Does Romney Actually Stand for Anything?
Posted: September 9, 2012 Filed under: 2012 elections | Tags: Obamacare, Romney Flip Flops 99 Comments
I had to laugh at Brad DeLong’s post on Romney’s repositioning on “Obamacare”. Go take a look at “Why Oh Why Did the Republicans Nominate This Clown?” So first he was for it, then he was against it, then he’s sorta kinda for it again.
ObamaCare allows parents to keep their young-adult children on their insurance, requires insurers to offer guaranteed issue and community rates, and imposes an individual mandate to purchase insurance on individuals.
Now comes Mitt Romney:
Romney says he won’t repeal all of Obamacare: Mitt Romney says his pledge to repeal President Barack Obama’s health law doesn’t mean that young adults and those with medical conditions would no longer be guaranteed health care.
So there we have it: Romney will keep the parts of ObamaCare that are young-adult coverage, and guaranteed issue and community rates.
It continues:
The Republican presidential nominee says he’ll replace the law with his own plan. He tells NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the plan he worked to pass while governor of Massachusetts…
So there we have it: Romney will keep the parts of ObamaCare thatimposes on individual mandate to purchase insurance.
So what’s left?
Romney says he doesn’t plan to repeal of all of Obama’s signature health care plan. He says there are a number of initiatives he likes in the Affordable Care Act that he would keep in place if elected president…
Like: the whole thing. Duh.
There is something very wrong with anybody working for, contributing to, or arguing for Ryan-Romney right now.
So, isn’t the repeal of Obamacare the holy grail of republicans and teabaggers right now? They’ve voted to repeal it over 30 times.
Since the start of this Congress, Republicans have taken 30 votes to repeal, defund or dismantle the Affordable Care Act. When they vote to repeal the health law later this week that will make 31. House Republicans will then have had as many health-repeal votes as Baskin Robbins has ice cream flavors.
As we’ve seen 30 times before, the health-care-repeal votes aren’t going anywhere. Repeal bills passed in the House are dead-on-arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate. So why do they keep going?
To start, there’s a lot of support in the Republican base for a repeal. Kaiser Family Foundation asked voters, shortly after the Supreme Court decision, whether they wanted legislators to continue blocking the health law — or move on and implement it.
Overall, 65 percent sided with the latter option. But dig deeper into the numbers, and you’ll find widespread support among Republicans to continue blocking the law. There’s significant support among Independents to keep fighting, too
Mark Thoma really has some good points on this.
I won’t complain about “a major fold” on healthcare, but it does bring up a question. Does Romney stand for anything? He seems to know how to set his principles aside and submit to the highest bidder — something his touted business experience taught him I suppose. But with all of the flip-flops, Etch-a-Sketch moments, his refusal to take a stand on budget cuts, his dishonest campaigning, etc., etc., is there any principle that Romney won’t conveniently overlook if it looks like there’s a few votes to be gained?
I’ve said this over and over, but I honestly can’t figure out why this guy keeps running for president. What on earth is his reason? To do something Daddy couldn’t do? I’m open for suggestions.
You can call this an open thread!!!
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Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
#MTP has been trending on twitter all day. Just saw this.
The Daily Edge @TheDailyEdge
Romney: “I will avoid the financial calamities we’ve seen in Europe by using same policies as Europe but expecting a different result” #MTP
Even George Will is confused.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/george-will-questions-arithmetic-of-romneys-tax-plan
People are tweeting that David Gregory should be fired and replaced with Rachel Maddow.
Not gonna happen – but it’s a nice fantasy. Rachel or Jon Stewart.
There have been rumors for months that Gregory is going to be fired. But I wouldn’t want Rachel to do MTP. It would be terrible waste of her talents.
I wonder if David Gregory realizes that he’s as big a laughing stock as Romney?
No, he’s to busy dancing with “the one’s who brung him”.
BB, yours is better, I can’t to that fancy thing.
Dak, and this comment says is all of the media.
