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Monday, July 2, 2012

2012 Mitt Romney Adviser Defends Obamacare Against Republicans

Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 11:43 AM

Republicans are already calling Obamacare the largest tax increase in history. This is not true—if you consider the mandate to be a tax, it's still lower than taxes raised by George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan.

But lots of people are arguing that the mandate is not, in fact, a tax. One of the loudest defenders is Mitt Romney's senior adviser, Eric Fehrnstrom:

FEHRNSTROM: The governor believes that what we put in place in Massachusetts was a penalty and he disagrees with the court's ruling that the mandate was a tax.

TODD: But he agrees with the president that it is not — and he believes that you should not call the tax penalty a tax, you should call it a penalty or a fee or a fine?

FEHRNSTROM: That's correct.

I hate to bring up Michele Bachmann twice in one morning, but she and other Republicans claimed all during the Republican primaries that Mitt Romney would be unable to effectively attack President Obama on Obamacare because of his record with Romneycare. When Michele Bachmann turns out to be right twice in one day, something is terribly wrong. When she's right about the weakness of a Republican presidential candidate, that might just be the makings of a disaster.

In other news, America likes a winner: A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that the public's support of Obamacare has risen sharply since the Supreme Court's ruling.

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8 of the 9 justices said it was a mandate, not a tax.

Posted by Ziggity on July 2, 2012 at 11:47 AM

Can we all stop calling the ACA "Obamacare," a pejorative label concocted by the GOP to make it seem like Obama is going to be making everyone's medical decisions?

Since the GOP are already much better at branding than the democrats, do you really have the help them? Shit, they even have their enemies carrying water for them.

They may be hostile, misinformed, and out of touch, but damn they are better politicians.

Posted by Theodore Gorath on July 2, 2012 at 11:51 AM

On the Chris Mathews show yesterday morning, the clown from New York magazine said, 30% support ACA, 50% oppose it and the rest are undecided (i.e., lobotomized). Individual provisions are really popular, but I think @2 is right that Obamacare has been demagogued so much that people claim to disagree with it but like most of its provisions (other than wanting to pay for it).

Posted by biffp on July 2, 2012 at 12:02 PM

http://www.randomlicious.org/images/cont…

"What? this is the largest tax increase in history!"
"Actually, it's the lowest tax increase in history, Dad."

(sorry could not resist that joke...life imitating art and all)

Posted by Theodore Gorath on July 2, 2012 at 12:18 PM

@2 Obama is still quite personally popular, while the ACA as a whole, is not (although it has seen a post ruling upsurge).

There are basically four possible popularity direction possibilities from linking the two with the term Obamacare, and the most likely one seems to benefit the ACA without hurting Obama enough that we end up with Romney.

You're completely right about Republicans being really good with branding, sound-bites and marketing, but they have been known to miss the target on occasion.

Posted by Not Convinced Fighting The ACA Is Good For Romney on July 2, 2012 at 12:22 PM

Please let us call it what it is: Obamney Care. And then let us move the hell on.

Posted by rubus on July 2, 2012 at 12:29 PM

I have no problem calling it Obamacare and switch between ACA and Obamacare all the time. Sure the Republicans intend it as a pejorative and in a lot of ways it currently is. But as ACA rolls out and is implemented, it will become more and more popular at which point the Republicans will be scrambling to take credit for it. The Republicans will soon enough deeply regret labeling ACA Obamacare.

Posted by Machiavelli was framed on July 2, 2012 at 12:38 PM

Michele Bachmann isn't dumb, she's just awful.

Posted by Dougsf on July 2, 2012 at 1:00 PM

Michelle Bachmann actually does know a few things: both of which she commented on. She knows about how batshit insane right-wing nutjobs think.

Unfortunately for her (and for us), even the average-thinking joe blow on the street understands how those people think. So, it's no big deal when a stopped clock is right twice a day. It's just how this crazy world works sometimes.

Posted by Some Old Nobodaddy Logged In on July 2, 2012 at 1:03 PM