Santorum Blasts Gingrich Over 'Romneycare'

CNN ^ | March 10, 2012 | Chris Welch

[Steelfish]

Santorum Blasts Gingrich Over 'Romneycare'

Chris Welch Springfield, Missouri (CNN) – It's a common aspect of Republican Rick Santorum's stump: attacking Mitt Romney for creating - and then "recommending" - "Romneycare" to President Barack Obama.

But Saturday, fresh off his projected win in the Kansas caucuses, Santorum added that GOP presidential rival Newt Gingrich is "honestly not a whole lot better."

"For 20 years when I was pushing medical savings accounts, he was pushing a federal mandate for health insurance," Santorum said. "And when 'Romneycare' passed, he sent out a glowing statement talking about how this wonderful bill had just passed in Massachusetts."

Santorum argues that Obama, Gingrich and Romney all line up on the same side when it comes to their support for an individual mandate.

The campaign points to a 2006 newsletter Gingrich wrote for his consulting firm, the Center for Health Transformation, in which he praised Romney's Massachusetts health care reform.

"The health bill that Governor Romney signed into law this month has tremendous potential to effect major change in the American health system," Gingrich wrote, according to the report.

Also in the newsletter, Gingrich expressed his support for the individual mandate in Massachusetts, but only for those making at least $54,000 a year. And while he commended Romney's effort in building the plan, he acknowledged the bill will likely face "tremendous scrutiny" from those who doubt the law will work.

[Red Steel]

I see you forget something Fish.

"In retrospect we were wrong because what happens, once you go to a mandate, you have turned so much power over to the government that the politicians rather than the doctors end up defining health care," Gingrich told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in December. "So it was a mistake."

Does Ricky ever admit when he is wrong?

[Gene Eric]

Rick deserves credit for advancing HSAs, but Newt took Hillarycare off the table.

[no dems]

Does Ricky ever admit when he is wrong?
____________________________________________________________

Is Ricky ever wrong??? (/sarc.)

[SatinDoll]

Get ‘yer facts straight, Steelfish!

Per www.newt.org:

Mandate to Purchase health insurance

Newt opposes Governor Romney’s health insurance mandate, and Newt opposes President Obama’s health insurance mandate. Newt believes mandates to buy health insurance are wrong on principle, and in the case of the Obamacare health insurance mandate, unconstitutional as well.

With respect to President Obama’s health insurance mandate, Newt believes it is an unprecedented and unconstitutional expansion of federal power. If the federal government can coerce individuals—by threat of fines—to buy health insurance, there is no stopping the federal government from forcing Americans to buy any good or service. It is a serious and unconstitutional infringement of individual liberty.

With respect to Governor Romney’s mandate, we have observed that it doesn’t achieve its goal of providing low cost catastrophic coverage for the uninsured. The intractable problem we have learned from experience with health insurance mandates is this: once you have a mandate, the government has to specify exactly what coverage must be included in insurance for it to qualify. This introduces political considerations into determining these minimum standards, guaranteeing that nothing desired by the special interests will be left out.

In the 1990s, Newt and many other conservatives, such as the Heritage Foundation, proposed a mandate to purchase health insurance as the alternative to Hillarycare. However, the problems outlined above caused Newt to come to the principled conclusion that a mandate to purchase health insurance was unconstitutional, unworkable and counterproductive to lowering the cost of healthcare.

Today, Newt carries the banner in fighting for the repeal of Obamacare and advocates for a “patient power” replacement that will create a free market framework for healthcare, provide affordable, portable, and reliable healthcare coverage, and establish a healthcare safety net focused on those truly in need. This system moves us towards the goal of healthcare for all with no unconstitutional mandate of any kind.

[Gene Eric]

Exploring ways to “solve” healthcare needs is meaningless in comparison to the candidates’ voting records. Newt has the most Conservative record.

[Steelfish]

Yes- Santorum said he made a mistake for supporting Arlen Specter.

But Gingrich has said it was a “mistake” for (a) attacking Romney’s Bain Capital (b) calling “right-wing social engineering” Cantor’s plan to overhaul Medicare (c) endorsing with Pelosi global Warming and Cap-and-Trade and now (d) embracing Romneycare and the individual mandate.

