Anyone else gets worried when Obama says his bill is basically RomneyCare?

[LeftyAndProud60]

Romney Care is expensive as hell and didn't really do anything but cover more people. I suppose that's good, but it didn't really provide competition, lower cost, and it definitely didn't help the states finances at all.

[DJ13]

1. Elected to change government from the disaster Republicans created

So he pushes for an entire year to pass a Republican reform bill?

A complete sellout.

[LeftyAndProud60]

4. I wouldn't call him a sellout, but why would he even admit this? I can see why Repukes say the CBO

has it wrong and this won't save any money. They know, because it's their bill.

[DJ13]

7. I only said sellout because he completely forgot to represent his base

during the year long back and forth in Congress.

He seemed eager to offer up anything the liberals wanted in exchange for getting any bill through he could.

[phleshdef]

11. How many Republicans were in the Mass house/senate that passed the Mass health bill?

[Cha]

22. And, thank you, phlesh, for pointing out that it was Dems who

passed this bill. Pres Obama is brilliant to tie it to romney who is trying to run away from it.

Fortunately the President knows what he's doing even if some internet bloggers don't get it.

[xultar]

2. It is a republicanesque bill. They are all expensive and don't do shit

[dflprincess]

3. Many of us knew the bill was closer to Romney Care than anything else

and knew we were being scammed. This bill only requires coverage it does not guarantee access to care - but it does guarantee that the health insurance companies will keep making money.

[inna]

5. It's too late to get worried now.

It's been known for months that this is Romneycare.

[elocs]

6. No because I can clearly understand why he is saying it. n/t

[frylock]

24. why is he saying it?

[phleshdef]

8. Outside of Romney, the state house/senate was and is like 80-90% Democratic party.

And thus RomneyCare is the result of a Democratic party bill.

[sandnsea]

12. As is Oregon and Vermont

That also have health care plans that include subsidized insurance, which were written by Democrats.

[phleshdef]

14. Yea, Oregon and Vermont, those MECCAS of Conservative Republican government.

[ampad]

18. Oh those states are so very conservative *snark*

Something tells me that the OP is sitting behind the puter laughing at us. This new concern has not hit full blown "concern" yet. I say it will peak around tomorrow this time.

[eridani]

9. Yes, I am very worried n/t

[katandmoon]

10. More like surprised anyone is surprised.

[flpoljunkie]

13. 538: MA Voters supported their healthcare law by 68-27 the day Scott Brown was elected

Massachusetts Liked Universal Health Care Before It Voted Against It

by Nate Silver @ 12:10 PM

John Sides has a good catch from the Washington Post/Harvard poll of Massachusetts special election voters. By a 68-27 margin, voters in last Tuesday's election supported the universal health care law in Massacuhsetts; this included a majority of Scott Brown voters! But these same voters opposed the Democratic health care plan, which is quite similar to the Massacuhsetts law, by a 43-48 margin.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/01/massachusetts-liked-universal-health.html

[ProSense]

15. Nope!

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.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

19. I agree with you. It's a brilliant move! Romney's appearance on LKL was despicable!

Essentially he's claiming that it's acceptable for him to support the mandate because it's o.k. when states do so. It's not only for the federal government to do so. Lying asshole!!!

[Cha]

21. Geeze thanks again Pro Sense for bring some sense to this thread too.

Too many go off 1/2 assed when they hear romneycare.. no wonder some things get so messed up when there are people who would rather knee jerk instead of getting facts for themselves.

[Raine1967]

23. Yuppers.

I think that the HCR bill goes farther than what Massachusetts has, actually.

Obama is now being coy and political in using this term. Mostly political. It's genius, actually.

[zipplewrath]

27. So Obama is twisting the truth?

He's accussing Romeny of supporting something he didn't actually support? Isn't that "acting just like them" some how? Don't we hate it when THEY do that kind of thing? Either this is full of features that Romney supported or it isn't. Which is it?

[phleshdef]

28. No. Romney supported passing a lot of the parts of it he is criticizing.

But its also not a Republican bill. Romney supported abortion rights at one time too. This is one of those times where we actually DO get to have it both ways without any conflict.

