rand paul has to not only endorse him, but he has to campaign for him if he wants to keep his job. how bad would it look for the gop to have a young up and comer bucking the party and not endorsing the nominee? he is young and has his whole political career to think about. his old man has nothing to lose, so he can afford to not only not endorse romney, but he can cause some major headaches at the convention as well.
I guess I had high hopes for Rand, and when he accepted Palin's endorsement I knew he wasn't like Ron. I know he is more mainstream but to me mainstream is why we are in the mess we are in.
When both parties fight you I think it means you are doing something right, and that is why I'll be voting for Ron Paul for President.
Well, actually I think a president in office would be more of a dumb fuck if he said the private sector was not fine or the economy was shot to shit. Imaging Obama saying something like:
"The economy is fucked. We're fucked. But don't forget to re-elect me."
Now those would be the words of a dumb fuck.
And just for the record, I've never described any president, no matter how much I disagreed with him, in those terms. Hell, I'm not that unpatriotic.
Shows: 6.27.08 Hartford, CT/5.15.10 Hartford, CT/6.18.2011 Hartford, CT (EV Solo)/10.19.13 Brooklyn/10.25.13 Hartford
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
SAN DIEGO—On a stage crowded with war heroes, Mitt Romney recently praised the sacrifice "of the great men and women of every generation who serve in our armed services."
It is a sacrifice the Republican presidential candidate did not make.
Though an early supporter of the Vietnam War, Romney avoided military service at the height of the fighting after high school by seeking and receiving four draft deferments, according to Selective Service records. They included college deferments and a 31-month stretch as a "minister of religion" in France, a classification for Mormon missionaries that the church at the time feared was being overused. The country was cutting troop levels by the time he became eligible for the draft, and his lottery number was not called.
President Barack Obama, Romney's opponent in this year's campaign, did not serve in the military either. The Democrat, 50, was a child during the Vietnam conflict and did not enlist when he was older.
But because Romney, now 65, was of draft age during Vietnam, his military background -- or, rather, his lack of one -- is facing new scrutiny as he courts veterans and makes his case to the nation to be commander in chief. He's also intensified his criticism lately of Obama's plans to scale back the nation's military commitments abroad, suggesting that Romney would pursue an aggressive foreign policy as president that could involve U.S. troops.
A look at Romney's relationship with Vietnam offers a window into a 1960s world that allowed him to avoid combat as fighting peaked. His story also demonstrates his commitment to the Mormon Church, which he rarely discusses publicly but which helped shape his life.
Romney's recollection of his Vietnam-era decisions has evolved in the decades since, particularly as his presidential ambitions became clear.
He said in 2007 -- his first White House bid under way -- that he had "longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam." But his actions, Selective Service records and previous statements show little interest in joining a conflict that ultimately claimed more than 58,000 American lives.
Still, he repeatedly cites his commitment to public service and the nation's military while campaigning for president.
"Greatness in a people, I believe, is measured by the extent to which they will give themselves to something bigger than themselves," Romney said in San Diego last week to a Memorial Day crowd of thousands, flush with military veterans of all ages.
He did not address his own Vietnam history that day. And his campaign has refused to comment publicly on the subject over the past week.
Political rivals, military veterans among them, suggest that Romney's own decision not to serve in the military is in conflict with his pro-military rhetoric.
"He didn't have the courage to go. He didn't feel it was important enough to him to serve his country at a time of war," said Jon Soltz, who served two Army tours in Iraq and is the chairman of the left-leaning veterans group VoteVets.org.
Critics note that the candidate is among three generations of Romneys -- including his father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, and five sons -- who were of military age during armed conflicts but did not serve.
As a presidential candidate in 2007, Romney told The Boston Globe he was frustrated, as a Mormon missionary, not to be fighting alongside his countrymen.
"I was supportive of my country," Romney said. "I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there, and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam."
Indeed, Romney strongly supported the war at first. As a freshman at Stanford University, he protested anti-war activists. In one photo, he's shown in a small crowd of students, smiling broadly, wearing a sport jacket and holding up a sign that says, "Speak Out, Don't Sit In."
