Unearthed Emails: Romney Deeply Involved In Pushing For Individual Mandate

[J.E.D]

How Romney Pushed State Health Bill - WSJ.com

When Mitt Romney left office as Massachusetts governor, his aides removed all emails from a server computer in the governor's office, and purchased and carted off hard drives from 17 state-owned personal computers, according to a current state official.

But a small cache of emails survived, including some that have never publicly surfaced surrounding Mr. Romney's efforts to pass his now-controversial health-care law. The emails show the Republican governor was closely engaged in negotiating details of the bill, working with top Democratic state leaders and drafting early copies of opinion articles backing it.

According to the emails, Mr. Romney personally drafted an op-ed article published in The Wall Street Journal the day before he signed the legislation. The draft, written on a Saturday, also defended the individual mandate, in different language from the final version of the piece as published.

Using an argument deployed today by the Obama administration, Mr. Romney defended the mandate by noting that taxpayers generally foot the bill when the uninsured seek health care.

"Either the individual pays or the taxpayers pay. A free ride on government is not libertarian," the published op-ed stated. In a line that didn't make the edited version, Mr. Romney added: "An uninsured libertarian might counter that he could refuse the free care, but under law, that is impossible—and inhumane."

 

[Sallow]

Ruh Roh..

The Wall Street Journal no less. Et tu? Brutus?

 

[asaratis]

How Romney Pushed State Health Bill - WSJ.com

When Mitt Romney left office as Massachusetts governor, his aides removed all emails from a server computer in the governor's office, and purchased and carted off hard drives from 17 state-owned personal computers, according to a current state official.

But a small cache of emails survived, including some that have never publicly surfaced surrounding Mr. Romney's efforts to pass his now-controversial health-care law. The emails show the Republican governor was closely engaged in negotiating details of the bill, working with top Democratic state leaders and drafting early copies of opinion articles backing it.

According to the emails, Mr. Romney personally drafted an op-ed article published in The Wall Street Journal the day before he signed the legislation. The draft, written on a Saturday, also defended the individual mandate, in different language from the final version of the piece as published.

Using an argument deployed today by the Obama administration, Mr. Romney defended the mandate by noting that taxpayers generally foot the bill when the uninsured seek health care.

"Either the individual pays or the taxpayers pay. A free ride on government is not libertarian," the published op-ed stated. In a line that didn't make the edited version, Mr. Romney added: "An uninsured libertarian might counter that he could refuse the free care, but under law, that is impossible—and inhumane."

You'll have to dig a lot deeper than that to find logical reason to vote for Obama over Romney.

 

[GHook93]

Yep and healthcare almost lost him the primaries, but we are in the generals! The only ones who care about this are conservatives and they sure as hell aren't voting for the Obama. This hurt him in the primaries, but is a NON-ISSUE in the generals.

I mean what will be the argument: "Mitt you bastard you pushed Romneycare on MA. Mitt you bastard you pushed the individual mandate. Oh wait we pushed both of those on the entire country, let's go to the next divisive attack!"

 

[NYcarbineer]

How will Romney repeal healthcare if the Democrats in the Senate start filibustering GOP style?

How would he get anything passed for that matter? And that's even assuming the GOP won the Senate...

 

[edthecynic]

How will Romney repeal healthcare if the Democrats in the Senate start filibustering GOP style?

How would he get anything passed for that matter? And that's even assuming the GOP won the Senate...

Simple, the strict Constitutionalist GOP who have used the filibuster for decades will suddenly declare the filibuster unconstitutional and further declare that all who use the filibuster hate the Constitution.

 

[Greenbeard]

How will Romney repeal healthcare if the Democrats in the Senate start filibustering GOP style?

It's possible that wouldn't be necessary. As I posted yesterday:

Romney has tapped former Utah governor and HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt to lead his hypothetical transition and, perhaps, ultimately become his hypothetical chief of staff.

"Mike Leavitt, the man planning the Mitt Romney presidency":

Leavitt, the former Utah governor and Health and Human Services Secretary under President George W. Bush, has been tapped to head Romney’s transition process and has quietly taken the first steps toward drawing up the blueprint for a new administration, according to multiple GOP sources.

As the point man for what is internally called “Project Ready,” Leavitt is stepping into a post that historically gets little attention during the campaign but becomes the focal point of a government-in-waiting beginning the day after the election. And already, plugged-in Republicans from Washington to Salt Lake City are buzzing that Leavitt could make his own transition next January into the job of White House chief of staff or as a Valerie Jarrett-like personal counselor to a President Romney.

This is the first encouraging news out of the Romney camp in a while, as Leavitt is one of the most prominent Republican proponents of health insurance exchanges in the country (aside from Romney, I suppose). Leavitt has been notable for often being one of the few Republican voices standing up to certain extreme elements on the far right who have been urging state governments to avoid implementing the ACA's exchanges-indeed, he's been a leading player in implementation in some places. The pick is leading to some dissent on the right: "Conservatives slam Romney transition pick over health law support"

Leavitt, who led the Health and Human Services Department under former President George W. Bush, has spent the past few years running a consulting business that helps states implement parts of the Affordable Care Act.

“The fact that Romney picked Leavitt suggests he really doesn’t mind ObamaCare that much, and that he is just saying whatever he needs to say to get what he wants. I know. Mitt Romney. Go figure,” wrote Michael Cannon, a health policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute.

Leavitt is on record supporting insurance exchanges — new marketplaces where individuals and small businesses can compare and buy insurance. The Affordable Care Act directs each state to establish an exchange by 2014, and the planning for that effort has proved lucrative for Leavitt.

Conservatives leapt on the issue after news broke that Romney had tapped Leavitt to lead the presidential transition effort.

“What's most concerning about all of this is not that Romney selected one of the few Republicans in the country who backs implementation of Obamacare's exchanges. It's what the selection of Leavitt means as an indication of how Romney would potentially ‘fix’ Obamacare if repeal proves impossible,” conservative blogger Ben Domenech wrote Sunday.

 

[Lakhota]