Thanks…Rebel…I will post this on my fACEBOOK PAGE….

Chris Wallace is the best interviewer out there. I was glad he didn’t hold back. It gets the hard questions out there. Mitt did great.

Great interview. I thought Wallace asked tough questions and Romney answered them BRILLIANTLY. I got the feeling at times, that Wallace seemed a little disappointed/FLUSTERED that he couldn’t dominate the interview. If you didn’t understand RomneyCare before, you did after this interview.

I wouldn’t try comparing Wallace’s questioning of Romney with other candidates. Wallace knows he can ask the tough questions with Romney and knows some candidates can only handle the softball questioning. He’s in show biz and wants these people to return some day.

WELL DONE, MITT and CHRIS

You notice how most people on talk shows, especially politicians, tend to hem and haw when facing a particularly tough question? I don’t think I’ve ever seen Governor Romney do that. It reminds me of another time Chris Wallace grilled a potential presidential candidate on his “nonconservative” positions, and the man rambled for two minutes without answering. Wallace said, “okay, sir, I’m going to give you another minute to actually answer the question.” It was Rudy Giuliani during Fox News’ first 2008 presidential debate. Romney is such a better candidate than … well, everyone.

Just goes to prove that republicans/conservatives/independents and tea sippers are, to use Gov Romney’s words, “disingenuous”.

Wallace, he does seem a little annoyed that Mitt did his homework, compares Romneycare to Obamacare as Romney blazons the real gains Romneycare has accomplished in Mass. Yet, Romney never successfully refutes the glaring similarities between the two programs and highlights his program’s success both in health care delivery (only 2% remain uninsured) and bringing down health care costs. Sounds like both Romneycare and Obamacare are winners.

When will opponents of health care reform begin to act like adults and accept Obamacare for what it is. Obamacare, like Romneycare, is the best alternative for uninsured Americans and will bring down out of control health care costs.

End the lies. Let’s move the Republic forward, now.

Once again Mitt is brilliant. If memory serves me correct…….Didn’t Chris Wallace interview Mitt during the 08 campaign? And Wallace’s first question was…”Governor did you have sex with your wife before you were married”? I, not being as gracious as Mitt would have punched him in the face. Or walked out of the interview. Chris Wallace is a disgrace to his fathers memory.

Great grilling by Wallace, but very elusive answers by Romney. He is a RINO, in my opinion. He tries to present himself as a conservative, but he is far from it…. Maybe that’s because a conservative in MA is the same as a ultra-liberal in TX.

Notice, he is using the same sob stories as Obama does…
Same approach, same plan, same words. I wish he had the ….. to say that the plan isn’t working, it was a mistake and that’s why he is now so much against Obamacare. But that won’t happen. None of today’s politicians have ……

OK guys. The master just gave us what we need to refute the rivals bashing Masscare. Thats how its done. Now, lets take it to the blogs.

United States Constitution Article 12.
The United States Constitution, Article 12: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home, or correspondence, nor, to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”
If the Government takes over health care, a direct Violation of the United States Constitution will be committed, and Freedom of Choice may be history.

I think President Romney is what America needs, but he is going to have to come up with a better answer to these health care questions. His detractors are doing a great job of dipicting RomneyCare as a pilot program of ObamaCare. Let’s face it…there are many similarities, which is why I think he struggled with it in this interview. It’s good to get these things out in the open well in advance of the campaign. He’ll get better on this over time.

Romney ’12

Mitt is the man! I will vote for him if he runs again. I am a college student and am reading his book No Apology — it is brilliant, diligent, and unwavering. He is the type of honest and American dream believing man that I want to have as my President.

I was wondering if anyone can clarify something about the Mass Health Care. Was it Mitt Romney who introduced the legislation, or was it all ready waiting for him at inauguration?

If he did not introduced the legislation, a lot, if not most, people are under the impression that this is Mitt’s vision. That is the part which causes a lot of confusion and liberal accusations.

@jessica

During Mitt’s tenure as governor the legislature was having discussions on universal healthcare. Mitt did a study on the measure and eventually came up with his own plan. Once his plan was formulated; he brought it to Ted Kennedy’s office for support. With the approval of Ted Kennedy; Mitt’s plan became the basis for our healthcare reform. Over a couple of years of negotiation the plan was modified by the legislature and passed. Mitt line item vetoed the parts that he did not like. Those veteod provisions were overturn by the legislature. The MA legislature at the time was 85% democrat. Today it is 90% with a democrat governor.

