President Obama: My Plan Is Like Romneycare

[cal04]

The Plum LineGreg Sargent's blog
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/obama-my-plan-is-just-like-romneycare/

If you’re Mitt Romney, and you’re trying to put as much daylight as possible between Obamacare and the universal health plan you signed as Governor of Massachusetts, the last thing you want is for Barack Hussein Obama himself to approvingly point out the similarities between your plans.

But in an interview this morning on NBC, that’s exactly what Obama did. He said:

“When you actually look at the bill itself, it incorporates all sorts of Republican ideas. I mean a lot of commentators have said this is sort of similar to the bill that Mitt Romney, the Republican Governor and now presidential candidate, passed in Massachusetts.

“A lot of the ideas in terms of the exchange, just being able to pool and improve the purchasing power of individuals in the insurance market, that originated from the Heritage Foundation…”

Video here; the key moment is at the 5:35 mark.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/36095670#36095670

A couple quick points on this. First, it highlights just how difficult it will be for Romney to navigate this vexing Romneycare-Obamacare conundrum in the GOP primaries. His opponents will merely take footage like this and air it in endless Web videos and even paid ads, forcing Romney to explain away the similarities ad infinitum.

Second, it foreshadows an argument his GOP foes will use against him. They will point out that Romney will not be able to criticize Obamacare, because Obama will have a ready-made rejoinder: But Mitt, you signed a plan just like mine into law — before you got it into your head that you wanted to run for President!

[DrToast]

1. Romney is being short-sighted. He should be taking credit for it

By the time 2016 rolls around, the plan will be in full effect and more popular than it is today.

[ClarkUSA]

2. ROFL! President Obama just put a stake through the heart of Romney 2012!

I love it. The dude is bad. He just took out the Republican that polls best against him in a general election matchup.

:rofl:

[tavalon]

3. President Obama: My Plan sucks Like Romneycare

[HughMoran]

5. I like eggs

[CBR]

7. I prefer bacon and pancakes. nt

[tavalon]

13. I know, I know, the meme now is that this is historic and magnificent

It is historic.

[HughMoran]

16. Speaking of generating memes

[mkultra]

65. bacon is pretty historic to me.

[sudopod]

4. In Soviet Russia

President trolls YOU!

[mucifer]

6. It's unfortunate all we were able to get at this point is romneycare

[ProSense]

11. No it isn't because

RomneyCare is a product of the Democratic legislature:

In fall 2005 the House and Senate each passed health care reform bills.

The legislature made a number of changes to Governor Romney's original proposal, including expanding MassHealth (Medicaid and SCHIP) coverage to low-income children and restoring funding for public health programs. The most controversial change was the addition of a provision which requires firms with 11 or more workers that do not provide "fair and reasonable" health coverage to their workers to pay an annual penalty. This contribution, initially $295 annually per worker, is intended to equalize the free care pool charges imposed on employers who do and do not cover their workers. The legislature also rejected Governor Romney's proposal to permit even higher-deductible, lower benefit health plans.

On April 12, 2006 Governor Mitt Romney signed the health legislation.<19> He vetoed 8 sections of the health care legislation, including the controversial employer assessment.<20> Romney also vetoed provisions providing dental benefits to poor residents on the Medicaid program, and providing health coverage to senior and disabled legal immigrants not eligible for federal Medicaid.<21><22> The legislature promptly overrode six of the eight gubernatorial section vetoes, on May 4, 2006, and by mid-June 2006 had overridden the remaining two.

link

This is why Romney doesn't want to take credit for it, but it's impossible for him to run from it. The media has already branded it with his name.

President Obama is turning the tables on the Republicans by attributing elements of the plan to Republicans. He's destroying the critics arguments because despite what they say, Mass is number one in terms of the number of people covered. President Obama can be confident because unlike Mass' plan, which had no cost controls, the bill he signed includes significant cost controls.

[Cha]

25. Thanks Pro for pointing out some sense..

Just bc some hear "romneycare" they get all worried or smug like they ate a canary or something.

