Gingrich Applauded Romney's Health Plan [headline is a lie]

Wall St. J ^ | December 27, 2011 | BRODY MULLINS AND JANET ADAMY

[Steelfish]

DECEMBER 27, 2011 Gingrich Applauded Romney's Health Plan

BY BRODY MULLINS AND JANET ADAMY

Newt Gingrich voiced enthusiasm for Mitt Romney's Massachusetts health-care law when it was passed five years ago, the same plan he has been denouncing over the past few months as he campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination.

"The health bill that Governor Romney signed into law this month has tremendous potential to effect major change in the American health system," said an April 2006 newsletter published by Mr. Gingrich's former consulting company, the Center for Health Transformation.

[Hoodat]

I don’t want ObamaCare. I don’t want GingrichCare either. I don’t want the federal government involved in the health insurance field, period. THAT is the conservative approach.

[JediJones]

Won’t Obama have to attack our candidate from the left? How does our candidate supporting any part of Obamacare work as a negative attack ad against us? Obama can’t bash his own program.

I see our side starting out with far more ammo against Obama than he would have against us (Solyndra, Fast and Furious, unemployment, debt, failed stimulus, cutting Medicare/military, taxpayer-funded abortion, EPA blocking energy development and jobs, class warfare rhetoric while G.E. pays no taxes, ineffectual Iran policy, Gitmo flip-flop, abandoning Israel/Iraq, social engineering in the military). Newt has the advantage of pointing to many conservative accomplishments on his record whereas Romney does not. There is almost no issue Newt can’t develop a clear contrast with Obama on and in most cases have something in his record to point to.

[packrat35]

coming up on the outside is ...Beetlebaum

Wow haven’t heard that one in years. My Dad used to tell me that one back when I was young.

[Conservative Vermont Vet]

To: Steelfish

Rombots prematurely celebrating on this thread I see.

Yeah, I think all the hypocritical Newt Haters should be required to adhere to the "Barf Alert" practice.

Did you know that Newt pulled some girls pigtails in the 3rd Grade?

SHAMEFUL! Definitely disqualifies him!!!

[COgamer]

“Won’t Obama have to attack our candidate from the left? How does our candidate supporting any part of Obamacare work as a negative attack ad against us? Obama can’t bash his own program.”

The demotivating of the conservative vote that would result would far offset Obama’s inability to attack his own program.

[Hoodat]

How does our candidate supporting any part of Obamacare work as a negative attack ad against us?

It diminishes our capacity to go negative against Obama. I can hear Obama on the campaign trail right now saying how even his Republican opponent supports parts of his health care plan.

Going back last year, tens of thousands of Americans marched on Washington to voice their unanimous opposition to government-run healthcare. I share in that opposition, regardless of whether it's Obama's health care plan, or whether it's Mitt Romney's or Newt Gingrich's. It doesn't make it OK simply because Newt Gingrich happens to be behind it.

[dalebert]

yes he did and both are from the good ol boys club. just more of the same.

[dalebert]

yes he did and both are from the good ol boys club. just more of the same.

[Utmost Certainty]

Romney has changed his position on a LOT of fundamental issues, usually carefully timed with his running for a new election.

Yes, he's incredibly flippant like that, with discontinuous breaks from one stance to the next and little to no explanation on his part for the change. And always suspiciously coincidental with his arrival as a competitor in a different political environment.

Health care and climate change were not easy issues where there was a fundamental conservative or Judeo-Christian basis for how to approach them going years back. Newt is a thinker, and a lot of his writings on these issues over the years while he’s been out of office don’t appear to present solid positions, but moreso thinking out loud and considering various potential solutions. Also keep in mind he worked for think tanks. His job was to pontificate on these things and try to come up with solutions.

Right. Which is why I'm not taken aback when Newt has a different position now towards dealing with an issue compared to what he did 5-6+ years ago. Because there's a demonstrable evolution in his thoughts about it. He can explain to you why he priorly considered approach X to be viable, how he later came to realize that approach X was flawed, and why he's rationally convinced now that approach Y is a better means to the same end.

Another key distinction to be mindful of between the two is that, unlike Romney, Newt doesn't flip-flop on his stated beliefs and end-goals. He only varies on the means and methods he conceives as offering the best pathway to getting there.

There are bigger differences between Romney and Newt on their current campaign proposals, not just their past statements. Newt is offering a much broader tax overhaul while Romney’s takes the same tax-the-rich-more approach that Obama does.

Agreed. A Romney term would just be yet another 4 years of churning the status quo.

[JediJones]

Yeah, I get that, but there are hundreds of pages of Obamacare left to criticize. Conservatives have gotten way off track thinking the individual mandate is the key problem with the law. It could easily be replaced with a tax, without fundamentally changing anything else about the law. Would that make the law good?

Not to mention, I hope we have other issues in mind to campaign on, because this one will be irrelevant before summer if the Supreme Court overturns it.

The federal government has to be involved in Obamacare if you want insurance to be sold over state lines, which Newt wants and I think many conservatives want as well. I want a health insurance plan that I can take with me no matter where in the country that I move. I also don’t think conservatives object to getting some of your tax money back if you buy health insurance.

[Utmost Certainty]

This time 4-years ago Giuliani was leading, Huckabee was in second and Juan McCain was in third place over 5 percentage points behind. I would imagine some at that time were saying the race was between Giuliani and Huckabee. Clearly, that was not true just as it is not true now that our choices are limited to Gingrich and Romney.

I think that misreads the situation relative to 2008, because this time the anointed establishment candidate is clearly in the leading position at this stage of the race, and they're going to do everything they can to keep him abreast there. Thus it really has come down to Gingrich vs. Romney.

[woofie]

If one cant be on both sides of an issue they shouldnt be in politics

[JediJones]

Good point, looks like Newt’s going to win, since both he and McCain were in 3rd place in Iowa at this time. :)

[South40]

The graph I posted was not Iowa it was a national average. And Gingrich is currently leading the RCP national average by 3.2.

[BigSkyFreeper]

So in other words, Mitt-bots feel vindicated that some old progressive war horse like Newt likes Romney’s Socialist health care plan or parts of it? LOL

[South40]

Beetlebaum

[Plutarch]

Rombots prematurely celebrating on this thread I see.

Yeah, the thread should be locked, as it contains factual information undermining Gingrich as a conservative savior.

[Utmost Certainty]

The dynamics of the 2012 primaries are quite a bit different from the 2008 primaries, so I think you’re making a very misleading inference here about the supposed fluidity of the race. The fact that the establishment candidate Romney is in a clear leading position at this stage, changes everything about it.

Last time at this stage of the race, McCain had a weaker lead, yet they still managed to inevitably ram him through. So if you’d like to avoid that kind of thing happening again, the time to consolidate behind the prevailing non-Romney candidate, is now.

[Plutarch]

Did you know that Newt pulled some girls pigtails in the 3rd Grade?

I don't you want to bring up what Newt has or hasn't done to some girls.

[JediJones]

Oh, oops. The lines sure look a lot more tangled up this time. Looks good for Romney and Paul though. Their lines look the most stable and resilient this time, and compare to McCain’s and Romney’s last time. Looks like Newt’s line compares to Huckabee’s though, but I don’t know if the Iowa numbers were as far off from the national numbers last time as they are now.