But the frustration he recalled in 2007 does not match a sentiment he shared as a Massachusetts Senate candidate in 1994, when he told The Boston Herald, "I was not planning on signing up for the military."
"It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam, but nor did I take any actions to remove myself from the pool of young men who were eligible for the draft," Romney told the newspaper.
But that's exactly what Romney did, according Selective Service records. He received his first deferment for "activity in study" in October 1965 while at Stanford.
As Soltz notes, the younger Romney was under no obligation to seek a college-related deferment.
"Vietnam was a war that the poor and the people who couldn't afford to go to college had to go to," Soltz said.
After his first year at Stanford, Romney qualified for 4-D deferment status as "a minister of religion or divinity student." It was a status he would hold from July 1966 until February 1969, a period he largely spent in France working as a Mormon missionary.
He was granted the deferment even as some young Mormon men elsewhere were denied that same status, which became increasingly controversial in the late 1960s. The Mormon church, a strong supporter of American involvement in Vietnam, ultimately limited the number of church missionaries allowed to defer their military service using the religious exemption.
But as fighting in Vietnam raged, Romney spent two and a half years trying to win Mormon converts in France. About that same time, Romney's father would famously speak out against Vietnam, declaring that he had been "brainwashed" by military officials into supporting the conflict.
Young Romney's comments indicated his support had waned, too.
"If it wasn't a political blunder to move into Vietnam, I don't know what is," a 23-year-old Romney would tell The Boston Globe in 1970 during the fifth year of his deferment.
His 31-month religious deferment expired in early 1969. And Romney received an academic studies deferment for much of the next two years. He became available for military service at the end of 1970 when his deferments ran out and he could have been drafted. But by that time, America was beginning to slice its troop levels, and Romney's relatively high lottery number -- 300 out of 365 -- was not called.
Romney's past may not be enough to hurt his popularity in this year's election among veterans, who typically lean Republican.
A Gallup survey released last week found that veterans prefer Romney over Obama by 58 percent to 34 percent. That voting bloc, consisting mostly of older men, makes up 13 percent of the adult population. Obama won the presidency four years ago while losing veterans by 10 points to Sen. John McCain, a former Navy pilot.
Still, some veterans say Romney's reluctance to serve irks them.
"I volunteered for the draft. Romney could have, too. Simple as that," said Wade Lieseke, of Nevada, who served as a helicopter gunner in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970.
Shows: 6.27.08 Hartford, CT/5.15.10 Hartford, CT/6.18.2011 Hartford, CT (EV Solo)/10.19.13 Brooklyn/10.25.13 Hartford
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
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I stopped by on March 7 2024. First time in many years, had to update payment info. Hope all is well. Politicians suck. Bye. Posts: 9,487
I'm not voting for Romney but that's about as much as a non-issue that there could be.
I'm not voting for Romney but that's about as much as a non-issue that there could be.
I agree it's a non-issue. What irks me is him beating the drums of war, saying if he's President we'll go into Iran, while he did everything he could to avoid Vietnam. It's more personal to me (and I'm sure, to others on here and across the country) because I have family that volunteered to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan and are still getting sent to Afghanistan.
Shows: 6.27.08 Hartford, CT/5.15.10 Hartford, CT/6.18.2011 Hartford, CT (EV Solo)/10.19.13 Brooklyn/10.25.13 Hartford
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
Romney could better serve (and has) our country by making tons of work and treasure for our country by way of job creation and taxes paid to the man. His religious pursuits also helped in some way I presume
It's prudent for our country to recognize human resources should be delegated effectively.
Romney could better serve (and has) our country by making tons of work and treasure for our country by way of job creation and taxes paid to the man. His religious pursuits also helped in some way I presume
It's prudent for our country to recognize human resources should be delegated effectively.
He's paid for many drones, ya heard?
Woot
I've heard those Swiss bank accounts create tons of jobs.
i think it's prudent to have multiple accounts. why hate on Swiss ones? He has a series of funds set up in different countries. you ever hear he was a businessman?