Jessica,

This is without a doubt, Mitts plan. Sure there were some minor details that he didn’t like, but the individual and employer mandates are his. He defends it to this day…calling it “the ultimate conservative plan.”. I like Mitt, but I have a huge problem with this.

Hey, Brian isn’t taking personal responsibility the ultimate conservative plan? That is what the mandates in the Mass health plan is all about. If you can afford health insurance then get it and don’t expect all of the other tax payers to cover for you.

MK,

The government forcing you to buy something is not personal responsibility…it’s tyranny. 5o you support the mandates in ObamaCare?

This is a more realistic take on his performance on Fox New Monday:

http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=5797

@SED

So this was not Mitt’s brainchild, and he dealt with what was presented to him the best he could, fair to say?

I guess when you have such a liberal crowd, such as Massachusetts, you take what you can get.

Mitt governed one of the most liberal states in the country and did pretty well, all considered. Were he to govern the country, which is more right of center, he would do even better.

You put the pressure on Mitt and the liberalism starts to come out. This is the ultimate pro-life plan? He then defends himself with some emotional story instead of addressing the questions about the plan. The plan relies on federal revenues and is blowing up the budget in Massachusetts because of the mandates and this is conservative? Wow, Romney has you all over a barrel. This is going to be an albatross for Romney going into the primaries, bigger than his flip flops on abortion the last time. The only hope Romney has is being the establishment’s pick this time around and if ObamaCare goes down in flames. If ObamaCare passes, do you think conservatives will look to Romney the former governor of the most liberal state in the country and the author of the exact blueprint of ObamaCare, to repeal ObamaCare? Go on ahead keep believing, because if Obamacare passes, not even the GOP establishment will be able to deliver the nomination to Romney, no matter how many faux candidates they run to divide the GOP base.

@Brian

Why is it fair for my healthcare premiums to go up, because the uninsured go to emergency rooms and do not pay? In MA we do mandate personal responsibility. No more free riders. Everyone has to pay. It’s not tyranny. It’s paying your fair share.

We have 98% of our citizens in MA insured with Private Health Insurance. We subsidize health insurance for those who cannot afford it out right. If you refuse to purchase health insurance then you pay a fine on your taxes. This penalty is especially important for those who try to get free care in emergency room. In this country we do not throw people out on the street when they are sick. Even if they are uninsured they are taken care of, which increases medical costs. Its easy for critics to disparage mandates, but the fact is that personal responsibility is conservative.

@Brian

It’s not tyranny. If you are so against paying for something that others will use then you should also set up your own mail service, FDIC, highway system, air traffic control system, school, CDC, Medicare, Medicaid, SChips, etc.

Ok, based on the last few responses, it’s clear that many of you favor big government. If that’s what you believe in, we’ll just have to agree to disagree.

Well said, SED, it is nice to hear from someone who is dealing with Romney’s plan first hand and can speak from experience of its benefits. I have read your comments on other sites also and appreciate your thoughtful and reasoned insights.
For those that can afford it and still do not buy insurance it is almost like being someone who cons the welfare system. We don’t just let everyone go on welfare, they have to be below a certain income level. It is kind of the same thing. If you are not below a certain income level then you are expected to pay your own way when it comes to insurance. You can’t just expect the government or other tax payers to foot the bill when you end up in an accident and have monumental medical bills.

True, there is a mandate in Romneycare. I don’t like it, and there are lots of reasons not to like it. Before we hyperventilate about the lack of conservative purity inherent in a mandate, however, let’s consider that the root cause of this mandate is another mandate…the requirement that everybody get treated regardless of whether they have insurance. This is the real issue.

In other words, if we were willing to let people die without receiving care if they did not have the means to pay for it (insurance or cash), then we wouldn’t need an individual mandate. We all know, however, that our culture cannot stomach the thought of letting people suffer and die, which leads to a de-facto “mandate” for treatment. The only way to cover this de-facto “mandate” is to mandate insurance coverage in order to keep the mandates symmetrical.

The alternative is the status quo…an asymmetrical mandate in which care is mandated, but coverage/means of payment is not. Hence, the free-rider problem. Individual mandates aren’t pretty, but until we’re willing as a society to release the “mandate” for care, it’s the next best (or least bad) solution.

That said, I think this was a good trial run for Mitt, but as a supporter, I do think he’s got room to improve on this Healthcare line of attack. It will probably be as big if not bigger an obstacle than the whole abortion “flip flop” meme was in the 2008 cycle.