[amborin]

48. minor tweaks that leave a bad HCR bill, aka RomneyCare, intact

[Hekate]

60. It is a thing of beauty and a joy to anticipate the Repubs trying to run in circles. Bwahahahaha

:evilgrin:

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

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[CBR]

10. ...

[frylock]

12. yep

[ProSense]

14. No, he's just smarter than the critics. n/t

[Moochy]

18. Step one: gift the Trojan horse

Step two: pass it, enjoy your Best Week Ever!
Step three : wait until it's passed before showing everyone it's full of republican ideas.

[amborin]

49. yep; HCR is straight from the Heritage Foundation; a conservative's dream bill

[ClarkUSA]

55. Yeah, that's why Congressional Republicans all voted for it. Oh wait... they didn't.

:eyes:

[mkultra]

66. stop with the fucking logic Clark

your wearing them out.

[jefferson_dem]

19. Haha...

Enjoying the doldrums?

[zipplewrath]

23. Obama has told them several times

They still don't listen. He told them he rejected progressive ideas. He told them it was heavily based upon the Dole/Baker bill of '93. He told them it contained many elements of Romneycare. They didn't listen. It was an historic piece of legislation because it was passed by a democratic congress and signed by a democratic president.

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BlooInBloo]

15. Thus Obama works to make sure that only crazypeople are left to run against him. pwned.

[Vinca]

17. Actually, given the problems in Massachusetts with Romneycare,

Obama might not be wise comparing his plan to that.

[DrToast]

20. It's very popular in MA

[Vinca]

42. Not with everyone. A young woman who works in a store near

my home in New Hampshire lives in Massachusetts. Her husband is an insurance broker and they can't afford to buy health insurance. She worries about paying the penalty. Other people have told me there has been little done to control the escalation of premiums and while people are grateful not to be dying on the street, it's not like it's truly affordable. I'm afraid that's what will happen with the current plan since there appear to be many weasel clauses big insurance can work around. (Weasel clause #1 - kids with pre-existing conditions. Apparently they located a shred of humanity and backed down on that one.) I would hope Democrats could do much, much better than Romneycare.

[DrToast]

44. I didn't think you'd assume I meant it's popular with 100% of the population

Nothing ever is.

It is, however, popular with the vast majority.

[Mimosa]

46. ^ That it's like Romneycare is why it sucks ^ n/t

[vaberella]

24. There are problems with a significant difference. Gruber spoke about this.

He's the economist that designed romneycare and also this bill. It's that romney care did not think of the revenue building aspect and cost-effective measure. He said it was a problem in Mass and he tries to fix that in this bill.

[Skidmore]

21. Romney is sooooo going to have problems with getting the brass ring

in 2012. This is just brilliant.

[bvar22]

22. So Obama finally admits what some of us already know...

..that he wasted this historic opportunity for REAL "Reform" by passing a Republican Plan....
and people on DU are cheering? :shrug:

[CBR]

26. ...

[vaberella]

29. ...

:rofl:

[Cha]

27. You look ridiculous smugging at 1/2 facts.

[Lorien]

32. ....

[vaberella]

28. Well he says this because he used the same LIBERAL economist who created Romneycare in Mass.

It was Gruber who designed Romneycare----and Gruber said that all the mistakes that happened in Romneycare they tried to avoid in this bill or used other mechanisms to counter those issues. You should have sat there and watched his 2 hour talk on C-SPAN, it was extremely informative.

[Cha]

33. That's what I'm saying.."1/2 facts"..just to

snark at the President and ask questions later.

Thanks vab for some clarity.

[vaberella]

36. No problem. I loved Gruber's talk---and I wish he was out there talking about this bill more. n/t

[Lorien]

31. The repug are snarling over a plan that their side endorsed not long ago

while Dems cheer over the same plan they despised when repugs put it on the table. Market and branding are EVERYTHING in 21st Century politics.

[ProSense]

34. Dems have

every reason to cheer.

[vaberella]

37. Have you heard Gruber's talk on this bill?

Do you know who Gruber is?!