"Yesterday the president gave a speech. A Very. Long. Speech," Romney said. "You might have thought that it would be a moment when he would acknowledge his policy mistakes and suggest a new course. But no. He promised four more years, of more of the same. Four. More. Very. Long. Years."
well, pretty sure Romney is going to be able to solidify his base now. This is going to be dope. Obama said that this madate wasn't a tax all along. Good times.
Mitt Romney is going to solidify his base by running against a law which is exactly what he implemented.
Okay.
Believe me, when I was growin up, I thought the worst thing you could turn out to be was normal, So I say freaks in the most complementary way. Here's a song by a fellow freak - E.V
Obama on whether individual mandate is a tax: 'It is absolutely not'
Published June 28, 2012
Sep 20, 2009
Obama: Mandate is Not a Tax
ABC News Interview
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: ...during the campaign. Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don't. How is that not a tax?
OBAMA: Well, hold on a second, George. Here - here's what's happening. You and I are both paying $900, on average - our families - in higher premiums because of uncompensated care. Now what I've said is that if you can't afford health insurance, you certainly shouldn't be punished for that.
That's just piling on. If, on the other hand, we're giving tax credits, we've set up an exchange, you are now part of a big pool, we've driven down the costs, we've done everything we can and you actually can afford health insurance, but you've just decided, you know what, I want to take my chances. And then you get hit by a bus and you and I have to pay for the emergency room care, that's ...
STEPHANOPOULOS: That may be, but it's still a tax increase.
OBAMA: No. That's not true, George. The - for us to say that you've got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase. What it's saying is, is that we're not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you anymore than the fact that right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase. People say to themselves, that is a fair way to make sure that if you hit my car, that I'm not covering all the costs.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But it may be fair, it may be good public policy ...
OBAMA: No, but - but, George, you - you can't just make up that language and decide that that's called a tax increase. Any ...
STEPHANOPOULOS: Here's the ...
OBAMA: What - what - if I - if I say that right now your premiums are going to be going up by 5 or 8 or 10 percent next year and you say well, that's not a tax increase; but, on the other hand, if I say that I don't want to have to pay for you not carrying coverage even after I give you tax credits that make it affordable, then ...
STEPHANOPOULOS: I - I don't think I'm making it up. Merriam Webster's Dictionary: Tax - "a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes."
OBAMA: George, the fact that you looked up Merriam's Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you're stretching a little bit right now. Otherwise, you wouldn't have gone to the dictionary to check on the definition. I mean what ...
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, no, but ...
OBAMA: ... what you're saying is ...
STEPHANOPOULOS: I wanted to check for myself. But your critics say it is a tax increase.
OBAMA: My critics say everything is a tax increase. My critics say that I'm taking over every sector of the economy. You know that. Look, we can have a legitimate debate about whether or not we're going to have an individual mandate or not, but ...
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you reject that it's a tax increase?
OBAMA: I absolutely reject that notion.
"What the court did not do on its last day in session, I will do on my first day if elected president of the United States," Romney said. "And that is I will act to repeal ObamaCare."
The Republican presidential candidate, as expected, said he disagrees with the high court's finding. He stressed that the court did not speak to the merits of the policy itself.
"What the court did today was say that ObamaCare does not violate the Constitution. What they did not do was say that ObamaCare is good law or that it's good policy. ObamaCare was bad policy yesterday. It's bad policy today."
And, I think todays ruling enforced state rights. Chris Christie is a winner today with the veto move he made. Saved tons of money in litigation and set up costs.
The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the individual mandate central to President Obama’s health care law carried immediate benefits for Mitt Romney, namely a newly energized Republican electorate and the ability to keep hammering his promise to repeal the law on “Day One.”
“This is the time of choice for the American people,” the presumptive nominee said during an appearance in Washington D.C. on Thursday. “If you don't want the course that President Obama has put us on, if you want instead a course that the Founders envisioned, then join me in this effort. Help us. Help us defeat Obamacare.”
But the Supreme Court’s decision also was a reminder of what Romney’s campaign would like Republican voters to forget — that he too embraced an individual mandate in his efforts to win universal healthcare for his state as governor of Massachusetts. The law that was once considered Romney’s signature achievement is one that he now rarely mentions.
