Saturday, April 16, 2011

Romneycare

"Obamacare" may be one of the greatest attacks on Objectivism in recent memory. Not only does it force other taxpayers to pay the bills for other people, but the individual mandate, forcing you to have health insurance or pay a fine, is a frightening attack on personal freedom as many courts are now agreeing.

Unfortunately for Mitt Romney, who seemed to be the front-runner in the next primary after 2008, the bill he had passed in Massachusetts as Governor, unaffectionately called "Romneycare" is in the same spirit as what was passed on a national level.

To date, I have heard two excuses: one is that what worked for Massachusetts on the state-level is not necessarily best to be used on a national-level; the other that the Democratic legislature hijacked the bill and morphed it into what they wanted.

To me, the state vs. national issue is a moot point. The plan forces taxpayers to sacrifice their money for a cause they do not like. That is equally wrong no matter what level you look at. As for the second point, it seems meaningless since at the end of the day it was Romney who signed the bill himself. (Especially so when you hear some of the things he said in a debate: "I like mandates. The mandate works.")

Maybe Romney could have gotten around this issue if Obama had never brought attention to health care or fewer trustworthy fiscal conservatives, some appearing to be adherents of at least the fiscal side of Objectivism, were running, but this sure seems to be his Achilles' Heel. And one that should rightfully take the nomination away from him, should he not come up with a convincing "excuse."

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