Without RomneyCare, Massachusetts was still doomed.
There is one thing all you supposed constitutionalists overlook: this program was instituted in one state, and was therefore allowed by the US Constitution. If it has turned out to be a bad policy, then: 1. No one else has to emulate it; 2. it can easily be repealed in Massachusetts, in the unlikely chance that people there suddenly get intelligent.
One of the advantages of the federal system is that states can (within limits) experiment. Massachusetts also has very restrictive gun laws. Other states don’t have to imitate that, either.
You can always move from Massachusetts, whereas it is much less convenient and more unsavory to have to move out of the whole USA, which is necessary to escape federal laws.
I think that it would be a good idea if FR stopped dumping on one potential Republican presidential candidate, when there is no great supply of viable alternatives. I like Palin myself, but in no way could she win a national election. All the other alternative candidates are poorly known at this point. but I have hopes that others will come to the forefront.
Any Republican is better than any Democrat. I don’t think that there has been a good Democrat since Cleveland or Tilden or Martin van Buren. Period.
Massachusetts also has very restrictive gun laws. Other states don’t have to imitate that, either.
States have a Fourteenth Amendment-imposed constitutional duty to protect the unalienable rights of the people. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms is a God-given unalienable right. No state has a "right" to infringe on the people's right to defend themselves, their families, their communities, their country, and their Constitution.
“this program was instituted in one state, and was therefore allowed by the US Constitution”
Wrong. First, it just means nobody has successfully challenged it on Constitutional grounds. Yet. Second, it might mean states can pass MittCare or ObamaCare, but does not address if the US govt is Constitutionally empowered to do so.
I could go on (and on), but I think that makes the point...