Romney’s healthcare law, which required most state residents to purchase health insurance or pay a fine, engendered distrust among millions of Republican primary voters who viewed the law as the precursor to Obama’s healthcare plan. And Romney’s rejection of the president’s federal effort opened him to charges of flip-flopping from opponents on both sides.
On the eve of Thursday’s decision, the Democratic outside group American Bridge 21st Century dredged up video of Romney from a 2006 press conference speaking favorably of a healthcare mandate.
“With regards to the mandate, the individual responsibility program which I proposed, I was very pleased to see that the compromise from the two houses includes the personal responsibility principle,” Romney said in the 2006 video released by American Bridge. “That is essential for bringing healthcare costs down for everyone and getting everybody the health insurance they deserve and need. So I was very, very pleased with that development.”
On the campaign trail over the past few years, Romney’s emphasis has been dramatically different. He has insisted, as he did Thursday, that Obama’s healthcare law was an overreach of federal power. And he has argued that while states may have the power under their constitutions to care for the uninsured (as his state did), “the federal government should not take over that power,” he has said.
When pressed in interviews, the former Massachusetts Governor has also rejected the notion that his law inspired Obama’s federal law. “People asked me, would you use your RomneyCare and have a federal program just like it? And I said, absolutely not,” Romney told CNN host Piers Morgan last year, “It would violate the Constitution, and states have differences that you have to accommodate.”
At the same time, Romney has refused to disavow the Massachusetts law, noting that it is popular within his state and has helped to insure millions of children.
But those are fine distinctions to make in the heat of a presidential campaign. For that reason, when Romney has talked about healthcare on the campaign trail, his focus is squarely on his criticisms of Obama’s plan, which he described this week as a massive “power grab by federal government.”
Romney’s vow to repeal and replace Obama’s healthcare plan as one of his first acts in office has become one of his most reliable applause lines. But he has offered few details about how he would “replace” that plan as president, though his aides promise that there is still plenty of time to reveal those details in the remaining four months of the race.
Among the few hints about his plans: he has said he would task states with caring for the uninsured and the poor, rather than having the federal government impose “a one size fits all Obamacare-type plan.” But he has offered only the vaguest details about how that would work, stating, for example, that he would distribute the money that “the government normally sends” to states as block grants.
The former Massachusetts governor has come under fire from Democrats for failing to embrace one of the most popular provisions of the president’s plan, which prohibits insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions.
During a question-and-answer session with voters in Ohio in late February, Romney said that he would support a federal law that would prevent insurance companies from dropping patients who become sick, but then offered a different definition of “pre-existing conditions coverage.”
“I want to make sure that at the federal level we have a law that says the insurance company can’t drop you from coverage if someone gets sick in your family or if you get sick,” he told the audience in Ohio. “I also want to make sure that someone who’s been continuously insured and becomes ill, if they change jobs or lose a job can’t be denied coverage. That’s the so-called preexisting coverage provision.”
On Thursday, he did not mention the “continuously insured” requirement of his plan when announcing that as president he would make sure “that those people who have pre-existing conditions know that they will be able to be insured and they will not lose their insurance.” Th Romney campaign said there had been no shift in his policies.
As usual, there was no mention of Romney's own plan in Massachusetts, much less the lessons that he learned from that experience.
Today, the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare. But regardless of what the Court said about the constitutionality of the law, Obamacare is bad medicine, it is bad policy, and when I'm President, the bad news of Obamacare will be over.
It was always a liberal pipedream that a 2,700 page, multi-trillion-dollar Federal Government takeover of our health care system actually could address the very serious problems we face with health care. With Obamacare fully installed, government will reach fully half of the economy - that is the recipe for a struggling economy and declining prosperity.
On Day One, I will work to repeal Obamacare to stop the government's takeover of our health care and intrusion in our lives. I will push for real reform to our health care system that focuses on helping patients and protecting taxpayers.
We cannot afford Barack Obama's on-the-job learning, Big Government proposals, and irresponsible spending. Our basic liberties are at stake - and I will fight to restore our freedoms, renew the respect for our Constitution, and halt the government takeover of health care.
