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makeshifty says:

This is reminding me of the gaffe the Romney campaign made after the SC decision on the ACA. A spokesman called the Individual Mandate a “penalty” just after the SC called it a “tax.” The next day the campaign corrected itself and called it a “tax.” To me, this was a search for credibility. The intelligentsia was arguing it was a penalty, disagreeing with the SC. Romney agrees with them to get in with them. After all, he believed in penalties for non-compliance with RomneyCare in MA. Then the conservatives in the GOP whisper as loud as they can behind the scenes, “PSSST!! Hey, it’s a TAX! The SC says it’s a tax, and if you undercut that we might not be able to repeal it through reconciliation in the Senate, you dumba**!” Then Romney comes out and says, “Oh…yeah. It’s a tax…” Then in this case, to point out what a great guy Romney is, Ann Saul talks up RomneyCare in MA. “See? He was thinking of people like that lady who died of cancer. He came up with a solution for people like her. Too bad Romney was “only” governor of MA at the time. She couldn’t benefit from it. Imagine what he can do as president.” That’s what Ann was saying.

I think this is an indication of where Romney’s real inclinations are going to lie if he’s elected. Let us remember the gaffe from former MN Sen. Norm Coleman, who’s been working on the Romney campaign, where he said point blank that Romney is *not* going to repeal the ACA. He said, “We’re going to significantly modify it.” The Romney campaign came out with a strong response later saying, “Romney will repeal ObamaCare.”

An isolated incident we can ignore as a “mistake,” but when this keeps happening around the health care issue, it’s looking to me like little hints are getting out about what Romney and those around him truly believe, but they’re trying to hide it.

I just want to point out Romney has *never* spoken of his health care effort in MA as a “mistake,” or “bad policy.” He’s always said he thought it was a good idea. Why do you think that is? I’m not suggesting that Romney agrees with the ACA in all aspects, but what is it *about* RomneyCare that he really believes in? I think the fact of the matter is that he, in the mold of G. W. Bush, is a “compassionate conservative.” He can’t countenance the idea that people who need or want health care might end up going without it, for whatever reason. He could’ve said in MA, “Look, if people keep abusing the hospitals, using the ER without paying for it, it’s eventually going to close. And then you wont have an ER, or maybe not even a hospital.” This actually happened to some hospitals in southern CA 10 years ago. He could’ve allowed hospitals to demand proof of insurance, or that people in their community put up earnest money that would be held in trust until it’s needed. If people did not contribute, they’d be allowed some access to medical services, but not the ER, and up front deposits could be demanded before medical services were rendered. If none of these conditions were met, the hospital could turn people away. If enough sad stories happened of people needing health care who didn’t get it, because they didn’t do any of these things, then people would get the message: If you want medical care, you have to provide a way to pay for the service you receive. Instead of doing that, he roped everyone in MA into the insurance system, and said it was “going after the deadbeats.”

The ACA was crony capitalism. It wouldn’t surprise me if RomneyCare was the same. These are two aspects of the problem with Romney’s thinking. On the one hand, rather than take steps to encourage a market approach to health care, he goes the other direction, because he thinks that people are too stupid to understand that health care is like any other business in a market economy. The other is that he’s probably willing to have the government be buddy-buddy with big business, so that both they and the government get a steady, guaranteed flow of cash. There’s no market discipline or accountability.

Ann Coulter slipped a bit saying, “It’s not worth working for Oba–I mean, Romney, if he’s going to have spokespeople like this.” Exactly… I’m real glad to see she’s figured this out.

Personally I feel like some conservatives have gotten weak in the knees at the prospect of an another Obama term, and have convinced themselves that Romney is our only choice in changing direction. Is Romney *really* a choice??? Think about that, please.

I’ve been wanting to say this for a while, because it’s a fear that’s been growing inside me. Ever since the Bowles-Simpson commission has talked about a fiscal-financial calamity if the federal gov’t’s deficits are not brought down to size, I’ve wondered if we’re going to find our way out of this. I used to have faith that responsible people in government, sober voices, would say, “We’ve got to do something about this.” From all indicators I’ve seen, I think there’s a good possibility we’re going to sleep walk right into this financial calamity, no matter who wins the presidency, unless Tea Party candidates get enough seats to have something to say about this.

From what I’ve been hearing about what the Romney campaign says are his spending plans, there is nothing that gives anyone confidence that he’s going to significantly cut the deficit. So I feel like I’m faced with the most ungodly of decisions: Who do I want to be president when the SHTF? Do I want Obama there, or do I want Romney? I really don’t like thinking like this, but I feel like I have to, for the sake of the country. I feel like if Obama is there, then there’s an outside chance that he and the Democrats will be blamed for the problem. Oh, they’ll come up with some “messaging” to blame Republicans in congress, and Wall Street for it. You can be sure of that, but maybe some people will say, “You are president. You are responsible.” What I fear is that if Romney is in the seat when it happens, the Republican Party will be discredited for a generation. The American people won’t trust it. We will become a one-party state, and that to me is worse than a 2nd Obama term in office. Maybe a third party would get going that would be competitive, but I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in that. I refer back to the state of the GOP during the Depression.

The sad thing is I don’t know what Romney could do that would convince me he’d be serious about deficit reduction. I guess what would help is if proposed some things that he thought were politically dangerous to touch, and he stuck by them, despite the criticism that would inevitably come his way. I’ve gotta be frank. From what I’ve been hearing from the Tea Party, “Romney is not a fighter.” It’s looking like he is an able infighter, but he is not a leader. I think if there is any hope, the conservatives are going to have to lead from congress, not from the presidency, again, no matter who wins, and that’s going to be tough. I’m truly sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Of course, I would be ecstatic if I was wrong about all this.