Obama: Romney is just “pretending” his health care plan was different than mine
posted at 1:20 pm on March 22, 2012 by Tina Korbe
Just as conservatives have always warned, if the GOP nominates Mitt Romney for president, the current president will try to use him as a scapegoat for Obamacare. Proof:
“We designed a program that actually previously had support of Republicans, including the person who may end up being the Republican standard bearer and is now pretending like he came up with something different,” the president said.
The Massachusetts plan served as a model for the Affordable Care Act, signed two years ago Friday. Romney, the state’s former governor, has since said the legislation was the correct course for his state but not meant as a model for a national overhaul. But the plan has proved a focal point of criticism aimed at the GOP frontrunner.
In Thursday’s interview, Obama said Republican opposition to the plan, including the Supreme Court challenge, is politically motivated.
Maybe “scapegoat” isn’t exactly the best word. In this interview, Obama was extolling the virtues of Obamacare and tying Romney to it, so maybe he was actually trying to share “credit” for the health care overhaul.
Either way, the only defense Romney has offered for Romneycare — still – is that he signed it into law at the state level. Ann Coulter has argued that that is an adequate defense.
But if for no other reason than that Romneycare included an individual mandate, it’s problematic. Sure, a mandate at the state level is constitutional, but, in case you’ve forgotten, a federal mandate to buy insurance is not constitutional. Moreover, once upon a time, Romney explicitly expressed support for a national mandate.
It’s been two years since the president signed Obamacare into law and, for two years, conservatives have known Romney would be in trouble for the way Romneycare connects him to the least-liked entitlement program in the nation’s history. Two years and I still don’t see how Romney gets around this issue.
Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrohm says the campaign will clear its Etch a Sketch for the general election, but no magic and no messaging will erase Romneycare. It has been and will be his Achilles heel unless and until he completely disavows it.
Phil Kerpen is hopeful that Romney can win Obama in the “battle of the health care flip-floppers,” but I’m not so sure. Will undecideds who despise Obamacare look at Romney and see a clear difference? It’s the same question that’s plagued the Romney campaign from Day One. So, why won’t he do something about it and disavow Romneycare completely?
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Sweet. How sweet it is.
Finally, Obama’s chikkinzzz are coming home to roost.
petefrt on May 19, 2013 at 8:22 PM
This.
When you have to plead incompetence to defend against charges of malfeasance, you know you might be in trouble.
petefrt on May 19, 2013 at 8:36 PM
ear relevant…
driguana on May 19, 2013 at 8:59 PM
Flush this lying tudd down the drain with the rest of the Obamacrap.
kemojr on May 19, 2013 at 9:34 PM
This was Dan Pfeiffer’s week in the barrel, like Susan Rice he was given the White House talking points and sent on a mission. He really needs to get copies of these tapes and watch them and see how foolish and unbelievable he looked and sounded. The White House is losing the little credibility it still had by sending these shills out every week trying to do damage control. Community organizers make poor leaders.
savage24 on May 19, 2013 at 9:42 PM
Pfeiffer’s statement that the law is irrelevant because the IRS conduct was “outrageous” and “inexcusable”, tells us all we need to know about this administration.
However, the follow-up should have been, “On what standard do you judge their conduct to be outrageous and inexcusable since the law is apparently not an appropriate standard?” (At least in Pfeiffer’s mind.)
What this comes down to is this: “if the Administrative deems something “outrageous” and “inexcusable,” then it is declared such. As we have seen in so many other areas, if the Administrative deems something to not be “outrageous” and “inexcusable,” then it is declared such.
In their mind, the law is – in fact – irrelevant. That’s what makes this situation so dangerous.
It’s not socialism. It’s worse.
EdmundBurke247 on May 19, 2013 at 10:36 PM
Irrelevant = “What Difference Does It Make?”
jaydee_007 on May 19, 2013 at 10:41 PM
A fitting capstone to Ed’s story about loss-prevention (aka employee theft) and management’s “permission structure” in this post.
(Not to mention the jaw-dropping statements of Eleanor Clift in this one.)
AesopFan on May 19, 2013 at 11:40 PM
I enjoy popcorn and hope it is a long week.
Drill and Fill on May 20, 2013 at 12:41 AM
Hey give Barky a break. He had to get his sorry ass out to Vegas.
tbear44 on May 20, 2013 at 4:49 AM
Of course they sent Pfeiffer out to do the Sunday shows. He was the most senior expendable staff member they had . . .
BigAlSouth on May 20, 2013 at 5:39 AM
Pfeiffer… The guy with the red shirt in the landing party…
Boudica on May 20, 2013 at 5:53 AM
Perfect!
lea on May 20, 2013 at 7:11 AM
Does anybody else remember the campaign in 2008 when Obama defended his lack of administrative experience by saying he was just so smart and tuned in that his instincts were better than experience. Someone needs to dredge up these sound bites and play then with the current line about the government being too large to control and that the White House only knows what it reads in the newspaper.
bartbeast on May 20, 2013 at 8:43 AM
If where the president was during the Benghazi crisis is “irrelevant”, then he wasn’t where one would expect the Commander-in-Chief to be. So, where was he? Was he watching a movie in the residence? Was he bowling? Or was he having a bi-curious outing with his good buddy Reggie Love? If Obama was AWOL, as I suspect he was, it is he who is irrelevant. This entire stinkin’ criminal Obama Regime must go and now!
SpiderMike on May 20, 2013 at 9:31 AM
If this continues all week, it will be ‘O’ himself doing the rounds on the Sunday talk shows – except for Fox, of course. (‘O’ can do everything better than everyone else as he has been known to say.)
He then gets the extra benefit that no one will challenge him like they have begun to do with his minions.
Carnac on May 20, 2013 at 11:00 AM
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