This November it's all on the line. The stakes couldn't be higher.
Donate $10 or more to put a stop to the policies of Barack Obama and the liberal Democrats.
Today, the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare. But regardless of what the Court said about the constitutionality of the law, Obamacare is bad medicine, it is bad policy, and when I'm President, the bad news of Obamacare will be over.
It was always a liberal pipedream that a 2,700 page, multi-trillion-dollar Federal Government takeover of our health care system actually could address the very serious problems we face with health care. With Obamacare fully installed, government will reach fully half of the economy - that is the recipe for a struggling economy and declining prosperity.
On Day One, I will work to repeal Obamacare to stop the government's takeover of our health care and intrusion in our lives. I will push for real reform to our health care system that focuses on helping patients and protecting taxpayers.
We cannot afford Barack Obama's on-the-job learning, Big Government proposals, and irresponsible spending. Our basic liberties are at stake - and I will fight to restore our freedoms, renew the respect for our Constitution, and halt the government takeover of health care.
This November it's all on the line. The stakes couldn't be higher.
Donate $10 or more to put a stop to the policies of Barack Obama and the liberal Democrats.
Thanks,
Mitt Romney
:fp:
he forgot to admit that this is the same bill he championed as his own legislative masterpiece while governor.... "i loved it before, but that would make me unelectable, so i hate it now...."
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.- Hemingway
Today, the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare. But regardless of what the Court said about the constitutionality of the law, Obamacare is bad medicine, it is bad policy, and when I'm President, the bad news of Obamacare will be over.
It was always a liberal pipedream that a 2,700 page, multi-trillion-dollar Federal Government takeover of our health care system actually could address the very serious problems we face with health care. With Obamacare fully installed, government will reach fully half of the economy - that is the recipe for a struggling economy and declining prosperity.
On Day One, I will work to repeal Obamacare to stop the government's takeover of our health care and intrusion in our lives. I will push for real reform to our health care system that focuses on helping patients and protecting taxpayers.
We cannot afford Barack Obama's on-the-job learning, Big Government proposals, and irresponsible spending. Our basic liberties are at stake - and I will fight to restore our freedoms, renew the respect for our Constitution, and halt the government takeover of health care.
This November it's all on the line. The stakes couldn't be higher.
Donate $10 or more to put a stop to the policies of Barack Obama and the liberal Democrats.
Thanks,
Mitt Romney
:fp:
he forgot to admit that this is the same bill he championed as his own legislative masterpiece while governor.... "i loved it before, but that would make me unelectable, so i hate it now...."
Don't forget, in 2009, he also encouraged Obama to include the mandate.
Shows: 6.27.08 Hartford, CT/5.15.10 Hartford, CT/6.18.2011 Hartford, CT (EV Solo)/10.19.13 Brooklyn/10.25.13 Hartford
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
Today, the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare. But regardless of what the Court said about the constitutionality of the law, Obamacare is bad medicine, it is bad policy, and when I'm President, the bad news of Obamacare will be over.
It was always a liberal pipedream that a 2,700 page, multi-trillion-dollar Federal Government takeover of our health care system actually could address the very serious problems we face with health care. With Obamacare fully installed, government will reach fully half of the economy - that is the recipe for a struggling economy and declining prosperity.
On Day One, I will work to repeal Obamacare to stop the government's takeover of our health care and intrusion in our lives. I will push for real reform to our health care system that focuses on helping patients and protecting taxpayers.
We cannot afford Barack Obama's on-the-job learning, Big Government proposals, and irresponsible spending. Our basic liberties are at stake - and I will fight to restore our freedoms, renew the respect for our Constitution, and halt the government takeover of health care.
This November it's all on the line. The stakes couldn't be higher.
Donate $10 or more to put a stop to the policies of Barack Obama and the liberal Democrats.
Thanks,
Mitt Romney
:fp:
he forgot to admit that this is the same bill he championed as his own legislative masterpiece while governor.... "i loved it before, but that would make me unelectable, so i hate it now...."
Don't forget, in 2009, he also encouraged Obama to include the mandate.
he forgot to admit that this is the same bill he championed as his own legislative masterpiece while governor.... "i loved it before, but that would make me unelectable, so i hate it now...."
