A few days ago, conservative commentator and author, Mark Steyn was a fill-in host on The Rush Limbaugh Show. In the first part of the segment, Mark Steyn discussed Sen. Scott Brown's attempt to nibble at the edges of ObamaCare. Inevitably, the topic of the Massachusetts health care system, and former Governor Mitt Romney came up (at the 5:30 point in the audio clip below).
"I like Mitt Romney. Don't get me wrong. He's a nice, smart fellow. He turned around the Olympics. He made more money off people doing sports that nobody's got interest in...if you ask him to make money and find an efficient way to devise a 2-man luge event, he can do it. But, when you ask a Massachusetts bureaucracy to run a 2-man luge event, it's a disaster. And that's what happened in Massachusetts."Perhaps this is why Romney has continued to hide from the press over the past few months, while others are taking on Obama, Pelosi, Reid and their radical agenda on a daily basis.
"Mitt told me that Massachusetts needed to reform its health care system, because the uninsured were placing huge strains on the state's emergency rooms, and so the rest of the population had to pick up the tab for that--that was why Massachusetts health care costs had been driven up. So, now practically everyone in Massachusetts is insured, but emergency room use is as high as ever...70% of the newly insured are all but entirely subsidized by state tax payers...costs are 30% higher than the US average...they wait longer to find a new family doctor than anybody in the nation, because nobody wants to be a family doctor in Massachusetts--so poor people trying to find a doctor in Massachusetts have to go up to southern New Hampshire."
"Massachusetts is the perfect example. It never cures the problem it sets out to cure, but it does give you an exciting range of new ones."
13 comments:
This could have been "Steyn (who the hell is that) and other nobodies take pot shots at Mass care - showing their ignorance."
Mr. Steyn is probably one of the smartest political pundits in the English speaking world. My own local radio host (actually a former Romneyite) has said many similar things lately about Mr. Romney and MAcare. He pointed out that a few times (like my economics Professor used to) that Socialism is too complicated for humans. While Capitalism is not perfect, humans are not smart enough to mico-manage whole economies and whole sectors of economies. My local radio host points out that both Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney are so arrogant that they think they are gods and and mandate the rest of us what to do. No human being is smart enough to micro manage such a complex system.
Of course, Mr. Romney is no dummy, my local radio show host points out like others that Mr. Romney did a great job managing the Salt Lake City Olympics, but human management has its limits. He is not GOD, nor is he super-human. Thus, as smart as he maybe, he is not smart enough to run MAcare, let alone ObamaCare. Yes, we little people from flyover country are have only humans brains, but guess what? Elites like Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney may be smart, but they still only have human brains and they are not gods.
One of the reasons why Romneyite put so much emphasis on management and readiness and so little emphasis on Conservatism and Capitalism is because some of them actually believe that the man who managed the Olympics is super-human. They simply do not get the importance of ideology; one Missouri Blogger once suggested that Socialism would work if somebody like Mr. Romney were President.
I have a question. Let's say Mr. Romney becomes President, what our we going to do in 2021 when we get a new President? Haha, go back to Capitalism? Let's hope we never find out, 8 years of Obama-Romney will be enough for the country to take. America is a great country because is is CAPITALISTIC and FREE. Let's hope the elites figure that out before they totally turn this country into a Banana Republic. Today, I for one give thanks that I now live in a Capitalist country (at least for the time being.)
OHIO JOE
OJ, your mind is 180 opposite on this subject. Requiring peopel to be responsible to pay for their own health care when they are capable of doing so without any public option at all is opposite of socialism. Try to learn this over the next year or so....Allowing freeloaders in a health care system is socialism...fixing that problemis capitalism. It's very simple...ponder it, think about it...it's not complicated.
I agree that socialism takes many forms. We are currently mandated to pay for everyone's health care whether they have insurance or not. Until people are forced to take responsibility for their own lives, capitalism is non-existent. Even repealing Obamacare (which I want to see happen) doesn't change the reality of the socialistic state we are already in.
Btw, Massachusetts is a STATE. States have different constitutional rights than the federal government. Obama has been hugging Romney tightly over health care reform because he'd like to remove a potential rival from circulation. We will not let Obama fool us; we will choose our nominee.
AZ
I see Masscare as yet another example of socialized anything not working.
IMO, it is a good argument against Obamacare.
Responding to comments above: OJ, I understand what you said. cyclin8's response, not so much.
Btw, how I understand it - another bad outcome of socialism, besides becoming broke, is that ‘everyone has to be on board’ for it to theoretically work - i.e.: Loss of individual liberty. Ponder that.
RWN - to say "...Romney has continued to hide from the press over the past few months..." is a complete lie and you should know better than write such a fraudulent statement. Don't lose site of reason, like OJ.
OJ - You basically are calling Romney a Socialist in your statement. OJ - You are a fool. Statements like the above from someone who claims to have lived under such a system, should know better. Your Palin-desperastion has addled your brains.
Doug, Nope. He rarely has anything to say other than an occasional statement through his spokesperson. If it wasn't for the health care issue, I suspect he would be out there more.
RWN- Romney doesn't need to rehabilitate his image or prove he has a mastgery of the issues, so he doesn't need to be heard from EVERYDAY.
He answered many a HC question during his book tour-media appearences earlier this year.
Palin is promoting her new book and TV show, so we all have to suffer through her intrusions into our lives.
Masscare was Mitt trying socialism - loss of liberty ‘mandates’ and all.
He might win me over with his other skills if I could be sure he was repentant. (I am Christian after all.) Socialism has never worked, and though he was in a dark blue state, I think he should have stood his ground
Nobody here or anywhere else, will ever have to prove to me that he’s extremely smart. If there are other people like me (God help us), then we need to come to believe he has the guts to do the right things too.
If Palin, who many would say is not as smart as Romney, can hit Obama’s policies so often and usually effectively, then if Mitt would step up and hit Obama too, maybe he could knock him right out for good.
"OJ - You basically are calling Romney a Socialist in your statement" Hello! With regard to health care, he is.
"Romney doesn't need to rehabilitate his image"
Most hilarious quote of the week.
OHIO JOE
Can Ohio Joe or Right Wingnut explain to me how Romneycare is/was socialist? I cannot for the life of me understand how you arrive at that conclusion. Doesn't the government need to be the one providing the service for it to be socialism?
And Joe, I think you're the only person I've ever heard question Mitt on his capitalist economic beliefs. Have you heard the man speak about business and what drives our economic success? It would appear not.
There are many types of socialism. One could argue that RomneyCare is a product of Social Democracy. Social Democrats seek to reform the capitalist system while maintaining the capitalist mode of production. The result of the reforms is an increased welfare state and redistribution of wealth. Some proponents of the movement advocate the use of gradulism, or a series of reforms that will eventually lead to a socialist system. This has been occuring in our contry for quite some time.
There's plenty of info on the web if you Google "Socialism" or "Social Democracy."
RNW- One could argue that socialism exist in our country today. Examples:Free emergency room care, social security benefits, medicare and medicaid.
I bet Sarah Palin will not be speaking out against entitlements on the campaign trail and I bet some of her beloved supporters would not want her to take away their "SOCIAL PROGRAMS".
BTW- GMR outlines in his book "No Apologies" what he would do about the entitlement problem facing our country. Just wondering if Sarah Palin has a chapter dedicated to that subject in her book? I know she covered the pressing matter of American Idol cultivating a culture of self- esteem,
...and you want me to take her seriously.
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