Does Romneycare = Obamacare? Cato Says Yes

From The Examiner
By Mark Tapscott

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is widely considered to be the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, but the biggest obstacle he may have to overcome could well be Romneycare, one of his signature programs while serving as the Bay State's chief executive.

More than a few people within and without the GOP - including most notably President Obama and Democratic congressional leaders like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - contend that Romney's much celebrated health care reform of 2006 is quite similar to the Obamacare program that became law in 2010.

Romney strongly disputes that characterization, but the very fact it is becoming an issue is indicative of its seriousness as an obstacle to his winning the GOP presidential nomination.

Now comes the Cato Institute with a searing video critique of Romneycare that focuses on the major ways in which it resembles Obamacare. Watch this video and you will have a sense of the urgency of this issue for the Romney candidacy:

THE MYTHS OF MITT ROMNEY

The Myths of Mitt Romney

"Making it up as he goes along"

MANCHESTER UNION LEADER: "Last week Romney was reduced to debating what the meaning of 'saw' is. It was only the latest in a string of demonstrably false claims -- he'd been a hunter 'pretty much' all his life, he'd had the NRA's endorsement, he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. himself -- that call into question the veracity of his justifications for switching sides on immigration, abortion, taxes and his affection for Ronald Reagan. In this primary, the more Mitt Romney speaks, the less believable he becomes." http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=The+Romney+backlash%3A+Conservatives+are+coming+home&articleId=bc5bd60b-68a2-4427-93aa-d0fc2548ba3d

BOSTON GLOBE: "(Romney) ended the week trying to explain a discrepancy between assertion and fact... It hurt because it's a reminder of discrepancies between assertion and fact when it comes to Romney's overall conservative credentials." http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/04/08/guns_trust_and_romney

EYE ON 08.COM: "This is important because it goes to character. Romney struggles to tell the truth and keep his story straight about basic facts about his own life. He also struggles to keep his story straight on issues like abortion, gay rights, taxes, guns... It is clear what Romney is doing. He is just making it up as he goes along. He is making himself up as he goes along."

http://www.eyeon08.com/2007/04/07/lifetime-hunter-mitt-romney-never-had-license/

Romney said his father marched with Martin Luther King. He didn't.

BOSTON GLOBE: "Mitt Romney acknowledged yesterday that he never saw his father march with Martin Luther King, Jr. as he asserted in a nationally televised speech this month." http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/12/21/romney_never_saw_father_on_king_march

Romney said he marched with Martin Luther King. He didn't.

BOSTON GLOBE: "Mitt Romney went a step further in a 1978 interview with the Boston Herald. Talking about...racial discrimination, he said: 'My father and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit.' Yesterday, Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom acknowledged that was not true. 'Mitt Romney did not march with Martin Luther King,' he said in an e-mail statement to the Globe." http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/12/21/romney_never_saw_father_on_king_march

Romney said his devoutly religious mother campaigned for abortion rights. She didn't.

BOSTON GLOBE: "(Former Michigan Republican Party chairwoman Elly) Peterson is dumbfounded to hear that Mitt Romney has described his mother as having been an abortion rights supporter during (her 1970 U.S. Senate) campaign. 'If it happened, I'd remember it,' she said in a telephone interview. 'It didn't, and I don't.' ...Lenore Romney's campaign stance is relevant only because her son...raised it in 1994 during a debate with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and he has been sending mixed signals on abortion ever since. 'I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country,' he said in 1994. 'I have since the time that my mom took that position when she ran in 1970 as a U.S. Senate candidate.' ...Detroit Free Press archives yielded no (Lenore Romney) campaign references to abortion...'The idea that Lenore would defy her church is hard to believe,' Peterson said." http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/06/26/evolving_history

Romney said: "I wasn't pro-choice." Romney said: "I was pro-choice." Which is it, Mitt?

FOX NEWS SUNDAY: "I never called myself pro-choice. I never allowed myself to use the word 'pro-choice,' because I didn't feel I was pro-choice. I would protect the law, I said, as it was, but I wasn't pro-choice."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,293017,00.html

ASSOCIATED PRESS: "I think I've made it very clear. I was pro-choice, or effectively pro-choice, when I ran in 1994 (and 2002)." http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hjo2zpLNAjtxCVkBA1Xn9FYQ5tpQD8TK3G500

Romney said he was endorsed by the National Rifle Association. He wasn't.

WASHINGTON POST: "Under Russert's grilling about guns on this morning's 'Meet the Press,' former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney claimed an endorsement he'd never won. ...'I also was pleased to have the support of the NRA when I ran for governor. I sought it, I seek it now. ...I told you what my position was, and what I did as governor; the fact that I received the endorsement of the NRA.' The problem? He was never endorsed by the NRA ... 'The NRA did not endorse in the 2002 campaign,' said (Romney campaign) spokesman Kevin Madden, when asked about Romney's comments." http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/12/16/romney_claims_nra_endorsement.html

Romney said: "I have a gun of my own." He doesn't.

BOSTON GLOBE: "I have a gun of my own. I go hunting myself. I'm a member of the NRA and believe firmly in the right to bear arms,' Romney said. Asked by reporters at the gun show Friday whether he personally owned the gun, Romney said he did not."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/01/14/romney_retreats_on_gun_control

Romney said he's been a hunter "all my life." Twice. Once every forty years.

BOSTON GLOBE: "This week in Keene, N.H., Romney told a man in an NRA hat that he had 'been a hunter pretty much all of my life,' the Associated Press reported. The Romney campaign later acknowledged that Romney, 60, hunted one summer as a teenager and once in his late 50's." http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/04/08/guns_trust_and_romney

ASSOCIATED PRESS: "Officials in the four states where Mitt Romney has lived say the Republican presidential contender, who calls himself a lifelong hunter, never took out a license." http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/04/07/romney_defends_lack_of_hunting_license