RUSH: Santorum Was Right About Romneycare

www.RushLimbaugh.com ^ | January 30, 2012 | Rush Limbaugh

[Yosemitest]

Santorum Was Right About Romneycare
January 30, 2012

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Wall Street Journal, Grace-Marie Turner:
"Rick Santorum went for the jugular in Thursday night's Republican presidential debate,
exposing Mitt Romney's weak and contradictory defense of his Massachusetts health-reform law.
Mr. Santorum attacked Mr. Romney's claim that the individual mandate affects only
'the 8% of people who didn't have insurance.'
Mr. Romney insisted that
'92% of the people in my state had insurance before our plan went in place. And nothing changes for them.'
Mr. Santorum blasted back that
'what Governor Romney said is just factually incorrect,'
because the mandate affects 100% of the residents who are forced to buy health insurance
'as a condition of breathing in Massachusetts.' "
And that was a salient point.



Romney tried to say it only affected 8%. No, it affects everybody in Massachusetts, everybody had to.

"In an earlier debate, Newt Gingrich underscored the point when he described a Massachusetts couple fined $3,000 by the state."
Now, listen to this. I remember this, but this is true.
This is factually correct.
"Newt Gingrich underscored the point when he described a Massachusetts couple fined $3,000 by the state.
They had health insurance, but it didn't meet the state's specifications.
Lauren and Nick Destito had owned a tree and landscaping business for 25 years before the economy collapsed in 2008.
They were forced to declare bankruptcy but still tried to abide by the state's health-insurance mandate, purchasing a policy that cost them $750 a month."

They still tried to abide by state law while filing for bankruptcy.
"No dice -- according to a government official, the amount of health insurance they can afford is determined
'not, unfortunately, from your perspective but from the state agency's view.' "
You don't get to determine what policy you buy based on what you think you can afford.
You have to buy what we at the state tell you.
"After garnering national attention for their plight, the couple won on appeal.
Mr. Romney's attempt to contrast his plan with Obamacare wasn't convincing.
'I don't like the Obama plan,'
he said in Thursday's debate.
'His plan cuts Medicare by $500 billion. We didn't, of course, touch anything like that.
He raises taxes by $500 billion. We didn't do that.'



"These are bogus boasts:

States have no authority over cuts in the federal Medicare program,
so cutting Medicare never was an option with Romneycare.
Massachusetts didn't raise taxes to finance its plan because
it relied on previously enacted health-insurance taxes
and an infusion of federal Medicaid money to finance its coverage expansion.
The state simply passed a big share of its costs to federal taxpayers."
Romney got to pass that along to taxpayers across the whole country.
"Mr. Santorum challenged Mr. Romney on his claim that Romneycare is
'very different than Obamacare,'
citing a new study that lists key features the two plans have in common,
including the Medicaid expansion, an employer mandate and the individual mandate.
The study is from the liberal Families USA, which credits John McDonough and explains he
'was deeply involved'
in developing both Romneycare and Obamacare."

This is one of Romney's advisers that we have mentioned to you that went to the Oval Office to help Obama put together Obamacare after helping Romney write Romneycare.
John McDonough.
"Among the key checkpoints showing the similarities between the two plans --"
Are you sitting down for this, folks? Are you?
Look at me. I want you to listen to this.
"Among the key checkpoints showing the similarities between the two plans:
'Romneycare authorizes "tiers" of insurance coverage, which are called Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Young Adult.' "



Romneycare authorizes tiers, t-i-e-r-s, levels of insurance coverage, and they've called them Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Young Adult.
"Obamacare sets the following tiers for policies:
Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Young Adult."
They've even named the tiers in Obamacare after Romneycare, and they've added one called Platinum.
"Government will specify which benefits must be included in health plans under both reform laws.
Mr. McDonough earlier said the federal law is 'Massachusetts with three more zeros.' "

McDonough, again, deeply involved in developing both Romneycare and Obamacare.
"Mr. Romney repeatedly says he believes in state-level solutions.
But when he says he wants to give states more discretion in implementing Obamacare,
there is very little daylight between his position and President Obama's.
The president has said Congress should pass legislation to accelerate the provision in the law
that would allow states more flexibility in implementing the health law starting in 2014.
Mr. Santorum was passionate in insisting that
Mr. Romney's defense will collapse in a debate with President Obama,
and the candidate would be wide open to attack.
'Folks, we can't give this issue away in this election. It is about fundamental freedom,' he said."

