Posted on 12/27/2011 8:27:06 AM PST by radioone
ABC's Jonathan Karl Tuesday published a piece now prominently featured at the Drudge Report with a headline guaranteed to be the Obama-loving media's lead story concerning something Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich wrote over five years ago: "Gingrich ’06 Memo: 'Agree Entirely With Gov. Romney' on Health Care."
Inside the actual document uncovered by BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski, the former Speaker didn't "agree entirely with Gov. Romney" at all (emphasis added):
(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...
I still did not vote for McCain. I tolerated his presence at the top of the ticket, and voted for the lady who would be one heartbeat away from the Presidency if they won.
The document, among other things, clearly shows Gingrich saying, "We propose that a more realistic approach might be to limit the mandate to those individuals earning upwards of $54,000 per year."
What part of Gingrich supporting "the mandate" did freepers get "sucked into," in your view?
Did Gingrich agree with Romney on the very thing that conservatives oppose? Yes, he did.
If people want to focus on how the LSM used a term such as "agreed with," rather than the substance of what Gingrich said, have at it.
Gingrich clearly agreed with Romney on forcing at least some people to buy health insurance through use of an individual mandate. That is all.
Instead of it applying to whoever it was Romney was going to apply it to, Gingrich proposed applying it only to "those individuals earning upwards of $54,000 per year."
That really shows how radically different Gingrich's view of the individual mandate was from Romney's view -- Gingrich just wanted to force it on people after a different income cut-off than Romney's. Wow. /s
You are correct.
I hope your discussion included the fact that Gingrich supported the individual mandate in Romneycare. He simply, as the excerpt in the article shows, thought it should apply after a different income cut-off than Romney had proposed. But on the substance of the mandate, Gingrich was all for laying it on people.
Do most people in Newt’s position write every word that appears on their websites themselves? Or do they have staff doing some of the writing with their approval?
Is Newt saying that these words do not at all accurately reflect his thoughts and conclusions at the time and they just mysteriously ended up on his website?
I don’t know what the rush is here to prove this is a forgery or some kind of outrage. Gingrich has been highly supportive of an individual mandate for decades, and everyone knows it.
It’s only since he’s been running for President that he backed off it, and started saying he only supported it as an alternative to Hillarycare, etc.
He would be better off to do what Romney should do. Own up to supporting the mandate and own up to being very wrong about it.
As they say, it’s the “cover up” that causes the problems.
you’re accusing the media of using logic?
You are 100% correct about Romney, but you have not carried out the thought to completion- that is the exact reason they WANT Romney- but they want to wait until he is the nominee before using it
Got to give the Gingrich supporters credit, they are excellent at straw-grasping.
Newt Notes:But All Is Well!! Because Newt didn't agree ENTIRELY with the Mass. Health Plan. So we should ignore his attack on "free-riders" who think they should be allowed to choose for themselves whether they have insurance or not.We agree entirely with Governor Romney and Massachusetts legislators that our goal should be 100% insurance coverage for all Americans. Individuals without coverage often do not receive quality medical attention on par with those who do have insurance. We also believe strongly that personal responsibility is vital to creating a 21st Century Intelligent Health System. Individuals who can afford to purchase health insurance and simply choose not to place an unnecessary burden on a system that is on the verge of collapse; these free-riders undermine the entire health system by placing the onus of responsibility on taxpayers.
And weren't those freepers stupid, for not understanding that Newt didn't REALLY think Mitt did the right thing. How COULD they misinterpret THIS paragraph:
While the Commonwealth’s plan will naturally endure tremendous scrutiny from those who assert that the law will not work as intended, Massachusetts leaders are to be commended for this bipartisan proposal to tackle the enormous challenge of finding real solutions for creating a sustainable health system.The Headline Was Misleading, so we can ignore everything Newt said. That's the ticket.
He thought the government didn't provide enough free taxpayer money to poor people for their health insurance. Apparently, Romney was not compassionate enough for Newt:
The Romney plan attempts to bring everyone into the system. The individual mandate requires those who earn enough to afford insurance to purchase coverage, and subsidies will be made available to those individuals who cannot afford insurance on their own. We agree strongly with this principle, but the details are crucial when it comes to the structure of this plan. Under the new bill, Massachusetts residents earning more than 300% of the federal poverty level (approximately $30,000 for an individual) will not be eligible for any subsidies.Gingrich loved forcing people to by health insurance, but was upset that Romney's plan cut off subsidies to poor people.
BTW, this is not news. We've known for a long time that Newt supported individual mandates, and that he felt we had to force people to buy insurance so they wouldn't be "free-loaders". He has recently told us he no longer thinks that's a good idea, and of course we all believe him because he never makes a promise (no negative campaign attacks) and later breaks it (Newt launches negative attacks).
Given the argument over Ron Pauls “newsletters” and how he didn’t actually write them even though they were published under his name, it’s going to be hard to argue that Newt wasn’t the actual author of a publication under the heading “Newt Notes” in HIS organization’s newsletter at their website.
But I guess if you want to try to prove he wasn’t the actual author, that he disagreed with what his own group published, and that he simply never read it, or he decided not to issue a retraction, go right ahead. That’s working really well for Ron Paul.
Newt agreed on need not on method.
I agree that Americans all need health insurance. I don’t want to pay someone else’s health bills. I’m stretched enough paying my own.
Health insurance is one of the reasons that medical costs are through the roof. as long as somebody else pays for their health care, people don’t care what hospitals charge.
Gingrich actually balanced the federal budget once before
And I believe he can do it again.
I actually agree with you and have said the same in the past. If there’s a big pile of money to spend, then someone is damn well going to spend it.
On the other hand, as long as this remains the system we have, I don’t want to be paying someone else’s health care.
Good Post, dfwgator!
Not me!
I never jumped on the Gingrich bandwagon.
I’m old enough to know better!
Good point.
Gingrich is just another RINO.
Why can’t FReepers see this?
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