No Circular Firing Squads This Time, Republicans
A Dem Donor's Family Member Summed Up a Meeting With Biden in Two...
The Relevancy of Drudge Is Over
Pete Hegseth Is the Best Choice to Reform the Pentagon
Conservatives Disagree On Yellowstone’s ‘Woke’ Ending
To Reform Congress, Enact Term Limits
How the Left VIciously Creates Fake White Male Guilt
Israel Is Not Interested In Victory With Gaza
The Expanding Culture Of Death And How To Stop It
Report: Biden's Nap Delayed Meeting With Gold Star Families Following Chaotic Afghanistan...
Scranton Officials Demand for Biden’s Name to Be Removed from Landmark
Why Hasn’t NASA Told Us About This?
Biden Staffers Pressure President to Dole Out Millions to Defund the Police
What's Next for Lara Trump?
Biden Admin Funded $4 Million Program to Pull Kids Out of School and...
Tipsheet

Romney to Obama, 2009: Embrace the Individual Mandate

Throughout his campaign, Mitt Romney has tried to defend the individual mandate he signed into law in Massachusetts by claiming that such an approach to healthcare is acceptable on a state, but not a federal level. But a recently discovered USA Today op-ed, dated July 30, 2009, contradicts the presidential hopeful's current line of argument. It seems he took to the papers to urge President Obama to adopt the same approach to healthcare nationally.

Advertisement

As Rick Perry once said, "Oops."

The op-ed -- no longer avaiable on USA Today's site, only a Romney fan site -- tells President Obama, "[T]he lessons we learned in Massachusetts could help Washington find" the solution to the healthcare dilemma.

One of the most damning paragraphs reads,

Our experience also demonstrates that getting every citizen insured doesn’t have to break the bank. First, we established incentives for those who were uninsured to buy insurance. Using tax penalties, as we did, or tax credits, as others have proposed, encourages “free riders” to take responsibility for themselves rather than pass their medical costs on to others. This doesn’t cost the government a single dollar. Second, we helped pay for our new program by ending an old one — something government should do more often. The federal government sends an estimated $42 billion to hospitals that care for the poor: Use those funds instead to help the poor buy private insurance, as we did.

How does he explain this away? In debates, Romney defended his plan as "right for Massachusetts, not for the country at large," and often, he'd turn his answer into a defense of federalism. Yet here, while the healthcare bill was still under construction, he urges the president to embrace the individual mandate -- an idea that Obama had vehemently opposed during his own run for the presidency.

Advertisement

Furthermore, how would he run against Obama on this issue in the general election? How will he defend his state's use of the individual mandate if he urged the president to enact the same on a national scale? Nearly 60% of Americans oppose the individual mandate, and yet Romney would be unable to champion that position -- he already championed the other side.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement