Posted on 04/12/2012 3:53:14 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Six years ago today, at a majestic ceremony in Boston’s Faneuil Hall, then-Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney signed into law “An Act Providing Access to Affordable, Quality, Accountable Health Care.”
But the bipartisan bliss didn’t last very long. Just prior to the ceremony, Romney’s aides had announced that the Governor would be vetoing several key provisions of the bill, including its employer mandate that forced all companies in the state, employing more than 10 people, to provide health coverage for their workers or pay a $295-per-person fine. Romney vetoed several other provisions of the law, including one that extended dental benefits to Medicaid patients, and another that gave certain “special status aliens” the ability to receive Medicaid benefits.
Democrats maintained their smiles on-stage, but back-stage, they fumed. Forcing employers to provide health coverage to their workers was a key component of their agenda.
In the end, it didn’t matter what Romney thought about the employer mandate. The Democrats controlled 85 percent of the legislature. After the bill-signing ceremony was over, they went back to the State House and overrode each of Romney’s eight vetoes.
But Obamacare owes as much, if not more, to Patrick’s implementation of the 2006 law, than it does to Romney’s original design. According to a Boston Herald report from April 2006, “Democrats privately and publicly grumbled over the headline treatment being lavished on Romney by the national press for a bill they say is more of the state Legislature’s making than the governor’s.”
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
oh darn this is going to ruin libertarian and conservatives opinion of Romney. Maybe what he signed was not “romneycare” the for runner of Obambicare. I was not for Romney, but I find it hard to believe that it is taking this long to get out the whole medical story. Part of what is wrong with Romney is he did not communicate what he vetoed and is now ruining Mass government.
I think we tried to make that point. The current plan is way different than what Romney originally signed. They waited until he left office and then the Dems went to work.
I don’t know who is “we” but to see FreeRepublic or conservative blogs like HotAir or even National Review, you would not have known the timeline.
That's a Democrat state, and they didn't elect a Republican governor just to go along with the criminals in the legislature.
I sincerely hope everybody meaningful in Massachusetts has moved out of the state by now.
Romney has full responsibility for putting through government health care. It was entirely predictable that, once it had been put through, it would continue to grow, like a cancer.
That’s how the left works. And that’s what RINOs do. Give them what they want, so then they can proceed to take more.
Mittens is totally guilty. He and his economic wizards thought they were being clever. Free market socialism to help the poor and sick. What’s not to like?
He opened the door on socialized medicine. He should have known that the Dems would blow that door wide open.
Ain’t enough lipstick in the whole wide world to make RomneyCare appear to be anything but what it was and is.
Oink-oink.
“I sincerely hope everybody meaningful in Massachusetts has moved out of the state by now.”
No. We still have some good people caught behind enemy lines.
It took a real smart governor to see that this would eventually happen, didn’t it?
Romney beat a tramp, really a trollop. During her big debate on TV with MItt, she asked Tim Russsert, the moderator, if he would like to see her tramp stamp. I believe it was enough to toss the election for her. When the Dems run a woman, Republicans have their best shot a winning in Massachusetts.
I love it! This blows so much anti-Romney Freeper baloney out of the water.
Sorry. By “we” I meant those of us who are subject to the Mass Healthcare law.
thanks - how many “ good ideas” get ruined as democRATS keep changing the rules, that was once a decent law?
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