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AP Photo/Cliff Owen
Before eventually deciding that he was once again a conservative, Mitt Romney (R) enacted a massive, sweeping government takeover of his state's health care system that Democrats now regularly liken ObamaCare to and cite as proof that it might not be a total catastrophe.
The only problem: It's completely bankrupting what's left of the state's economy. As Massachusetts Treasurer Tim Cahill has explained, under the ObamaCare experiment in that state:
-Insurance premiums there are now the highest in the country.
-Health care costs there have skyrocketed, not fallen, and health care spending is now 27% higher than the national average.
-The state is already having to conduct cost containment hearings.
-Seven hospitals there are suing over outrageously inadequate reimbursements.
-It has only "worked" as long as it has due to extensive federal assistance (who's going to bail out the country when this time-disproven insanity goes national?).
-Massachusetts was the easiest place in the country to make ObamaCare work (it was enacted with the highest number of already insured citizens in the country)--and it was still this much of a disaster. Imagine how much worse it will be for states like Texas and California (which have upwards of 20% uninsured).
This lunacy will utterly devastate our economy--which liberals will then use to call for even more government intrusions and interference. Meanwhile, all the American people want is for Congress to get out of the way and allow the economy to recover from the last Democrat policy failure.
Comments
And folks are looking at Romney as a potential re-runner in 2012? This is an example of why we need to investigate the records of those that want office no matter what they call themselves or say about themselves....actions speak louder than words. We really need to pray that this horrendous legislation DOES NOT pass!
Robert...liberals don't want actual facts or life experiences,they just want feelings....facts get in the way of their feelings & agenda.
Thanks for your facts !!
Keep on keeping on !!!
An incredibly superficial reading of the MA experience. I'd recommend digging a little deeper than the talking points to understand what's really going on there.
There is no doubt that that Romney is a savvy businessman. If you saw his interview on Fox Sunday then you should have a better idea of who the real man is. To my thinking, he is pure poli-speak, capable of smoothing over the rough edges of a tough question without really giving the answer.
It takes a lot of practice to be aware of the hot button issues while crafting a sort of poll-tested answer that will not upset too many of the listeners. That is not the kind of leader I am looking for.
Fortunately, we can examine his record to gain the insight into the real man, while he was on the hot seat, trying to please everyone.
Romney’s plan didn't raise taxes on indiv or businesses, cut Medicare, include “public options”, raise spending, or impose ins price controls. No attempt to take over health care. The MA plan was 70 pages vs 2,000 page maze of regs, calls for state plans, no usurpation of a power constitutionally reserved to the states. A market exchange for health ins - consumers shop among private plans for lowest price is consumer empowerment at its best. Indiv purchasing ins on their own to receive the same tax advantages as those who are covered by their employers. Tax deduct for health-ins purchases is a key free-market conservative reform. MA subsidizes the purchase of private ins to lower-income people using $ the state was paying for free care at hospitals. Shifted funds to indiv so they could purchase ins on their own. Had support fr both sides! '09 study by non-partisan MA Tax Foundatn said costs "relatively modest". State's cost 1-2% of budget! New Dem Gov Patrick upped benefits-costs
Tom, those aren't talking points... they are facts!
Robert Moon should be flogged. RomneyCare and ObamaCare are two different programs.
Why is that Romney critics can't be honest? Why can't they account for all of the facts involved with Romney's enacted health care?
This scmacks of the kind of half-baked logic coming from Washington, where the facts are hidden to push an agenda.
C'mon Robert Moon. You have to admit that Rmoney's original plan has been amended and changed since Romney approved the plan. There are other mitigating factors as well.
The question is WHY is MA health care having problems? Was it due to the PLAN or were there OTHER circumstances?
Yes... I know. You're VERY afraid of the why and the details. Using facts and details it is nearly impossible to criticize Romney himself because others have meddled with the plan its execution.
I think Robert Moon doesn't like Romney's Tea Party comments. This article should read, 'Tea Party Targets Romney Unfairly"
Read Romney's Book, "No Apology - the Case for America's Greatness."
In short, “No Apology” is Mitt Romney’s personal statement. The book is intended to, and does, tell us a lot about the man who wrote it, and not just about his ideas. Over the last two years, a number of people have told me that they liked Gov. Romney as a candidate but wondered what really makes him tick. “No Apology” is the answer. Anyone who reads the book—whether they agree or disagree with its positions—will see the motives that make Romney “tick”: the entrepreneur’s desire to fix what is broken, the lawyer’s passion for organizing information and arguing ideas, the proud husband’s devotion to wife and family, and the unshakeable American exceptionalism of a man whose father taught him to love his country.
Tom: "An incredibly superficial reading of the MA experience. I'd recommend digging a little deeper than the talking points to understand what's really going on there."
When ObamaCare was tried in Massachusetts, everything got far worse, contrary to everything liberals said...and it went wrong exactly the way conservatives said it would. Same with Canada and Europe.
I'm sure you will call it "superficial" to identify ObamaCare as the problem when we get the same result NATIONALLY too. The left's persistent inability to connect painfully obvious dots and learn from history is not my problem.
AZHombre: "Romney’s plan didn't raise taxes on indiv or businesses..."
Okay, so...even SOMEWHAT involving government makes things far worse. Nice counterpoint.
Obama 2012: "Robert Moon should be flogged. RomneyCare and ObamaCare are two different programs."
For correctly noting that liberals have repeatedly hailed it as proof that ObamaCare works? Um...flog LIBERALS if you have a problem with their assertions.
Tom H: "You have to admit that Rmoney's original plan has been amended and changed since Romney approved the plan. There are other mitigating factors as well. The question is WHY is MA health care having problems? Was it due to the PLAN or were there OTHER circumstances?"
Only liberals are mystified by what could "really" be behind one government take-over after another proving to be total disaster. It's fairly obvious to the adult world.
Romney 2012: "Read Romney's Book, 'No Apology - the Case for America's Greatness...'"
He put the least effective mechanism ever devised--government--in charge of health care. There is nothing else to talk about. He cannot hide behind the fact that Democrats made changes to his liberal policy.
It's still an inexcusably left-wing policy...one that completely abandons any notion of the proper role of government. He is a Democrat and needs to stop mislabeling himself.
No, actually, government in the form of a single authoritarian reuler is the MOST effective mechanism for accomplishing things: "I said do it or you die and the next guy will do it."
That's followed in close order by oligarchic government and unregulated monopolies.
Unregulated free markets come close behind, because they so easily can evolve into monopolistic or fascist corporatocracies.
"Less effective" is not necessarily bad - it means changes come more slowly and paths can be altered as conditions change or less than desired results become apparent.
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