David Guberman said…
Ryan’s you-know-whats are NOT brass, regardless of what Bill Clinton says. Somebody, get the Ryan boy a cup, stat.
It’s to late, I think he has already made that trip to the vet.
ROTFLMAO!
Comment from the Brad DeLong post:
Sorry BB, that stuck out to me too!
Great minds….. We must have posted at the same time!
Hell yes, Romney stands for something.
1- God
2- Money (which actually may be the same as #1)
3- Secrecy
4- The Patriarchy
Does anything else really, truly, honestly matter ya’ll? (just in case – this is me being snarky)
I’m beginning to believe he believes that White Horse Prophecy or something similar …
Why Ann Romney’s MTP interview severely damaged Mitt’s campaign:
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/why-ann-romneys-meet-the-press-interview-severely-damaged-mitts-campaign/politics/2012/09/09/48672
Rainbow Brite really needs to saddle up her Little Pony and go on back to the aristocracy where no one notices how totally out-of-touch with REAL PEOPLE she is.
Now, now Mouse, she has fought two debilitating and life threatening diseases and should be given a bit of slack for that – at least I was willing to cut her some slack until she started behaving like Marie Antoinette was (eroneously) reported to have behaved (and Marie was a very, very young woman, so Ann has no excuse).
Facts:
1. She has never had to worry about health insurance and whether her bills would be covered.
She has never had to worry about working two or three jobs at minimum wage just to ensure that her children had food on the table and a roof over their head, while battling those health issues without insurance.
She has never had to worry about anything, beyond furthering her husband’s rather obsessive goal of becoming the President.
She has never had to worry about the basics of life that most people below her husband’s level of rather lofty wealth worry about.
She has never had to think beyond what her husband’s church and his handlers tell her to think.
She has probably never met someone who lives on the street or in their car and probably thinks they are derelicts and choose to live that way.
Are all rich people that disconnected, that arrogant, that uncaring, that dense?
I did not believe for a minute that she bought Costco shirts, three to a pack, for Mitt when she was wearing a tee shirt that cost just a hair under a thousand dollars. Even if I were rich, I would balk at paying that kind of price for one garment.
Very good article, however the people who need to read it – i.e. R/R supporters – never will cause it is from a website that has “civilrights” in it’s URL. Ergo, it must be liberal, commie, marxist, fascist propaganda. Sigh. I loved the last two paragraphs.
How out of touch does one have to be to become the President of the U.S.? Is that now a job requirement?
Because I have written about my sister’s MS here and all that goes with it. you can imagine just how mad her statement made me.
Because I have written about my sister’s MS and just how mad I can get about Ann Romney. She really does not get it.
You mean to tell me that Ann Romney didn’t paste green stamps from the A&P into booklets to win stuff like a card table and 4 chairs. Right there is a dining room table. No hand-me-down, or second-hand, furniture for her? My first apartment rented for $48.50. It was small but it had 2 bedrooms, a bath, and kitchen. I had a full-time teaching job to pay the bills. I remember those days fondly.
oops, and a living room. Ann hasn’t told us aout her rich industrialist father. The Kennedys’ were rich, but I never felt them to be this elitist or out of touch.
Ha! My first apartment was home made crafting and the Furniture Barn, just lovely, it was. I still have a yellow lamp I got there.
Couldn’t fully enjoy his French palace while waiting for his 4th Vietnam deferment to come through #RomneyHardships
Running for office makes it hard to keep hiring illegal aliens to clean his mansions and raise his kids. #RomneyHardships
Keeps confusing his ATM pin code for his Swiss bank account with his pin code for his bank account in the Caymans. #RomneyHardships
“I’ve said this over and over, but I honestly can’t figure out why this guy keeps running for president. What on earth is his reason? To do something Daddy couldn’t do? I’m open for suggestions.”
Romney is running because he knows that the POTUS can commit crimes with total impunity IF he’s so inclined. IF elected POTUS Romney would, according to precedent, be immune to prosecution for his and Bain’s FEDERAL TAX DODGING using offshore banks and front companies. Bain too may benefit from a Romney presidency in that regard.
