Little more than a year ago, the health care conversation was whether a potential President Mitt Romney could use executive powers to halt some or all of Obamacare. Now, it’s President Obama himself who has made extensive use of those powers, leaving the GOP to accuse him and his defenders of hypocrisy.
In the year since his re-election, Mr. Obama has used his administrative chisel to chip away at deadlines and penalties tied to the law’s individual mandate, arguing that he has the power to use his “discretion” to enforce parts and delay others.
Many of those who questioned whether Mr. Romney would have the authority are now defending Mr. Obama, saying he is within his rights because he is using his powers to defend, not pick apart, the Affordable Care Act.
“It’s hypocritical of the left,” said Lanhee J. Chen, a policy adviser for the Romney campaign, noting that Democrats “would have been up in arms if Romney had done the same thing as Obama.”
Mr. Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, guided state-level health care reform as Massachusetts governor but said Mr. Obama’s nationwide model would not work as intended. He promised voters that if elected, he would issue a waiver on his first day in office granting states the power to opt out of the health care act. He said he then would use the budget process to choke off the law.
Pro-Obama groups accused Mr. Romney of misleading the American public by claiming executive powers that did not exist or could not repeal the health care law.
Since then, Mr. Obama has been the one carving out provisions. For instance, he said he would use the equivalent of prosecutorial discretion for states to allow substandard insurance policies that were supposed to be outlawed by Obamacare.
Mr. Romney’s critics have become Mr. Obama’s defenders, saying the intent of the two men matters.Read the rest of the story HERE.
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15 comments:
Even O's supporters are now saying the law should be changed to a single payer system BECAUSE of the problems of implementing it as written. The problem with single payer (the Federal Government paying the bills) is that the disbursements could be politically manipulated.
Did a state vote against the President in the previous election? The money gets transferred to a "friendlier and more deserving state." Does a state have fewer than 10 Congressional votes? They don't need that much money.
If you don't believe me then take a look at where highway funds are spent. Take a look at where Amtrak puts most of their routes (and which ones are the most used), look at where the Post Offices are located that USPS plan to close. Do you not think that the same considerations will be used for single payer health care?
What foes are you talking about? Very few people are in favor of such waivers. In fact, many have made it clear that it is unconstitutional. What can we do if the courts, the President and the Congress do not obey the constitution?
The President obeys and is a strong constitutional advocate.
Well, you are good for a sense of humor, RomneyMan.
Both the left and our far right flank are giving this same pass. They scream 'defund!' when Romney said he's REPEAL.
It must be defuned as well as Repealed.
Right now, I bet a lot of people--including A LOT of Democrats wish the evil Mitt Romney were in office.
Too bad for us!
-Martha
Yes, Martha, Mr. Romney would be better than what we have now, but certainly not what we really need. We need somebody with enough courage to introduce economic shock therapy like Mrs. Thatcher did in the UK, only we need more of it.
OJ, Romney is exactly what we needed. Smart, level headed, not prone to stupid like others in our party.
" We need somebody with enough courage to introduce economic shock therapy like Mrs. Thatcher did in the UK, only we need more of it."
Indeed, just like the President did when the economy was bleeding 3/4 of a million jobs per month, as a result of the W mess. Indeed, a bleeding which, under the President and over time, becomes a healing with improved job growth, falling unemployment and improving GDP.
"not prone to stupid" How soon we forget the '47%' stupid remark.
OJ, Romney admits that comment was a problem, but come on. Wasn't he exactly right? Been proven time and again! Mitt Romney turned out to be exactly right on everything--as were a lot of others. Too bad Americans have lost the desire to inform themselves!
-Martha
The comment was taken out of context. He simply meant there were some that would not vote for him.
Obama did NOTHING to correct the "mess" you reference under Bush.
The job losses simply come to an end point at some point. In fact, Obama has caused the recovery.... if you can call this a recovery ... to be longer and less, effective than it would have been if he had simply not interfered.
Government does not create jobs !!!!!
In fact, the government can do things which interferes with job creation....which is exactly what Obama has done.
Indeed Romney is exactly what we needed. Mitt Romney is one of the most qualified men to ever run for President.
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