[CTLawGuy]

61. I'm sorry when did the Republicans put this on the table??

NT

[Moochy]

39. The shiny new DU people

[amborin]

50. shameful to tout what is essentially a Conservative republican bill as a "Win"

[spoony]

58. He keeps saying it, but his fans won't believe it.

He explicitly said before that he had rejected the left's ideas because he didn't want to rock the boat.
Now he literally could not make it more clear, and you see posters celebrating his brilliance like you said. I honestly can see now how Bush kept the party hardliners in his hand, because I had never seen such strange behaviour up close and personal. Now I'm seeing it with Obama, and it's fucking surreal.

[pecwae]

63. It really is surreal.

There are hardliners in both parties, but it's jarring to get gobsmacked on a daily basis by those you thought knew better.

[mkultra]

67. ...

[Hippo_Tron]

35. Sounds like Obama wants to run against Palin or Huckabee instead of Romney

Otherwise he'd save this gem for 2012.

[amborin]

38. ROFL Columbia University analysis of RomneyCare info here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8011225&mesg_id=8011225

[GinaMaria]

45. Thanks for the link

intersting analysis. I had heard Mass' heakthcare cost were increasing rapidly and becoming less affordable to people as time marches forward. Some cost controls are needed immediately in Mass.

[amborin]

47. yes; and there are no cost controls in HCR; further, many, many

people will be stuck with 'bronze' with high co-pays and deductibles.

[ProSense]

54. Quotes from PNHP? And what's this supposed to mean:

But recent Census Bureau statistics show that, in 2008, some 352,000 Massachusetts residents did not have coverage, even though the law requires that they do. That’s about 5.5 percent of the state’s population; up from the 2.6 percent who were uninsured in the years after reform took effect.

It means Mass has the fewest uninsured of any state in the country. Mass' current uninsured rate is 2.6 percent.

Everyone has acknowledged that Mass failed to include costs controls. The bill President Obama signed includes significant costs controls.

[CTLawGuy]

62. First line is from

"Dr. So and so from Physicians for a National Health Program."

Way to have an unbiased, objective analysis! :eyes:

[Beacool]

40. Oh yeah, well, that explains a lot.

:(

[ClarkUSA]

43. The architect of RomneyCare is a liberal economist. Also, Hillary's HC plan was RomneyCare to a T.

:)

[mkultra]

68. ...

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

41. Mr, President, this is NOT good enough. It doesn't just stop at Romney!

The individual mandate for health care is a REPUBLICAN idea, through and through. It was first championed by Pappy Bush way back in 1991. It was then pushed very hard by Senators Orrin Hatch and Chuck Grassley when they were trying to make sure that the "blackies" and the "brownies" weren't going to steal from good, hard-working whites who pay into the system. They understood back then what the mandate was for. Now, suddenly because Obama has embraced the idea, they're feigning outrage!

I know that these are his former Senate Republican buddies, but the president really needs to start calling these people out on their hypocrisy. Don't just stop at Romney. Call them ALL out!!!

[bvar22]

52. Individual Mandate = Republican Idea

No Public Option = Republican Idea

Cadillac Tax = Republican Idea

NOT raising taxes on top 2% to pay for it (remember the campaign?) = Republican Idea

No Re-Importation of drugs = Republican Idea

Pimping the Community Health Centers = Republican Idea


There is very little left in this bill that is "Democratic".
It was painful to watch the year long process of repeated concessions to the Republicans.
And Obama got ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from the Republicans in return for all these concessions.
Absolutely Nothing.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

57. I will never understand this strategy. Never. I'm hoping that these glitches can be fixed.

But I won't hold my breath. :(

[Renew Deal]

51. Obama is shrewd and he's going to make Romney squirm

I don't think it's a coincidence. He's wreaking havoc on the republicans with this "Romneycare" bit.

[brentspeak]

53. But Obama was too dishonest during the campaign to admit that Romneycare was his goal all along

[Proud Liberal Dem]

56. Brilliant Strategy

Romney's just been pwned by Obama!!!

:rofl:

Watch Mittens sweat now...............

[Hekate]

59. This really makes me laugh. I hear Repub heads starting to 'splode. nt

[mkultra]

64. He is basically fucking Romney with Romney's own base

by simply being "inclusive." Im sure he will start doing the same thing to McCain soon. He will begin talking about how helpful McCain has been through this period. This kind of talk only hurts McCain.