Romney's Health Care ProblemMay 6, 2011
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RUSH: To Port Jervis, New York. Hi, Ryan. You're next. I'm glad you called, sir.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush. I'm hoping to finish this because I'm on my cell phone breaking the law to talk to you, and my battery is dying. My question is I'm... My support so far is behind Romney. I think he's the most viable candidate we have, possibly Pawlenty for a vice president. But as far as what Romney did with his health care in Massachusetts, how is he going to argue against Obamacare when he pretty much did the same thing in Massachusetts?
RUSH: Well, what's gonna compound that is not so much what he does but Obama is already out there praising Romney as being one of the architects of Obamacare. You know, Obama's out there saying (impression), "You know, some of my ideas, I can't take all the credit for. Mitt Romney was doin' some great things in Massachusetts even before I came along," which is a problem for Romney. Now, last night... You know, Pawlenty has a similar problem with cap and trade. Pawlenty came out for it and he was big, big, big for cap and trade. Big time.
It was a huge gaffe in favor of cap and trade when it was first announced, and so he was asked about it. "What are you gonna do?" He said, "Look, we all make mistakes." He totally disowned it last night. He threw it overboard. He didn't attempt to say that 10% of it was a good idea, 20% was a good idea. He didn't. He didn't blame anybody. He just said, "I made a mistake. We all make mistakes." He threw himself under the bus, he threw himself overboard and got out of the bus, hired a driver so he could run over him again." Romney has not done that. Romney is still defending Massachusetts care, and it could well be a problem for him.
Because if you've got Obama out there praising you as inspiring him to come up with something which over half the country hates, it's not good. I'm not a political advisor. I'm just a Big Voice on the Right driving the independents back to Obama. But I really think that he's gonna have to disown it at some point. So far he won't, and I don't know... (interruption) Well, I know he says he wants to repeal Obamacare. If I were Romney (chuckling), what I would do... I'm sure the guy's cell phone battery died or I'd-a heard from him. If I were Romney and this question came up, I would be tempted to say, "Why are you asking me for logical consistency? I'm running against Obama.
"Why don't you go ask him these questions? He's the guy that's got some explaining to do. Obama's the guy! He's got some explaining to do. Job creation? How's that working out? Hope and change? How's that working out? Saving the housing market? How's that working out? Energy independence? How's that working out? Obama's the guy who's intellectually inconsistent." So Romney could say that, and he has said he wants to repeal Obamacare, but the Republicans are gonna take him on first in the primaries if he says that he fully supports repealing Obamacare. One of his Republican opponents is going to say, "Well, you ought to support repealing your care, too." So far he has not chosen a path that would distance himself from it, nor throw it under the bus, and I don't know what he's going to do. Right now it's almost like a -- (sigh) a wild guess here, folks -- it's almost like the strategy is showing a commitment to himself and his policies by not being bullied off of his own piece of legislation. I don't know. We'll find out in due course.
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