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Al Gore, on his website, flags this passage in Mitt Romney’s recent book No Apology: “I believe that climate change is occurring — the reduction in the size of global ice caps is hard to ignore. I also believe that human activity is a contributing factor.” Gore writes: “We can have disagreements about the solutions to this crisis, but we need to acknowledge fundamental truths. The science proving the existence of the climate crisis is not in question. That is where our debates about policy need to begin.” Romney, a potential 2012 GOP presidential candidate, and Gore certainly disagree on...

The Massachusetts treasurer said Tuesday that Congress will "threaten to wipe out the American economy within four years" if it adopts a health care overhaul modeled after the Bay State's. Treasurer Timothy Cahill - a former Democrat running as an independent for governor - said the 2006 law has succeeded only because of huge subsidies and favorable regulatory changes from the federal government.

The Massachusetts health care reform law has become an unfortunate victim of politics. Democrats in Washington say that their unpopular takeover of the nation’s health care sector – with its higher taxes, cuts to seniors on Medicare and price controls — is somehow modeled on the Massachusetts law. On the other end of the political spectrum, conservatives implausibly claim it is “bankrupting” the state.

Massachusetts state treasurer and recent Democrat Timothy Cahill has harsh words for the health plan foisted on his state and the identical plan that President Obama is trying to foist on the nation. From The Boston Globe:

The former Massachusetts governor enacted something very similar to the Obama health plan. It isn't working well. BY GRACE-MARIE TURNER Former Massachusetts governor and likely 2012 presidential aspirant Mitt Romney has been on the wrong side of the defining political battle of our time. Mr. Romney claimed earlier this month on "Fox News Sunday" that the Massachusetts health reform plan he signed into law in 2006 is "the ultimate conservative plan." But there are many similarities between it and the ObamaCare loathed by conservative voters. Both have an individual mandate requiring most residents to have health insurance or pay a...

Treasurer Tim Cahill ripped Gov. Deval Patrick and President Obama this morning for health care initiatives that the independent gubernatorial hopeful alleged will “bankrupt the country in four years.” “Last week Gov. Patrick criticized me as ‘missing in action’ on the issue of health care in Massachusetts,” Cahill said. “In reality, I’ve been critical of Gov. Patrick’s implementation and management of the Massachusetts universal health care program for a long time.” Cahill alleged the governor has “spent like we’re in a booming economy at a time when we’re experiencing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.” “If President Obama...

Mitt Romney's role in overseeing passage of a universal health care plan in Massachusetts appears likely to cause headaches for the former Republican governor should he make his widely-expected run for the White House in 2012. As Matt Yglesias noted Sunday, all of the government-subsidized health care plans offered to low-income Massachusetts residents, under a program called Commonwealth Care, cover abortion.

Mass. Health Insurers Want Significant Rate HikesMar 6, 2010 3:43 pm US/Eastern BOSTON (AP) - Massachusetts health insurance companies have asked the state to approve significant rate hikes, weeks after Gov. Deval Patrick warned his administration might turn down increases it deemed excessive. The insurers have asked for increases of 8 to 32 percent, starting April 1. Last month, Patrick said the state Division of Insurance would review rate increases higher than 4.8 percent as part of a broader effort to control health care expenses. The Boston Globe reports that if the state rejects the increases, it would be the...

At first sight it was no contest. On one channel Sarah Palin, the poster-girl of the American right, was wowing audiences with her first routine as a stand-up comedian. On a rival chat show Mitt Romney, the early frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2012, was delivering such dull fare that his host yawned. Writing a book and promoting it on late-night television have become an integral part of a presidential campaign launch. It certainly worked for Barack Obama. For Romney, the tactic seems to have backfired. He may be ahead of Palin in the opinion polls. But 5.8m people...