He’s running because:
1. He needs to prove he’s better than his dad (like GWB)
2. It’s his turn.
3. He wants to fix the tax code so he doesn’t pay any taxes.
I agree, BB.
Because of his church………….church policy.
Oh yeah BB, totally agree with all of those reasons Mitt the Twitt is running.
Joan Walsh on the MTP interview:
My favorite laugh line was:
Other than that, Romney’s half-hour with Gregory was like sitting in still-warm reused bathwater, with a film of half-truths and a couple of outright lies in the tub too.
I still haven’t watched the interview, but I’m definitely going to after reading the reviews.
Dak, I never hear that song the same again.
Spot check! “Davey” got down on his hands and knees …
la la la
Obama gets lift in Florida.
Wow! I’m about to go to bed after watching the Netcast of MTP: Oh! My! God!!! What a terrible candidate this guy is. Even the softest interview he could get, he managed to screw himself.
He said his plan to lower taxes on the “job creators” doesn’t actually lower their taxes.
He has he would keep parts of “Obamacare”. What happened to “I will repeal all of Obamacare on the first day”?
This guy has been running for POTUS for the last 10 years and he still can get his act together.
Will the real Mitt Shady please stand up?
Did you notice that he said he will help the middle class by cutting capital gains? But less than 4% of middle class taxes are on capital gains. He probably doesn’t even know that.
This guy is so detached from reality, it’s painful to watch.
Every pundit said Mittens was going to focus solely on the economy and avoid any other “side” issue. He doesn’t even seem prepared on the economy.
It looks like Mitt thought people would just go ahead and hand him the election because he’s entitled to the presidency. No wonder he looked so annoyed with his primary opponents.
I think that’s exactly what both Mitt and Ann thought. They thought it was their turn and it would be handed to them on a platter like everything else in their lives.
He’s talking about the middle of the rich class.
Face it the guy has to spend time getting his hair just right. Studying up on the issues is so distracting.
OK, this is going nowhere but I would sign it.
Garryw Crosby · Top Commenter · UGA-Athens, Heorgia
Join our Online Petition to “Fire” David Gregory of Meet The Press! On Twitter!
I loved this comment about the Dancin’ Dave’s interview,
“I said I’d get rid of Obamacare, and I will. I didn’t say I’d get rid of what was IN Obamacare.” — What do you call those little rubber sandals you wear at the beach?
Romney on health care:
It sounds like he’s planning to make people start paying taxes on their health benefits as income. But that will raise taxes for the middle class.
yep, that sums it up.
Also, isn’t that another reason Dancin’ Dave and the rest of the media should be fired. Dave didn’t hear it and no follow up.
That’s only one of the loopholes he would have to close to cut marginal rates. There just is not way for the numbers to add up even then, without taxes going up for the middle class while virtually all social spending gets decimated. I hope people come to understand that, if they don’t now.
He would have to get rid of the mortgage deduction, but again that would hurt the middle class. He’s just a fucking liar.
I wish we had better people making that case on TV. Bill seems to be the only one that knows how. Most of the middle class don’t know his big tax plan would get rid of mortgage interest deduction, that’s big.
Wow, BB you and I are thinking the same thoughts, Spooky.
Mortgage interest tax deduction isn’t very helpful, IMO. It’s got to be a certain percentage of your total income before you can deduct it. I’ve only been able to do that 2 years out of 24.
Check this out. Mitt explains how he’s completely selfless:
The poor guy can’t even speak grammatically by the end of this weak-assed interview. He answered nothing and he worn out.
Here’s the transcript
Check this absolutely informationless bite of word salad he gave for a final answer on which loopholes he’d close etc. Maybe he was only a figurehead at Bain. This is worthy of quitterella.
Stop, you’re hurting me, Ralph.
If you want to hear a word salad:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/09/republican-convention-speaker-mia-love-flubs-fox-news-questions-on-education-abortion/
Huh? What the heck does that mean? gobbledgook. And that is a man who wants to be President? I thought David Cameron of the U.K. was an ass, but this Romney fella makes Cameron look thoughtful, and that is scary.