Remember, I thought that was crucial.
I played that sound bite over and over again for you last week.
"Mr. Romney has indeed backed himself into a corner,"
says Grace-Marie Turner here,
"by insisting on defending his health plan while attacking Obamacare.
In the Oct. 11 debate at Dartmouth College, Mr. Romney said:
'[W]e all agree about repeal and replace.
And I'm proud of the fact that I put together a plan that says what I'm going to replace it with.' "
Did you hear that?

He's happy he put together a plan that says what he's gonna replace Obamacare with.
"Does he really mean...?" Asks Grace-Marie Turner,
"Does he really mean that he wants to use Massachusetts as a model for his 'replacement' plan?"

No wonder voters are worried.
"Unless Mr. Romney takes steps to conform his position with reality,
he will have trouble convincing voters he is serious about repeal
and will have an even harder time mapping a clear plan on health reform should he be elected president."
There you have it. She's right.
Basically what she's saying is Santorum was right in his attack, if you will, on Romneycare.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here's Linda in Ridgefield, Connecticut. I'm glad you waited, you're up next on the Rush Limbaugh program.
Hi.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, how are you?
Thanks so much for taking my call. I love you.

RUSH: You bet.

CALLER: Hey, listen, I have listened to you for a long time,
and I've taken all your teachings and I've chosen my candidate based upon them,
and my candidate's Rick Santorum. I think that he articulates conservatism like no other.
I switched to him when I saw him speak in his Iowa caucus win,
and it was a beautiful conservative speech. I mean even Al Hunt's recent article refers to it.
And one of the things he talked about was how he stuck to his principles.
He went out to those voters in Pennsylvania, and he got them to come across to him.
They crossed the aisle to him. It was a 60% to 70% Democratic district.
And that's something you've always talked about, how Reagan did that.
I don't believe that Romney's done that at all in Massachusetts.
I think he has actually done the opposite.





He talked about conservatism beautifully.
I think it was one of the last questions in his Thursday debate when he talked about how the Constitution was the rule book
and how it's there to protect the Declaration of Independence, which talks about our rights are from God and not from government.
I think that was beautifully articulated.
Another thing he does that you're always talking about, you mentioned it earlier this week,
you talked about a family of four that makes $60,000 a year has no expendable income.
And Rick's been talking about this, about the family unit, and this is what's so beautiful about him.
You know, people may criticize Rick,

"Oh, he's the social conservative and, no, we don't want that,"
but he takes social conservative, that part of it and ties it into the fiscal conservative issues.

He blends them together and he can help and explain to people
why the family is so important to the fabric of our society
and why we must get back to those issues revolving around families,
because it's those issues that are gonna make us strong again.
I really think this guy is great, and I'm very disappointed in some of the people out there
who haven't had the guts to come out and support him. I think he's wonderful.
You know, when we talk about Reagan, being a Reaganesque person, you know,
when Reagan went to the White House, he chose two things that he wanted to accomplish, just two.
Getting the economy back, and defeating the Soviet Union.
He wasn't all over the place, and this idea and this, you know, going to the moon and these things.
He focused, and we need a candidate who's gonna focus like a laser beam on Obamacare.
And I think Santorum, you saw it in that debate, he was focused.
He has done excellent in all these debates --

RUSH: Okay. So tell me why he's there at 13%.

CALLER: I don't know. Help me out.
I don't know. I think if we had somebody that could come out and just,
"Hey, this guy is great."

RUSH: Yes, I knew that's where this was headed.
"Rush, why don't you say you're for Santorum?
Why, you could push him over the top."
All the candidates have people asking me to do that.
I have the greatest admiration for Santorum.
He had a statement or debate, somebody, a think tank person, Brookings or whatever, something like three things --
it might not have been Brookings, but some think tank
-- three things you could do that take care of income inequality, that take care of cultural rot,
and they were all family-oriented type issues, and one of them was don't have kids before you get married.
It's amazing when you look at the numbers of single-parent households, out of wedlock births.
If you look at that definition, if you accept it as a sign of the disintegration of culture, the family breakup, it is amazing.
Santorum is right.