USA Today - headline and link only http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-02-21-romney_N.htm

I'm sorry, Mitt might be good in business dealings and might make a good cabinet member in a Conservative administration but to say that The Stimulus Plan was good and needed is outrageous for anyone outside of the White House, even some in Congress probably don't believe it work....David Bernstein of The Boston Phoenix who reviewed Mitt Romney's book might have a bad excerpt of it, but he read the book and if it's true, i give Mitt credit for being honest but he is not what the people of the U.S need at this time a man who is...

Healthcare reform is another problematic area for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney as he seeks the GOP nomination for President in 2012. During Romney's tenure as Governor he submitted a plan that would cover virtually all of the uninsured in the state. Legislators and special interest groups submitted their own plans. In 2006 all of the various plans were reconciled and Romney signed into law the bill that became known as 'RomneyCare':

One of the first big moves of 2012 -- “Mitt Romney Names Matt Rhoades PAC Executive Director: BOSTON -- Mitt Romney's Free and Strong America PAC announced today that Matt Rhoades, who has held senior positions on major presidential campaigns and at the Republican National Committee, will serve as the PAC's executive director. … .................................................... Rhoades, who's moving to Boston, is a well-regarded guy whose return to Romney pretty much confirms what will surprise nobody: That he's running in 2012. He's also, incidentally, been valued for his relationship with a key player in any GOP primary, Matt Drudge.

"Now, two weeks before publication of "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness," Romney is pivoting again -- this time pitching himself as a problem solver whose background as a successful financier makes him the ideal candidate to rescue the ailing U.S. economy. But the real problem, said the paper, is "the real Mitt Romney — Harvard MBA, political scion, hard-working businessman, super-wealthy master of Wall Street offerings, devout Mormon — might not be what Republican primary voters actually want."

Health Care? Don't Mention It! The Wall Street Journal ^ | 02-04-10 | JOHN FUND Posted on Thursday, February 04, 2010 11:24:26 PM by GOP_Lady Democrats privately lay into President Obama for his lack of a health-care strategy. President Obama's session with Democratic Senators yesterday was carefully scripted, with the questioners all selected in advance by the Democratic leadership to address issues such as partisan gridlock and GOP obstructionism. Senators Evan Bayh and Blanche Lincoln, both of whom are facing serious opponents this fall, went off message with concerns about the liberal drift of the administration, but all other questioners...

Besides the occasional Republican either voting for socialized medicine or preventing a filibuster of it, the guilt of the association with the proposal that passed the Senate and the GOP is very deep. In fact the recent bill, without the public option (but will force people into public care) looks increasingly like the failed experiment of Massachusetts.

For Democrats who see their political prospects this year as a tossup between catastrophic and merely horrible, there is hope on the horizon from a most unlikely source. No, not Rush Limbaugh, who recently praised his medical experience in the government-mandated, heavily unionized health care system of Hawaii. Mahalo to him. One of the most prominent supporters of the main ideas behind the health care plan passed by the Democratic Senate is a top Republican prospect for president in 2012 — Mitt Romney.-SNIP-Asked recently about the Democratic bill, Romney dismissed it as something “which no one understands.” Au contraire, to...

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The Democrats’ biggest accomplishment of this decade was getting a package through both houses of Congress mandating that every American have health insurance. Their biggest accomplishment of the next decade will be watching it fail. Then they can get what they really want, a government takeover of health care. That’s my prediction. It’s based on what I call the Frito-Lay theory of health reform: Mandates are like potato chips; you can’t have just one. Just for fun, I ran that theory by someone who has been watching the health care debate up close, Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute, a...

(snip) Hoping to pull in some more cash for the final stretch of the general election, the Brown campaign also circulated a fundraising letter penned by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R). Romney touts Brown's credentials as a fiscal conservative while also noting, in bold, that he would become the critical 41st Republican vote against the health care bill when it comes back to the Senate for final passage. Democrats passed the bill on Christmas Eve with 60 votes, just enough to overcome the prospect of a GOP filibuster. (snip)