She has real problems because she’s trying to resolve problems with totally incompatible proposals. Get her off a talking point and she’s hopelessly lost. Thus word salad!
HT. That means absolutely nothing, which is the problem 🙂
Yeah, I saw that one too. He made zero sense through the whole interview. Even Dancin’ Dave noticed.
WEll, no difference he’s reversed himself already …
Romney Says He Supports Popular Obamacare Provisions On NBC, Quietly Reverses Hours Later On Conservative Website http://thkpr.gs/S1tUfZ #p2
Talk about word salad!
It’s the Xanax.
You mean my Xanax, Beata?
Maybe he & Brokaw are sharing the Ambien.
🙂
I feel like falling in a swimming pool, he he. I’ve never had that many glasses of wine.
After my brother’s death I found his perscriptions – for Oxycontin, which is a heroin deritivative. My brother was more coherent than Ms Ann, and that is telling, because my brother was a former heroin addict – one of “those people” that Ms Ann would have turned her delicate nose up at.
I’m not saying that all really rich people are out of touch. Just that most of them are, and the Romneys are the leaders in the out of touch category.
Yeah, of course Romney’s not worried about himself. He’s got his.
Grammar-wise, Romney talks like George W Bush now!
And now, just to show you, you can vote for what you think is the socialist:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/09/frances-socialist-president-set-to-unveil-unprecedented-austerity-plan/
Comments:
This is no surprise. People do not seem to understand that Hollande is not actually a socialist, it’s just the name of his party. It has no more significance as a name than ‘Democrat’ or ‘Republican.’
indeed, friends of mine who are French compare him to Obama – he gets called a socialist, but he’s rather far from that reality.
Oh Dog, Paul Ryan Objekivist Pole Dancer 🙂
Good God I need eye bleach!
Oy!
He looks like Hitler without the mustache in that photo.
Hey ,Ralph check this out,
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/09/09/816761/flabbergasted-rand-paul-learns-public-employment-decreased-under-obama/
The shrill one strikes again.
I love it when Krugman does that 🙂
OK, it’s come to this, my favorite point:
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/ryan-claims-cutting-800b-medicaid-wil
Somebody call the “splainer in chief”.
I meant to add, My former Gov, Graham, the last good one, explains this so a child could get it.
This asshat deserves the pole dancer designation!
And sadly, this is what “serving the public” through election to public office has become. There is no serving the public interest anymore or perhaps I’m jaded. Can anyone name a person in power who serves the public rather than their own interests – and I don’t want to see Hillary’s name.
Meanwhile, How Biden gets his groove back …
Those guys in that picture don’t look overjoyed 🙂 Joe’s being Joe I guess.
i watched part of the interview this morning until I realized that it wasn’t really an interview. David Gregory was animated beyond belief. He was smiling, grinning, almost GIDDY, like he was interviewing a rock star. It would have made Tim Russert roll over in his grave. I got the distinct impression that any minute Gregory was going to ask Mitt if he wanted a blow job, while Ann watched, so I just channel surfed on out of there. 🙂
See my reference to Fat Man in the bathtub above:
LOL!
It didn’t take long for the perfectly lubricated weather vane to turn. So, he stands for nothing after all!!!
Kevin Drum: Within Hours, Mitt Romney Takes Back Everything He Said About Preexisting Conditions
lol … i just posted that up a few comments … great minds!
The man tells every one what they want to hear!!!
Yes and the weird part is that now two parts of the electorate both think he’s on their side, if the media doesn’t push his reversal.
I can’t believe it! What a moron.
ROTFLMAO…..Jon Huntsman’s “perfectly lubricated weathervane” description was brilliant
Mark Kleiman on the post by AssRocket that Zandar took on. It’s pretty dead on.
From Denial to Anger: wingnuts v. the American people
http://www.samefacts.com/2012/09/watching-conservatives/from-denial-to-anger-wingnuts-v-the-american-people/