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Romney likes to talk health care — really
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 | NBC News |
Carrots and sticks
Asked by this reporter how he would see to that claim, he answered: "I would tie incentives, as well as some sticks, to encourage states to deregulate their health insurance markets and to take action to get all their citizens insured." He went on: "And so I would work with the states with the incentive dollars we have ... to get them to deregulate their insurance market, and at the same time, to take action to get citizens insured."
Filling in the blanks is a problem Romney has faced on other issues. On Social Security, he talks about the "four levers that could be pulled" on the issue, including the Democrats' suggestion to raise taxes — which he doesn't like — raising the retirement age and indexing the rate to inflation for the wealthiest sector of the population. He sounds keenest on President Bush's privatization plan that failed in early 2005, but he won't embrace it alone, and instead he says time and again that he favors New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg's plan to take a bipartisan group of senators and "lock them in the basement of the White House" until they come up with something workable. It's a function of his management style: Getting different ideas together for compromise, but it means he won't officially take a stand.
Shying away from the M-word
In general, Romney has pushed his rivals into attack mode on health care, and they’ve latched onto the word, "mandate." To the Romney campaign and its opponents, "mandate" has joined the ranks of "liberal" in the category of bad, seven-letter words in politics. Although he may need to impose a mandate to make the four-year mark, he certainly wouldn't say so.
Romney’s defense last Sunday shows that he’s still getting tripped up by the word. "I found a way to do that without requiring raising taxes, without a government mandate, without a government takeover. Instead, I didn't want to have a — when I said government mandate, I meant employer mandate," he said. "Instead, we have personal responsibility. We allowed individuals to buy their own policies."
Still, Romney refuses to employ the term, despite criticisms of the fee imposed on residents who could afford health care in Massachusetts but didn’t sign up for it and what some have claimed is the bureaucracy it created.
Clinton in the cross-hairs
On another front, campaign staff has been exhaustive in their efforts to show how Romney’s plan differs from Sen. Clinton’s. The Romney campaign scheduled a quick trip to New York City on the day Clinton was to unveil her plan in September to host a press conference denouncing it even before Clinton had the chance to make her presentation that morning. And Romney penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in which he felt the need to take on the Democratic front-runner: "Her plan has several weaknesses and should be distinguished from the reforms I led in Massachusetts and the reform plan I have proposed."
He points out that her plan would cost $110 billion and has stuck it to Clinton before on their respective health care plans, saying, "The difference is, mine got passed."
But here’s the kicker: When Romney tried to bring Rudy Giuliani into the mix with an attack late last month at a health care event at the All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla., he got a little twisted in his own words, almost equating his views with Clinton’s: "When Hillary's plan first came out, Rudy Giuliani had nothing but praise for Hillary's plan. Why the change in attitude?" he asked. "When Hillary's plan first came out, he was all roses and petals for Hillary's plan. Now, I'm running for president, he's decided it's not such a good idea."
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