The White House said today that GOP presidential candidate is being influenced by “the Rush Limbaughs of the world” in now going after the mandate penalty/tax in ObamaCare.
“For years — I was going to say decades, but that’s not true — for years, Mitt Romney has been defending not only his bill that he pushed forward in Massachusetts but also this as a penalty that was essential to taking into account the people who weren’t paying for health insurance who could afford it. The president agreed with him. That’s for years up until Monday, when his own campaign spokesperson defended it the same way,” said Jen Psaki, who began today as Obama’s campaign secretary and joined the press gaggle aboard Air Force One with White House press secretary Jay Carney.
“So Mitt Romney is — it’s clear that he is being impacted by the push from the right, the Rush Limbaughs of the world, congressional Republicans, who are pushing him to go back on a decision and a defense that he’s had in place for years,” she added.
Obama was en route to Ohio to begin a two-day bus tour through that and fellow swing state Pennsylvania. Psaki said he would “touch on health care” and the importance of keeping ObamaCare in his remarks today.
“And that’s really the question we should be dealing with now, not this silly debate that is, again, Mitt Romney going back — being influenced by the extreme right of the party and going back on a defense he’s had in place for years,” she said.
Carney chimed in that “as a matter of policy, it is simply a fallacy to say that this is a broad-based tax.”
“That’s not what the opinion stated that was authored by the chief justice. The Affordable Care Act is constitutional under Congress’s taxing authority, but this is clearly a penalty that affects less than 1 percent of the American population,” Carney continued. “And it is a penalty you only pay as a matter of choice, if you’re in that 1 percent and you can afford health insurance but choose not to and therefore choose to pass the responsibility for your health care to every other American, which I would note that Governor Romney, when he was governor, thought was unfair and therefore instituted a penalty — and clear the president does, too, which is why the penalty that’s part of the Affordable Care Act was modeled very much on what Governor Romney implemented in Massachusetts.”
You mean a Clown Car.
Why is this so hard for the Romney campaign? Simply put, healthcare is not a Constitutionally enumerated power. It is a state power. RomneyCare provided a constitutional solution that reflected the needs, desires and ideologies if the people of its state. Mass is a rather liberal state and as such it’s people demanded such a solution. Wyoming and its people should construct a program for their state that is likewise culturally appropriate.
A Constitutionally aligned national solution is one that requires states define their solutions, allows open competition for insurance across states, and provides for care of last resort through a simplified Medicare and Medicaid.
Obamacare is neither Constitutional nor likely to work.
Great summary snapshot. And yes, why is the Romney team having so much trouble making these differences clear?
Obama does not realize how fortunate he is that Romney does not have the guts to adopt a truly conservative platform. If Romney sounded more like Rush, this election would already be over with Romney winning 49 states….maybe all 57
The republican establishment is the only reason there is still some doubt as to the outcome….the Jeb Bush’s of the world want to reign in and control the Tea Party. They do not realize how futile the effort is. By 2016 the Tea Party will dominate American politics, much to the chagrin of the msm.