You know, there's a story.
I'm not gonna mention a name here because I don't want to...
There's a story of a football player who can't get a gig, and you read the story here and it's (summarized),
"He's always been an island of sorts. Brash personality, self-absorption.
Made $80 million in his life and he's broke. He's broke.
He's got nothing. He's in bad shape!"
If you keep reading, then you find out he's got four kids with four women.
He owes child support. He doesn't have the money. All four are suing him.
It dovetails with what her point is and the point that Santorum talks about. (sigh)
Does the NFL give you counseling, like does the NFL tell you wear a condom?
I don't know.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I want to take you back to 2008. This is Austin, Texas. This is a Democrat presidential debate, February 21st, and this is Senator Barack Obama.
Senator Barack Obama in February of '08 during the Democrat campaign in the debate talking about health care reform.





OBAMA 2008: When Senator Clinton says "a mandate," it's not a mandate on government to provide health insurance;
it's a mandate to individuals to purchase it.
Massachusetts has a mandate right now.
They have exempted 20% of the uninsured because they've concluded that that 20% can't afford it.
In some cases, they're people who are paying fines and still can't afford it
so now they're worse off than they were.
They don't have health insurance and they're paying a fine.
In order for you to force people to get health insurance, you've got to have a very harsh, stiff penalty.


RUSH: Now, how do you read this? How do you hear that?
Think of the irony!
Back in 2008, during a Democrat primaries, Obama is railing against the individual mandate in Massachusetts
while Romney and Gingrich both supported it, as did Hillary.
He was taking on Hillary, remember, and Hillary was for an individual mandate.
Here's Obama.
"When Senator Clinton says 'a mandate,' it's not a mandate on government to provide health insurance; it's a mandate to individuals to purchase it,"
and he doesn't like it. He's telling us he opposes it.
Then he goes on to cite what's happening in Massachusetts. They got a mandate.
"They have exempted 20% of the uninsured because they've concluded that that 20% can't afford it.

"In some cases, they're people who are paying fines and still can't afford it
so now they're worse off than they were,"
and this is the guy that's going to be debating Romney. This...
What...? What...?
At the very least the irony here.
"Senator Clinton has said that we won't go after their wages.
Now, this is a substantive difference but understand both of us seek to get universal health care.
I have a substantive difference with Senator Clinton on how to get there."
He doesn't agree with the mandate, but he put one in.
You know, I don't think...
Frankly, I've always thought that health care bill was written in somebody's drawer in Congress,
and Obama never really knew specifically what was in it and he didn't care because what he knew
that it led to was national health care in five or ten years.

It was gonna close the private insurance market, it was gonna force people to get their insurance from the government.
That's all they cared about.
The minutia, the details, whether they had a mandate or not, he couldn'ta cared less.
During the campaign, as he's trying to distinguish himself from Hillary, she's for it;
therefore, he's gotta be against it.
He's gotta rip it. He cites Massachusetts, how it's unfair and not working four years ago.
At the same time, Gingrich was talking about the virtues of it,
and Romney was 'cause it was his idea in Massachusetts.
Santorum has never been for a mandate.
He never has. The story last week is incorrect.

We've got audio. He was opposed to it.
Santorum's never been for a mandate.
Everybody running in this campaign has, at one time or another, either instituted a mandate or has said they're for it.
Everybody, Democrat or Republican, except for Santorum.
Every one of them. What do you think of that?
Can I say "establishment" to you?
Don't give me this "outsider" garbage. Establishment.
Can I say that to you? Again:
Every candidate running for office this year has either instituted a mandate or has been in favor of it. (interruption)
I didn't say they're all dirty.
If you want to conclude that, put it in your own words, H.R.
I'm just pointing it out.
Anthony Weiner, Tony Weiner, wrote a lot of the health care bill that was in the drawer
that they pulled out of there when Obama started going for it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: One year ago today, Judge Roger Vinson (who was the first to rule against Obamacare) wrote,
"I note that in 2008 then-Senator Obama supported a health care reform proposal that did not include a mandate
because he was at that time strongly opposed to the idea, stating:
'If a mandate was the solution, then we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody buy a house.' "
That was one year ago today. Obama was cited as opposing a mandate that is in his health care bill.

