Romney: Health Care Game Changer?

12 May 2011 |permalink | email article

The problem for the Republican Party in terms of 2012 presidential election is that its presumed candidates are off to such bizarre starts. Take Mitt Romney. He’s embarked on a second White House bid and is trying to explain his approach to health care which is different from RomneyCare when he was governor of Massachusetts.

While strikingly close with the plan backed by President Obama he hopes his new plan
will win over GOP voters should become president with an executive order paving
the way for waivers from ObamaCare in all 50 states. Conservatives will question why he passed a law which includes an individual mandate for health care much like the one built into Obama’s health care reform law. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board calls it a “fatal flaw.”

Newt Gingrich has for the first time officially declared himself as a presidential
candidate, suggesting that the political landscape has changed since he was in
office 12 years ago. Now 67 the former GOP majority leader calls himself “mature” which is an odd way to reintroduce himself to conservatives given his past baggage and marital history. Unfazed, he credits his desire to win to his family’s commitment to ‘duty, honor and country. Predictably, he flays Obama who “will do anything to win.”

Sacramento

The state’s big business community has had enough about the
failure of Jerry Brown and the state’s legislative leadership to fill
in the $15.4 billion budget deficit and made it clear to both camps
on Wednesday. They made it clear that “it’s time to re-start negotiations
and close the deal . Our elected leaders should consider every day a
deadline day until an agreement is reached. The point made by the
twelve major statewide signers was unmistakable: “We urge the Governor
and the Legislature to respect voters and taxpayers by giving us an
honest budget by June 15, along with a structural reform plan that puts
the state back on track. That’s a workout plan we are willing to support
in the voting booth. The odds of a quick solution are not promising.

 

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