in the past I believe or a malleable sort like Rick Santorum. (Definietly not Huckabee.) But again, surveying the field, no one leaps out as their obvious candidate.
@lmsinca To borrow from earlier in this thread…
“I feel ya” This hunger also has huge ancillary effects all of which are bad.
In St. Petersburg we ended busing a few years back and returned to “neighborhood schools”. The placed very attractive magnet programs in the schools in the “bad” neighborhoods to keep some kind of integration.
Problem is that at one of our middle schools where a majority of the students are on “free breakfast/lunch” programs they are now having large scale disruptions.
I believe in personal reponsibility…but it is just ignorant to ignore the effect of poverty on things like education. Giving a child a free breakfast or lunch is better than letting them go hungry..but it doesn’t do a lot for their self esteem when they look across the cafeteria at the “other” group of kids with their laptops.
People keep screaming about jobs…but we need jobs with a fair pay…CEO’s cannot possibly be worth the ABSURED salaries they have been smart enough to gain largely though collusion on their Boards.
In 1965…a very good year..I was a junior in high school CEO’s made 25X what the workers made.
Now thanks to the rePIGlicans they earn over 250X what the workers earn. Thank you ST Ronnie and George the Stupid! Are companies managed that much better now than in ‘65. Did they get massive taxpayer funded bailouts in ‘65? Is our economy better now or then?
http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_20060621/
@lmsinca–and yet, the 15-state South will vote Republican. Again. The party that says that if you’re unemployed you don’t need benefits because that just encourages you to not look for a job. Sigh.
This isn’t big news in UT. I can’t quote statistics, but because the Mormon Church has a large philanthropic outreach in the state, the Republican-dominated legislature cuts benefits to the poor every single year. More and more people here fall through the cracks every year.
“Although that’s a really really tough call..whose hair is better…Ricky or Mitt?”
Might as well ask which one is gayer. Actually, I know the answer to that.
I’m placing bets in how long it takes Perry’s wife to file for divorce after he loses in November. I’m guessing about 60 seconds.
@Tena….I have to confess that Mitt and Rick make a great looking couple. Don’t you agree?
rukidding = I think oddjob was calling Mitt “perfecthair.”
Yes.
Oh poor Mittens! If he becomes the nominee in 2012 the healthcare debate will be very interesting. Last week, Tim Noah of Slate did something very wicked. He published a bunch of quotes by Obama and Mittens as they both were trying to sell their respective plans. But he doesn’t tell who said the quotes. You have to guess. And I bet even Romney won’t be able to get them right. Try it..
————
Obama-Romney Mix ‘n’ Match
http://www.slate.com/id/2246733/
——-
Tells you what a bull all this socialism charges are..The senate bill is way, way conservative than what clintons tried in 1993. And if Romney says his plan was conservative, then so is Obama’s plan. The Mass plan and the senate bill are quite close.
MB – there is this little matter of the people of Mass actually liking this horrible conservative health care enough to elect someone on the basis that he would keep them from having to change to a national system.
MB, IOW, one man’s corporate SellOut Plan is another man’s Life-Saving health care plan, if Mass is any indication and I think it is.
Not only the truth has a leftwing bias. Also, the best plan for solving the health care mess has it. This conservative club said so themselves!
Dems and thinking Repubs choose the public option, Repubs are just labeling it differently.
Actually, I’m not sure how much effect that particular campaign tactic of Scott Brown’s had. I hardly heard anything at all about that line, except in passing on the news once in a while.
I think more likely is that the Democrats’ generally feckless approach to governing, combined with the way they tend to assume they will win and always get there way here in MA (the state party tends to work that way here). I think if the Congressional Dems. had seemed as though they had some party discipline last autumn and had loudly made their case that what they wanted to do was a truly good idea, and that the bill contained a lot of features that the American people want (like the GOP does when it gets behind an agenda), Martha Coakley would now be the senator from Massachusetts, even as her vote wasn’t really needed.
Cr*p.
I don’t proofread obviously.
I think those first two factors had a lot more to do with Brown’s victory.
oddjob. 100% agree re: Brown & Coakley. HCR was far less important than the general ineptitude of the D.C. Dems already in power. Not worth the trouble of voting for another one. That’s my take.
“Perry is “Goodhair” – I know it’s confusing – all the Southern Baptist GOP hair – have you ever seen such hair in your life? If they don’t have it, they get a toupee that looks like it: viz, Nelson.”
Nelson? You mean Willie’s ponytail is an extension!? The horror!
The reason Mass isn’t screaming about this travesty is because we taxpayers across the nation are paying for 50% of it! That’s right. The people of Mass get special treatment that the rest of us are paying for!!!