“Without RomneyCare, I don’t think we would have ObamaCare,” Romney said.
Three years after he ran for president by promising to repeal ObamaCare, Republican Mitt Romney finally admitted that his Massachusetts healthcare plan is just like ObamaCare.
Romney was speaking to the Boston Globe following the death on Friday of Staples founder Thomas Stemberg, when he made the comments about ObamaCare:
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Romney also credited Mr. Stemberg with persuading him to push for health care reform in Massachusetts when he was governor.
Romney said that shortly after he was elected, Mr. Stemberg asked him why he ran for governor. Romney said he told him that he wanted to help people, and Mr. Stemberg replied that if he really wanted to help, he should give everyone access to health care, which Romney said he hadn’t really considered before.
“Without Tom pushing it, I don’t think we would have had Romneycare,” Romney said. “Without Romneycare, I don’t think we would have Obamacare. So, without Tom a lot of people wouldn’t have health insurance.”
Without RomneyCare, we wouldn’t have ObamaCare and now a lot of people have insurance, so Romney credits his friend and his own policy for ObamaCare giving insurance to a lot of people. This is presumably a positive thing.
But this is Mitt Romney, who never said anything he didn’t take back first. So, he clarified today that ObamaCare, which he credited RomneyCare with starting, is a failure:
Getting people health insurance is a good thing, and that’s what Tom Stemberg fought for. I oppose Obamacare https://t.co/Jv02IWhClh
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) October 23, 2015
To be fair, Romney only walked back his words because the drooling Republican base was livid. ObamaCare BAD. Grunt. End discussion.
What Mitt meant to say is that if it’s called ObamaCare, it’s bad and a total failure. But if it is called RomneyCare or the ACA and the Republican base doesn’t know that the ACA is ObamaCare, then it’s totally a great thing.
In other words, the ACA/ObamaCare was always seen as a good policy by Mitt Romney. This explains why he used the fundamental concepts first with RomneyCare. But he hasn’t the guts to be honest about it, so now he’s taking credit for ObamaCare, but only if you like it.
Got it?
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