Why do I ask, you might wonder? Well, here's the first line of Michael Graham's Herald column on Mitt Romney and his health care problem:
How do you say "chutzpah" in Mormon?
Hmm. I didn't realize "Mormon" was a language. But apparently it's OK to ask how you would translate certain Yiddish words into different faiths. And I think it's certainly fair to call "wingnut" a faith to which Michael Graham subscribes. Hence the title of my post. The hilarity just never stops around here.
Anyway, gratuitous Mormon-baiting aside, Graham's column supplies an interesting rundown-from-the-right of the disastrous position Romney has put himself in by trying the thread the needle between opposing President Obama's health care plan and not completely repudiating the one he had a role in here.
Mitt Romney is out on a book tour insisting that Romneycare and Obamacare have very little in common. "It's the difference between a racehorse and a donkey," is Romney's line. And besides, the former Bay State governor writes in his new book, "the plan is working." ...
But for Romney to say "there's a big difference between what we did and what President Obama is doing" is . . . well, my Mormon friends would call it a violation of the 9th Commandment. [Oy. There he goes again.] ...
But the basic elements of Obamacare are all there: an individual mandate that nearly everyone buy insurance; subsidized insurance based on income; a non-insurance "tax" and employer mandates. The Cato Institute calls it a mirror-image of Obamacare.
Romney, on the other hand, calls the individual mandate "the ultimate conservative plan." So Barack Obama is a conservative?
Mitt, you gotta lay off the unpasteurized milk . . .
In related news, yet another aspect of the health care issue is a threat to Romney:
Romney's landmark 2006 universal health-care law allows low-income residents covered under Commonwealth Care to get taxpayer-funded abortions. Abortion has become a lightning rod in the highly charged battle over President Obama's health-care push.... The plan's abortion funding came under renewed attack this weekend, with political blogger and former Atlantic Monthly writer Matthew Yglasias speculating on Twitter that it was "enough to sink (his) 2012 bid." ...
Though Romney has virtually disavowed his health-care plan - the first of its kind in the nation - White House aides have acknowledged it was a "template" for Obama's proposal, which could only mean for grief for Romney, according to Boston University political professor Thomas Whalen.
Said Whalen: "He's been running away from the single accomplishment of his administration now that the Obama health-care bill is using the Massachusetts model of health-care reform."
Is it too early?
Nah.
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