END TRANSCRIPT

Related Links

• Wall Street Journal: Scoring Last Week's RomneyCare Debate
  
  
• Real Clear Politics: Romney to Santorum on Health Care: "Not Worth Getting Angry About"
  
  

[Yosemitest]

Great job, Rush. Thank you.

Let me add this article:

7 Reasons Why Mitt Romney's Electability Is A Myth
Dec 27, 2011 by John Hawkins



Mitt Romney was a moderate governor in Massachusetts with an unimpressive record of governance. He left office with an approval rating in the thirties and his signature achievement, Romneycare, was a Hurricane Katrina style disaster for the state. Since that's the case, it's fair to ask what a Republican who's not conservative and can't even carry his own state brings to the table for GOP primary voters. The answer is always the same: Mitt Romney is supposed to be "the most electable" candidate. This is a baffling argument because many people just seem to assume it's true, despite the plethora of evidence to the contrary.

1) People just don't like Mitt: The entire GOP primary process so far has consisted of Republican voters desperately trying to find an alternative to Mitt Romney. Doesn't it say something that GOP primary voters have, at one time or another, preferred Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, and now even Ron Paul (In Iowa) to Mitt Romney?

To some people, this is a plus. They think that if conservatives don't like Mitt Romney, that means moderates will like him. This misunderstands how the process of attracting independent voters works in a presidential race. While it's true the swayable moderates don't want to support a candidate they view as an extremist, they also don't just automatically gravitate towards the most "moderate" candidate. To the contrary, independent voters tend to be moved by the excitement of the candidate's base (See John McCain vs. Barack Obama for an example of how this works). This is how a very conservative candidate like Ronald Reagan could win landslide victories. He avoided being labeled an extremist as Goldwater was; yet his supporters were incredibly enthusiastic and moderates responded to it.

Let's be perfectly honest: Mitt Romney excites no one except for Mormons, political consultants, and Jennifer Rubin. To everybody else on the right, Mitt Romney vs. Barack Obama would be a "lesser of two evils" election where we'd grudgingly back Mitt because we wouldn’t lose as badly with him in the White House as we would with Obama. That's not the sort of thing that gets people fired up to make phone calls, canvass neighborhoods, or even put up "I heart Mitt" signs in their yards.

2) He's a proven political loser: There's a reason Mitt Romney has been able to say that he's "not a career politician." It's because he's not very good at politics. He lost to Ted Kennedy in 1994. Although he did win the governorship of Massachusetts in 2002, he did it without cracking 50% of the vote. Worse yet, he left office as the 48th most popular governor in America and would have lost if he had run again in 2006. Then, to top that off, he failed to capture the GOP nomination in 2008. This time around, despite having almost every advantage over what many people consider to be a weak field of candidates, Romney is still desperately struggling. Choosing Romney as the GOP nominee after running up that sort of track record would be like promoting a first baseman hitting .225 in AAA to the majors.

3) Running weak in the southern states: Barack Obama won North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida in 2008 and you can be sure that he will be targeting all three of those states again. This is a problem for Romney because he would be much less likely than either Gingrich or Perry to carry any of those states. Moderate northern Republicans have consistently performed poorly in the south and Romney won't be any exception. That was certainly the case in 2008 when both McCain and Huckabee dominated Romney in primaries across the south. Mitt didn't win a single primary in a southern state and although he finished second in Florida, he wasn't even competitive in North Carolina or Virginia. Since losing any one of those states could be enough to hand the election to Obama in a close race, Mitt's weakness there is no small matter.

4) His advantages disappear in a general election: It's actually amazing that Mitt Romney isn't lapping the whole field by 50 points because he has every advantage. Mitt has been running for President longer than the other contenders. He has more money and a better organization than the other candidates. The party establishment and inside the beltway media are firmly in his corner. That's why the other nominees have been absolutely savaged while Romney, like John McCain before him, has been allowed to skate through the primaries without receiving serious scrutiny.

