That "fire people" thing? Willard says he was talking about "ObamaCare." Yeah...THAT's the ticket.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Pictured above: Mitt Romney.

Monday, Jan 9, 2012 3:58 PM Pacific Standard Time
Romney defends his “fire people” gaffe with a lie
He claims he was talking about "Obamacare" preventing people from "firing" their insurance company. It doesn't
By Joan Walsh

http://www.salon.com/2012/01/09/romney_defends_his_fire_people_gaffe_with_a_lie/

I appreciate the diligence of reporters and pundits who have pointed out that when Mitt Romney said “I like being able to fire people,” he wasn’t talking, literally, about firing people. Yes, Bain Capital often made its money firing people, but Romney was actually talking about the right to ditch an insurance provider that isn’t providing good service when he made his unfortunate remark. So his GOP rivals who are piling on – Rick Perry set up a ringtone that features Romney saying “I like being able to fire people” over and over – aren’t being entirely fair.

On the other hand, Romney’s not being at all fair in the way he’s defended himself. He told reporters he was only talking about defending consumers from the supposed tyranny of the Affordable Care Act – and he lied about what it does.

“I don’t want to live in a world where we have Obamacare telling us which insurance we have to have, which doctor we can have, which hospital we go to,” Romney said at a press conference Monday. “I believe in the setting as I described this morning where people are able to choose their own doctor, choose their own insurance company. If they don’t like their insurance company or their provider, they can get rid of it.”

***

So in the course of allowing Romney to correct the record, most news organizations are allowing him to propagate a lie about the president. I know things are moving quickly, on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, but I thought I’d take the time to point that out.

[dimbear]

1. Mittens can splain it all he wants. Still makes a great soundbite. We haven't heard the last of it

IMHO. Has a nice ring to it, coming from Mr Silver Spoon in his 'mouth.'

[quaker bill]

2. Even so, still a very privledged notion

My employer subsidizes health insurance coverage from exactly one provider. In 40 years of my career with roughly 10 employers, I have only ever had one option of provider through my employer. At my current employer I have three coverage options, the best being only a shadow of the coverage I was able to get for a tiny fraction of the cost 30 years ago, all through the same provider.

Now, in theory, I could "fire" this company and go without the employer subsidized coverage. I could then come up with the roughly $8,000 a year my employer provides as a subsidy then add in my current contribution, and attempt to find better coverage. This is a theory of course, because I could not afford it.

Most people are either stuck with the provider their employer selects, or worse, finding the cheapest thing they can pay for on their own, or worse yet, going without coverage because they simply cannot afford any of it. Very few people have a realistic option of shopping around and "firing" poor insurance performers. Only rich people can do this.

That Romney believes he can base policy on options only available to the truly wealthy is just as telling as "I like to fire people".

[no_hypocrisy]

3. The absolutely *wrong* thing to say during a Depression.