Don't forget, in 2009, he also encouraged Obama to include the mandate.
Oh Mittens... He's an entertaining bastard...
He's a character, that's for sure.
I can't remember if he also said his health care plan was a model for the nation. I think he did, but not 100% sure.
Shows: 6.27.08 Hartford, CT/5.15.10 Hartford, CT/6.18.2011 Hartford, CT (EV Solo)/10.19.13 Brooklyn/10.25.13 Hartford
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
Romney Blasts Supreme Court, Calling Healthcare Act ‘Worst Idea I Ever Had’
Vows to Repeal Own Law
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – Just minutes after the Supreme Court upheld President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney slammed the Court, calling the law “the worst idea I ever had.”
“I vow to repeal this law on my first day in office,” he told a crowd at a campaign rally. “Until then, I will work tirelessly to make people forget that I used to totally love it.”
At the White House, President Obama greeted the news of the Court’s decision in muted fashion: “I haven’t been this pumped since I smoked bin Laden.”
Dissenters in the 5-4 decision included Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote, “The only medical procedures the government should pay for are forced transvaginal ultrasounds and exorcisms.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also had harsh words for the healthcare law, telling reporters, “Under Obamacare, you will be forced to marry a gay doctor.”
But perhaps the most negative appraisal came from Speaker of the House John Boehner: “This is a dark day for America. If we are forced to have healthcare, it’s only a matter of time before we have education.”
Shows: 6.27.08 Hartford, CT/5.15.10 Hartford, CT/6.18.2011 Hartford, CT (EV Solo)/10.19.13 Brooklyn/10.25.13 Hartford
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
Shows: 6.27.08 Hartford, CT/5.15.10 Hartford, CT/6.18.2011 Hartford, CT (EV Solo)/10.19.13 Brooklyn/10.25.13 Hartford
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
What Businesses Didn't Get From the Health Care Ruling
Religious leaders pray over a bible and a copy of the verdict on President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul law …For American businesses, uncertainty over the health care law is anything but over.
When the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare on Thursday-including the individual mandate that forces most Americans to have insurance-it made the issue even more political, promising it ultimately will be decided in the November presidential election.
GOP candidate Mitt Romney vowed again Thursday to repeal the act if elected, while President Obama said he would move forward in implementing it.
That means businesses will have a hard time budgeting for health care costs and are likely to delay hiring even further.
U.S. corporations are sitting on more than $1.2 trillion in cash - $3.5 trillion counting the financial sector - that has not been deployed, in large part due to anxiety over health care, the looming fiscal cliff in Washington, and the European debt crisis.
The Supreme Court decision "increases the likelihood that businesses will continue to hold onto that cash to see how the election turns out," said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Potomac Research Group in Washington, D.C. "If Romney wins, he will overturn the Affordable Care Act within days of his inauguration on Jan. 20. Therefore, the reluctance of businesses to spend and hire will persist at least through the election."
The court decision hinged on the individual mandate, a provision the court upheld so long as it is called a "tax" rather than a "penalty" as the law's wording originally indicated.
"From a political standpoint, this significantly improves the chance that Romney wins in November," said Valliere, who called the decision a "Pyrrhic victory" for Obama. "Congress was too chicken to use the word 'tax' because it has such a pejorative implication for voters...Of course, the Supreme Court doesn't have to run for re-election."
That political advantage may cheer the Romney supporters,but it does little to assuage concerns of business leaders and investors alike who were hoping to get the health care issue resolved.
Obamacare serves as one point in a daunting triad of uncertainty the business climate faces.
There also is the accelerating debt crisis in the euro zone, as well as the fiscal cliff, a term coined by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to describe the automatic spending cuts and tax increases that kick in at the beginning of 2013 if Congress fails to agree to a deficit-reduction plan.
To be sure, the reaction to the decision was mixed, with some saying that the decision, good or bad, at least will allow companies to plan for the future.
"As flawed as it is, it still has taken us some way along the path to reduce some uncertainty," said James Paulsen, chief market strategist at Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis. "To throw it all out would have put us back to square one and, net-net, a loss for the country."