[zipplewrath]

30. Obama doesn't agree with you

Even he claimed it was basically the Dole/Baker bill. He bragged that he rejected progressive ideas. Now he wants to claim it also has elements of Romney care that Romney supported.

Either this is a progressive victory, or it's warmed over GOP ideas. He's gonna have to make up his mind.

[ProSense]

35. Were all the people calling it RomneyCare disingenuous?

Romney is to RomneyCare what conservative Dems are to the current health care bill, they supports a lot of the ideas. They put forward some really bad ones, which were voted down or removed in the end.

It's accurate to say Ben Nelson supports the health bill.

I get that some people don't want the President to do any strategic maneuvering to undercut Republican arguments because it also undercuts a lot of the other noise.

[DevonRex]

16. No.

[CBR]

17. Not really... nt

[dionysus]

20. i am terribly, terribly concerned. i have noted your concern as well.

[lamp_shade]

25. Um... No...

[harun]

26. No, it is obvious why he is saying it.

[ClarkUSA]

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

It's funny to note that some of the DUers who are complaining about President Obama's HCR didn't appear to have the same objections to Hillary's HC plan even though they are basically the same thing.

But there's a caveat: ObamaCare is better than RomneyCare because the architect of the latter tweaked the former to avoid the problems of the latter:

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.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=253948&mesg_id=254123

Thanks for your deep concern, though.

:sarcasm:

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

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

[Bodhi BloodWave]

32. you don't like seeing the facts i take it? n/t

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

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

[Hekate]

33. Nope.

[Bullet1987]

36. This is the most aggravating aspect of the blind support for this bill

Basically, the cheerleaders are saying we should be happy we got RomneyCare. I'm sorry, but I'm not! And I didn't vote for Obama in 2008, so I could get a Republican-lite HCR bill. But I guess that's what happens when corporatists/DLCers run the Democratic Party.

[Hippo_Tron]

37. No, I think he's trying to influence the GOP primary

Huckabee or Palin would obviously be easier to defeat than Romney and so he's trying to associate with Romney with HCR so that the teabaggers won't vote for him.

[politicasista]

38. Not really

It sounds like shrewd political move that may help him and the party in November.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

39. It basically is Romney Care

and the loopholes are already being exploited by the insurance industry as Cenk points out here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x449855

[emulatorloo]

40. No - It was a political move to show Romney and The GOP's hypocrisy and obstructionism

It was Obama playing offense in the framing game.

He didn't say it was "basically RomneyCare".

In an interview on NBC's Today Show, the president told host Matt Lauer that the new law "is a critical first step in making a health care system that works for all Americans." And in blunt terms, he blamed the GOP for the public uproar surrounding its passage. "I think the Republican Party made a calculated decision, a political decision, that they would not support whatever we did."

Obama went on to say that "I think that's unfortunate because when you actually look at the bill itself, it incorporates all sorts of Republican ideas. I mean, a lot of commentators have said, you know, this is this is similar to the bill that Mitt Romney, the Republican governor and now presidential candidate, passed in Massachusetts." (Yes, he called Romney a presidential candidate.)

[emulatorloo]

41. Obama said ---Commentators---- have said it was similar to Romney's bill

Obama DID NOT SAY "his bill is basically RomneyCare.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/03/30/obama-cites-romney-health-plan-in-mass/?mod=rss_WSJBlog&mod=washwire

In an interview on NBC's Today Show, the president told host Matt Lauer that the new law "is a critical first step in making a health care system that works for all Americans." And in blunt terms, he blamed the GOP for the public uproar surrounding its passage. "I think the Republican Party made a calculated decision, a political decision, that they would not support whatever we did."

Obama went on to say that "I think that's unfortunate because when you actually look at the bill itself, it incorporates all sorts of Republican ideas. I mean, a lot of commentators have said, you know, this is this is similar to the bill that Mitt Romney, the Republican governor and now presidential candidate, passed in Massachusetts." (Yes, he called Romney a presidential candidate.)