I have to say that I want to be for Mitt Romney but the healthcare thing is making it pretty hard. Even listening to his explanation and defense of MassCare in the Wallace interview–well, if you closed your eyes it would sound like a Democrat was talking. At one point I thought Romney seemed to say that one of the main problems with ObamaCare is the fact that it happens to be a federal plan…suggesting that a similar proposal–but only at the state level–would meet Romney’s approval.

The MAJOR difference between what Mitt Romney did in Mass and what Obama is doing is this:

Obamacare IS NOT ABOUT HEALTHCARE – it is the next piece of the puzzle in his ideology of bringing America to its knees and effecting a government control that rewards the non workers and punishes the achievers – aka Socialism/Communism. Try to ignore it or pooh pooh it all you want – the indicators are there and a minimal amount of research will reveal them to you, if you care to invest the time and effort in confirming them. We keep dancing around the politically correct mulberry bush and just as in Rome – America is burning. Control of one fifth of our economy by the government would spell disaster for our liberty and freedom and fly in the face of our Constitution and what our Founding Fathers knew would happen in an attempt to destroy the best country on earth by the power seekers. Please wake up and do your homework – check out Obama’s life(what they have chosen to reveal about it) and his associations – do not fall for the line that he spent 20 years in a church that preached hate for the white man and hate for America and think that it was not also his own personal beliefs. We are in great danger of losing our country and suffer shame and disgrace by invalidating all of the sacrifices and lives that were made and lost in defense of our freedom and liberty.

Do you know wht makes our job harder? When news papers and supposed conservative institutions lie to further their own personal agenda’s.

Here’s an excerpt from a Boston Herald article today:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1238323

- Though Romney has virtually disavowed his health-care plan – the first of its kind in the nation – White House aides have acknowledged it was a “template” for Obama’s proposal, which could only mean for grief for Romney, according to Boston University political professor Thomas Whalen.

- Whalen: “He’s been running away from the single accomplishment of his administration now that the Obama health-care bill is using the Massachusetts model of health-care reform.”

The last time I checked Romney has been defending his plan in MA on every single network available. This is one of many articles coming out there now. Lies.

Here’s a recent review of our healthcare program in MA.

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/11/02/gvsa1102.htm

@Matt
FYI, Matt. Romney has NEVER said that Obama’s FEDERAL health care plan would be acceptable if it were implemented on a STATE basis. I haven’t got time to list all the sources/links where you can understand the issues that Romney has with Obamacare. You may find them online.

Matt, Steven, and Brian, do we refuse to pay for those who are uninsured – no matter who, what, where, or when? I’m interested in hearing your solutions for emptying the pockets of taxpayers to pay the medical bills of the uninsured.

Every human being is going to get sick. Every human being will require health care at some time in their lives. And, many will deal with medical issues as they face death.

Remember, at the time Romney and the liberal MA legislature crafted an insurance solution for MA, the state was nearly bankrupt. A significant portion of MA’s in-the-red spending was attributed to the cost of paying for uninsured health care. Health care/health insurance reform was not on the NATIONAL mindset. Time was of the essence to solve MA’s budgetary issues. Mitt worked with what he had to solve the health care issue in MA. He didn’t have the luxury of taking these issues to all of America to do a COMPLETE overhaul of the system. And, remember pieces of his legislation were overridden by the MA legislature.

NOW, all of America is paying attention to this issue.

Romney would like to change the ENTIRE health care/health insurance issue so it operates on a true private market, consumer driven model.

Romney repeatedly reminds us that states are the laboratories of democracy. What if we didn’t have the MA model to assess? We’d REALLY be speaking in health care hypotheticals – flying in the dark. Criticizing Romney’s health care work in Massachusetts is like castigating Orville and Wilbur Wright because they weren’t sitting at the controls of a stealth bomber when they launched at Kittyhawk.

Romney deserves credit for taking action on a complicated issue using private-market solutions. Romney’s plan did NOT increase taxes and makes people responsible for their own health care. Yes, there is so much more to be done on these issues. Massachusetts serves as a bench mark for what works and what doesn’t. America can learn from MA. MA is a springboard from which to improve. Romney WANTS us to learn from MA. Rather than criticize Romney for creating a solution for MA, we should appreciate the fact that it works for most MA residents, is a basis from which to move forward, and provides enlightenment as we combat Obamacare.

And he had the smarts to get it up and running…that is thinking out of the box….anything worth doing always can be improved upon…and great things come from embellishing ideas.. Kudos to Governor Romney to see this vision…..

Here’s an interesting discussion on the topic..many good arguments for and against the Mass. Health care system in the comment section.

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/03/09/obamacare-abortion-debate-rekindles-romneycare-controversies/