Yet, every one of those advantages disappears if he becomes the nominee. Suddenly Obama will be the more experienced candidate in the race for the presidency. He will also have more money and a better organization than Mitt. Moreover, in a general election, the establishment and beltway media will be aligned against Romney, not for him. Suddenly, Romney will go from getting a free pass to being public enemy #1 for the entire mainstream media.

If you took all those advantages away from Romney in the GOP primary, he'd be fighting with Jon Huntsman to stay out of last place. So, what happens when he's the nominee and suddenly, all the pillars that have barely kept him propped up in SECOND place so far are suddenly removed? It may not be pretty.

5) Bain Capital: Mitt Romney became rich working for Bain Capital. This has been a plus for Romney in the Republican primaries where the grassroots tend to be dominated by people who love capitalism and the free market. However, in a year when Obama will be running a populist campaign and Occupy Wall Street is demonizing the "1%," Mitt Romney will be a TAILOR MADE villain for them. Did you know that Bain Capital gutted companies and made a lot of money, in part, by laying off a lot of poor and middle class Americans? Do you know that Bain Capital got a federal bailout and Mitt Romney made lots of money off of it?

“The way the company was rescued was with a federal bailout of $10 million,” the ad says. “The rest of us had to absorb the loss … Romney? He and others made $4 million in this deal. … Mitt Romney: Maybe he’s just against government when it helps working men and women.”

The facts of the Bain & Co. turnaround are a little more complicated, but a Boston Globe report from 1994 confirms that Bain saw several million dollars in loans forgiven by the FDIC, which had taken over Bain’s failed creditor, the Bank of New England.

Did you know Ted Kennedy beat Romney in 1994 by hammering Mitt relentlessly on his time at Bain Capital? No wonder. The ads write themselves.

Imagine pictures of dilapidated, long since closed factories. They trot out scruffy looking workers talking about how bad life has been since Mitt Romney crushed their dreams and cost them their jobs. Then they show a clip of Mitt making his $10,000 bet and posing with money in his clothes. All Mitt needs is a monocle and a sniveling Waylon Smithers type character to follow him around shining his shoes to make him into the prototypical bad guy the Democrats are trying to create.

Now, the point of this isn't to say that what Mitt did at Bain Capital was dishonorable. It certainly wasn't. To the contrary, as a conservative, I find his work in the private sector to be just about the only thing he has going for him. But, people should realize that in a general election, Mitt's time at Bain Capital will probably end up being somewhere between a small asset and a large liability, depending on which side does a better job of defining it.

6) The Mormon Factor: This is a sensitive topic; so I am going to handle it much, much more gently than Hollywood and the mainstream media will if Mitt gets the nomination. Mormons do believe in Jesus Christ, the Mormon Church does a lot of good work, the ones I've met seem to be good people, and two of my best friends are Mormons. That being said, Mormons are not considered to be a mainstream Christian religion in large swathes of the country. There will be Protestants who will have deep reservations about voting a Mormon into the White House because they'll be afraid it will help promote what they believe to be a false religion. There have also been a number of polls that show that significant numbers of Americans won't vote for a Mormon as President.

Just look at a couple of the more recent polls and consider how much of an impact this issue could have in a close election.

The poll found 67 percent of Americans want the president to be Christian and 52 percent said they consider Mormons to be Christian. Twenty-two percent of those polled said they don't think Mormons are Christians and 26 percent are unsure.

"I do believe they are moral people, but again there is a difference between being moral and being saved," Linda Dameron, an evangelical Republican in Independence, Mo., told the Tribune.

More than 40 percent of Americans would be uncomfortable with a Mormon as president, according to a new survey that also suggests that as more white evangelical voters have learned White House hopeful Mitt Romney is Mormon, the less they like him.

A survey by the Public Religion Research Institute released late Monday also shows that nearly half of white evangelical Protestant voters — a key demographic in the Republican primary race — don’t believe that Mormonism is a Christian faith, and about two-thirds of adults say the LDS faith is somewhat or very different than their own.

