Watch GOP Frontrunner Mitt Romney Praise Liberal Lion Ted Kennedy For His Role In Passing RomneyCare

Despite copious evidence to back up the connection, GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney has yet to admit the link between the Massachusetts health care overhaul he signed into law as governor and the federal overhaul President Obama passed last year. You can understand why he's declined: Given that Romney is running as an establishment conservative for the Republican nomination, the friendly connection to the rival party's leader and his most prominent policy achievement would be, well, kind of awkward.

But when the Massachusetts law first took effect, Romney did praise a different prominent liberal collaborator as one of the law's "parents" whose work was "absolutely essential" to passage: former Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, a longtime universal coverage advocate whose proposed 1975 health care overhaul was ditched after the Congressional Budget Office estimated that it would cost three times what Kennedy's staff had claimed.

One other thing to note is that Romney praises Kennedy for helping make the case that federal support was necessary to fund the state-based coverage expansion. Romney likes to criticize President Obama for cutting Medicare and raising taxes in order to fund ObamaCare. But of course, as a governor, Romney didn't have the option to cut back on Medicare, a federal program. So, with the help of Sen. Kennedy, he convinced the feds to kick in another way, with expanded Medicaid funding that ended up paying for half of the program's publicly budgeted cost.

The most recent Bloomberg debate also revealed a bit more about Romney's double talk. Romney promises to repeal ObamaCare,then assuming all voters 'agree' with "REPEAL & REPLACE" promises to bring in his own version of nationalized health care. See video, ff 8:20 part 5 . . .

(APPLAUSE)
ROMNEY: Rick, you're absolutely right. On day one, granting a waiver for all 50 states doesn't stop in its tracks entirely Obamacare. That's why I also say we have to repeal Obamacare, and I will do that on day two, with the reconciliation bill, because as you know, it was passed by reconciliation, 51 votes.

ROSE: All right.

ROMNEY: We can get rid of it with 51 votes. We have to get rid of Obamacare and return to the states the responsibility...
(CROSSTALK)
ROMNEY: No, not if you get rid of it. And particularly -- by the way, the Supreme -- the Supreme Court may get rid of it.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMNEY: Let me finish. Let me finish.

ROSE: OK, let's -- then we'll go to Huntsman, then we'll go to the break, and then when we come back, each of you can question each other.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMNEY: Hold on, guys.

HUNTSMAN: Thank you.

ROMNEY: Let me just -- LET ME JUST SAY THIS, WHICH IS WE ALL AGREE ABOUT REPEAL AND REPLACE. AND I'M PROUD OF THE FACT THAT I'VE PUT TOGETHER A PLAN THAT SAYS WHAT I'M GOING TO REPLACE IT WITH. And I think it's incumbent on everybody around this table to put together a plan that says this is what I'll replace it with, because the American people are not satisfied with the status quo. They want us to solve the problem of health care, to get it to work like a market, and that's what has to happen.

PERRY: Governor Romney, your chief economic adviser, Glenn Hubbard, who you know well, he said that Romneycare was Obamacare. And Romneycare has driven the cost of small-business insurance premiums up by 14 percent over the national average in Massachusetts. So my question for you would be: How would you respond to his criticism of your signature legislative achievement?

ROMNEY: You know, the -- the great thing about running for president is to get the chance also to talk about your experience as a governor. And I'm proud of the fact that we took on a major problem in my state. And the problem was that we had a lot of kids without insurance, a lot of adults without insurance, but it added up to about 8 percent of our population. And we said, you know what, we want to find a way to get those folks insured, but we don't want to change anything for the 92 percent of the people that already have insurance. And so our plan dealt with those 8 percent, not the 92 percent. One of the problems with Obamacare is he doesn't just deal with the people without insurance. He takes over health care for everyone. Then he does something else that Chris Christie said today. He said the problem with Obamacare is he spends an extra trillion dollars and raises taxes. And raising taxes is one of the big problems, something we didn't do in Massachusetts. He also cuts Medicare. Only -- but people out there are talking about cutting Medicare, it's President Obama that did that.
via transcript @ SunTimes.com

DID YOU KNOW THAT ALL 50 STATES HAD TO PAY FOR ROMNEYCARE? I heard Rush talking about this today, so did a search:

“Mitt Romney has raised taxes on as many people as Barack Obama has. Half of RomneyCare’s new spending was financed by the federal government through the Medicaid program, which is financed through federal taxes, which fall on taxpayers in all 50 states. That means that when Romney financed half of RomneyCare’s new spending by pulling down more federal Medicaid dollars, he increased taxes on residents of all 50 states.”

more http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/romneycare-making-a-fool-of-every-republican-it-touches-since-2006/

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.