Free Republic

Modern Medical Care is a Blessing Not a Right As last year’s health reform bill again permeates our public discourse many pundits have highlighted how socializing medicine will exacerbate our already precarious budget concerns. Much was also written regarding the evasion of public sentiment when Congress employed especially repugnant procedural tactics. While these aspects ridicule the hypocrisy of our elected representatives, they are secondary. Healthcare is not a right. It's a blessing. Medical treatment or more specifically how we finance it, cannot be considered an unalienable right. It’s a form of consumption. Your right to own a car does not...

Once upon a time there was a president, wavering in popularity. He was deemed by some political pundits as “highly beatable.” He had just done his whole thing with health care, which left voters fuming, and two years before the presidential election, Republicans picked up a slew of seats in the House, taking control. But then, the Republican Party did the unthinkable: It gave the nomination to a guy because it was essentially “his turn,” and the candidate got shellacked by the incumbent Democratic president. That president was Bill Clinton; the “It’s His Turn” candidate was Bob Dole; the year,...

I was not surprised to read yet another editorial in the Journal yesterday criticizing the health-care reforms we enacted in Massachusetts ("Obama's Running Mate," May 12). I was, however, not expecting the distortions of what we accomplished. Let me deal with some of them. One, the editorial asserts that people in Massachusetts who wouldn't buy coverage, even though they could afford it, was not a major fiscal problem. But as a state we were spending almost $1 billion on free care for the uninsured. What we did was convert that money into premium support for those who needed help buying...

Mitt Romney wants to become America's next president. He's been very successful, according to a number of reports, at raising millions on Wall Street. But the paper named after it, the Wall Street Journal, isn't satisfied with Romney. In a lengthy and extraordinary editorial, it calls him the worst epithet a conservative could probably think of—"Obama's Running Mate." When a political party is out of power, or at least doesn't hold the presidency, numerous dissenting voices are usually heard. It can be a fructifying time. But it can also be a time when ideological agendas are ruthlessly enforced. The Journal...

Republican Mitt Romney faces a deeply unpleasant choice in his all-but-announced bid for the White House. He signaled Thursday that he'd rather be charged with inspiring President Barack Obama's health care overhaul than with switching positions on a fourth big issue that's vital to conservative voters. Either accusation, if it sticks, might deny him the GOP nomination. Conservatives despise Obama's 2010 health care law, especially the requirement that everyone obtain medical insurance. That same requirement is a cornerstone of the 2006 Massachusetts law that Romney championed as governor. Many advisers have urged Romney to apologize, say he made a big...

It is “sad,” says MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, that presidential candidate Mitt Romney is running away from his Massachusetts health care plan, a plan that Gruber says “gave birth to one of the greatest pieces of social legislation in our history,” namely [Alleged] President Obama’s 2010 health-care reform legislation. Aside from Romney, Gruber is the man most responsible for the Massachusetts plan. And given how important the debate is over the ‘Cares — RomneyCare and ObamaCare, as they’re often dubbed — I decided to go to the man who perhaps knows more than anyone about the development of both. In...

It is “sad,” says MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, that presidential candidate Mitt Romney is running away from his Massachusetts health care plan, a plan that Gruber says “gave birth to one of the greatest pieces of social legislation in our history,” namely President Obama’s 2010 health-care reform legislation. Aside from Romney, Gruber is the man most responsible for the Massachusetts plan. And given how important the debate is over the ‘Cares — RomneyCare and ObamaCare, as they’re often dubbed — I decided to go to the man who perhaps knows more than anyone about the development of both. In a...

Former Gov. Mitt Romney came under new fire from all sides yesterday over his landmark Bay State health-care overhaul as potential 2012 Republican rivals and local Democrats took turns blasting the GOP presidential front-runner. “I’ve talked to residents of Massachusetts, and what I’ve gotten is that (health-care reform is) really not working well at all,” said former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who is believed to be considering a 2012 bid. Johnson declined to comment on whether health care will hurt Romney’s candidacy, saying, “whatever the criticism is about a candidate, everyone already knows it. I don’t (have to) say...

On the kick off to his "No Apology" book tour Mitt Romney is on message – refusing to apologize for the Massachusetts health care law that, like President Obama’s federal legislation, requires citizens to buy health insurance. “I’m not apologizing for it, I’m indicating that we went in one direction and there are other possible directions. I’d like to see states pursue their own ideas, see which ideas work best,” Romney told me. That stand seems to reject the advice of Karl Rove and others who say that Romney can’t get the GOP nomination in 2012 unless he finds a...

SALT LAKE CITY — There are new hints that former Utah Olympic leader Mitt Romney is gearing up to announce another run for president. Politico reported Thursday that Romney aides are telling other Republicans that he expects to launch his campaign in April. The online news source noted Romney has already taken "another methodical step toward his 2012 run" by stepping down from the Marriott hotel chain board of directors — again. The last time Romney left was before he ran successfully for governor of Massachusetts following the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He rejoined the board in...

It will be more than a year before New Hampshire voters trudge to the polls for the first primary in the nation, but the New Hampshire Journal feels it’s just the right time to take the Granite State temperature on the Republican field. As expected, Mitt Romney from neighboring Massachusetts takes the early lead in the poll, but perhaps the extent of that lead will provide a mild surprise. Romney leads Sarah Palin by 23 points, and Mike Huckabee is the only other candidate in double digits: Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney holds a commanding lead in New Hampshire in...

: WHEN it comes to a government overhaul of health care, what is the difference between President Obama and Mitt Romney? A: Obama was against an individual insurance mandate before he was for it. Romney was for the mandate before he was against it. Actually, that’s not quite accurate. The real difference is that Obama acknowledges reversing his position, while Romney seems to be trying to have it both ways. As a presidential candidate in 2008, then-Senator Obama blasted Hillary Clinton’s health care plan because, as one of his ads put it, “It forces everyone to buy insurance, even if...