You should also keep in mind that if Mitt Romney gets the nomination, Hollywood and the mainstream media will conduct a vicious, months’ long hate campaign against the Mormon Church. They will take every opportunity to make Mormons look weird, racist, kooky, scary, and different. Would this be a decisive factor? I'd like to say no, but by the time all is said and done, it's very easy to see Romney potentially losing hundreds of thousands of votes across the country because of his religion.

7) He's a flip-flopper. Maybe my memory is failing me, but didn’t George Bush beat John Kerry's brains in with the "flip flopper" charge back in 2004? So now, just eight years later, the GOP is going to run someone that even our own side agrees is a flip-flopper right out of the gate? Romney doesn't even handle the charge well. When Brett Baier at Fox pointed out the obvious, Romney's response was to get huffy and deny that he was flip flopping, which is kind of like Lady Gaga denying that she likes to get attention. If Mitt can't even handle run-of-the-mill questions from FOX NEWS about his flip flopping, what makes anyone think he can deal with the rest of the press in a general election?

There are a lot of issues with trying to run a candidate who doesn't seem to have any core principles. It makes it impossible for his supporters to get excited about him because you can't fall in love with a weathervane. Even worse, since politicians tend to be such liars anyway and you know Romney has no firm beliefs, it's very easy for everyone to assume the worst. Democrats will feel that Romney will be a right wing death-beast. Republicans will think that Romney will screw them over. Independents won't know what to believe, which will make the hundreds of millions that Obama will spend on attack ads particularly effective. Ronald Reagan famously said the GOP needed "a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors." That's particularly relevant when it comes to Mitt Romney who has proven to be a pasty grey pile of formless mush.

[no dems]

RUSH: Santorum Was Right About Romneycare _____________________________________________________________
NO S**T RUSH? Why don't you tell us something we don't know, like who you're endorsing today in Florida?

[napscoordinator]

Well I am just glad that Rush is emphasing this today before the vote. I mean Santorum was the only one to bring this up. Newt didn't bring it up at the debate. Thank God that Santorum was in the debate or it would never have been mentioned.

[Yosemitest]

I don't think Rush will endorse anyone.
I think Rush believes that we're smart enough to know ... WHO ... to vote FOR.

[annieokie]

Yeah, The smartest man in America with half his brain tied behind his back???? rofl.

Something has happened to him since his new marriage. hmmm.

[shelterguy]

I knew about it years ago. Anyone with any brain cells at all knew about it.

I will never vote for a guy that was elected by the same people that constantly elected kerry and kennedy.

[Logical me]

Too late for Florida. Romney has it and his ideas of running the Federal Government like he did at Bain will just result in buy outs with more Tax Monies. Then let them crash and sell all their assets. Way to go. Only Newt knows how to work the huge Federal Government.

[Logical me]

I think Rush believes that we're smart enough to know ... WHO ... to vote FOR.

Don't kid yourself. One third of Americans are lucky to be able to find the toilet. So busy playing games and haven't the slightest idea what has happened to our Country. And the ass hats don't care.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Something has happened to him since his new marriage. hmmm.

Thinks with a different ...???

[annieokie]

yep

[Cowman]

the mandate affects 100% of the residents who are forced to buy health insurance 'as a condition of breathing in Massachusetts.' "

That's a good line right there.

[Yosemitest]

And those people don't LISTEN, HEAR, and UNDERSTAND ... Rush.

[Matchett-PI]

bttt

[JohnG45]

Yeah, The smartest man in America with half his brain tied behind his back???? rofl.

Something has happened to him since his new marriage. hmmm.

I have the exact same impression.

[annieokie]

got a moderate ring in his nose?

[annieokie]

“Pillow Talk”

[JohnG45]

Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain

And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet

When the wind comes right behind the rain.

Oklahoma ...

Love your User name.

[CitizenM]

bump!

[annieokie]

Thank you. Now to that little ditty: That damn WIND that comes sweeping down the plain, just yuk. It sure knows how to ruin a good golf game and a hairdo. lol

Good song though.

[Portcall24]

T Owens