[SatinDoll]

When did he say all that? A source, please,

[trappedincanuckistan]

It’s pretty clear to everyone now that your hand wringing about vote splitting and defeating Romney was just crocodile tears. You’re all for Newt stepping aside where Rick has the best chance to deal Romney a blow, but are quite content to have Rick actively campaign and split the vote where Newt has the best chance to deal Romney a blow. You’ve exposed yourself. Good luck getting any Newt supporters on board. Right to the convention Newt!

[Steelfish]

You may like to apply the same injunction to yourself about getting the “facts right”. This is not about the 1990s. Read the news item:

“The campaign points to a 2006 newsletter Gingrich wrote for his consulting firm, the Center for Health Transformation, in which he praised Romney’s Massachusetts health care reform.”

[Steelfish]

Oh my! You appear stunned. Yes, he said all that and more.

[Red Steel]

Your guy Ricky sure has got a lot to come clean about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELbCuLEe7Sw

[newzjunkey]

Senator Santorum in His Own Words

[Utmost Certainty]

Roll the clock back far enough, and Santorum was also for individual and employer mandates.

Anyway, I don't really care what a person's position on an issue was years ago if they've since changed their mind in a consistent transition, so it's petty to lob accusations about that—it should be expected that a person's opinions on issues will evolve when faced with new facts, given that nobody is omniscient. It's people that are completely intransigent or flippant in their opinions that are worrisome.

I'm more interested in what their current proposals to addressing healthcare cost problems are. Does Rick really think HSAs are the end-all, be-all answer to this?

[raccoonnookkeeper]

Newt long ago dropped this baggage off of his aircraft. It’s time for Santorum to get real.

[newzjunkey]

Drat. You beat me by 6 seconds.

[Red Steel]

LoL. Ricky has got a ton of liberal BS hanging around his neck.

[Steelfish]

Your guy attacked Bain Capitalism and then after Rush blasted him, he did a quick turn around. Meanwhile, the left had a field day with his comments.

http://open.salon.com/blog/ted_frier/2012/01/11/so_should_we_start_calling_gingrich_a_socialist

[Utmost Certainty]

Alright, is Santuckabee going to own up to his mistakes in being a collectivist big government nanny-statist?:

"This whole idea of personal autonomy, well I don’t think most conservatives hold that point of view. Some do. They have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do, government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulations low, that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues. You know, people should do whatever they want. Well, that is not how traditional conservatives view the world and I think most conservatives understand that individuals can’t go it alone." [source]

"What was my vision? I came to the uncomfortable realization that conservatives were not only reluctant to spend government dollars on the poor, they hadn’t even thought much about what might work better. I often describe my conservative colleagues during this time as simply ‘cheap liberals.’ My own economically modest personal background and my faith had taught me to care for those who are less fortunate, but I too had not yet given much thought to the proper role of government in this mission." –Rick Santorum, p. IX It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good (2005)

"I suspect some will dismiss my ideas as just an extended version of ‘compassionate conservatism.’ Some will reject what I have said as a kind of ‘Big Government Conservatism.’ Some will say that what I’ve tried to argue isn’t conservatism at all. But I believe what I’ve been presenting is the genuine conservatism our Founders envisioned. One that fosters the opportunity for all Americans to live as we are called to live, in selfless families that contribute to the general welfare, the common good." –Rick Santorum, p. 421 It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good (2005)

"If you're a conservative, there really is only one place to go right now. I would even argue farther than that. If you're a Republican, if you're a Republican in the broadest sense, there is only one place to go right now and that's Mitt Romney." –Rick Santorum, 02/1/2008 [source]

Check out his brochure, 50 Things You Didn't Know About Rick Santorum, where he proudly defends food stamps, increasing minimum wage, stem cell harvesting, college tuition subsidies, bloated school funding, working with Bono to fight world poverty, etc.

Also see his disturbing voting record for more doozies.

[presently no screen name]

Keep showing slick Rick has nothing to run on so he resorts to all he knows from his mentor MITT - LIE your way through.

Your hands are stained, slick rick. Pity those who fought for this country in truth for some liar to bring it down handing it over to our enemy.