Paulsen added that he was glad that what essentially was a political decision did not get overturned at the judicial level.
But the political considerations are no small part of what happens going forward. Not only will the fate of the law under a Romney administration hang in the balance, but there also remain a number of questions with how the mandate will be implemented.
"The level of uncertainty about the outlook and ultimate cost to business of the health care reform bill remains somewhat," said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities in New York. "It kind of leaves us where we were."
How Key Health Care Stocks Are Doing
Among the questions Resler pointed out will be how the Internal Revenue Service collects the new tax, and how reporting will take place. He compared it to the Dodd-Frank banking reform law, which still has many provisions that are being negotiated.
"Most of the scheduled implementation for that has not been met, and it's not clear that the provisions under the health care law will be met as originally envisioned in the law," Resler said. "There's still some uncertainty, but businesses have some clarity about the rules of the road, so to speak, going forward."
The stock market reacted negatively to the decision, sending major averages and health care stocks in particular down about 1 percent or more across the board, though the market could be more inclined to move onto other concerns in future days.
"Stocks themselves are just going to pretty much crash because of what's happening with Europe and because of the fiscal cliff in the U.S.," said Lee Markowitz, partner at Continental Capital Advisors in New York. "The broader issues are so much bigger than some increase in spending related to health care."
Comments
I guess I had high hopes for Rand, and when he accepted Palin's endorsement I knew he wasn't like Ron. I know he is more mainstream but to me mainstream is why we are in the mess we are in.
When both parties fight you I think it means you are doing something right, and that is why I'll be voting for Ron Paul for President.
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
Yeah for everyone of Obama's gaffs Romney spews out 5 of hi's own
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/art ... _scrutiny/
Romney's (non) military record faces new scrutiny
SAN DIEGO—On a stage crowded with war heroes, Mitt Romney recently praised the sacrifice "of the great men and women of every generation who serve in our armed services."
It is a sacrifice the Republican presidential candidate did not make.
Though an early supporter of the Vietnam War, Romney avoided military service at the height of the fighting after high school by seeking and receiving four draft deferments, according to Selective Service records. They included college deferments and a 31-month stretch as a "minister of religion" in France, a classification for Mormon missionaries that the church at the time feared was being overused. The country was cutting troop levels by the time he became eligible for the draft, and his lottery number was not called.
President Barack Obama, Romney's opponent in this year's campaign, did not serve in the military either. The Democrat, 50, was a child during the Vietnam conflict and did not enlist when he was older.
But because Romney, now 65, was of draft age during Vietnam, his military background -- or, rather, his lack of one -- is facing new scrutiny as he courts veterans and makes his case to the nation to be commander in chief. He's also intensified his criticism lately of Obama's plans to scale back the nation's military commitments abroad, suggesting that Romney would pursue an aggressive foreign policy as president that could involve U.S. troops.
A look at Romney's relationship with Vietnam offers a window into a 1960s world that allowed him to avoid combat as fighting peaked. His story also demonstrates his commitment to the Mormon Church, which he rarely discusses publicly but which helped shape his life.
Romney's recollection of his Vietnam-era decisions has evolved in the decades since, particularly as his presidential ambitions became clear.
He said in 2007 -- his first White House bid under way -- that he had "longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam." But his actions, Selective Service records and previous statements show little interest in joining a conflict that ultimately claimed more than 58,000 American lives.
Still, he repeatedly cites his commitment to public service and the nation's military while campaigning for president.
"Greatness in a people, I believe, is measured by the extent to which they will give themselves to something bigger than themselves," Romney said in San Diego last week to a Memorial Day crowd of thousands, flush with military veterans of all ages.
He did not address his own Vietnam history that day. And his campaign has refused to comment publicly on the subject over the past week.
Political rivals, military veterans among them, suggest that Romney's own decision not to serve in the military is in conflict with his pro-military rhetoric.
"He didn't have the courage to go. He didn't feel it was important enough to him to serve his country at a time of war," said Jon Soltz, who served two Army tours in Iraq and is the chairman of the left-leaning veterans group VoteVets.org.
Critics note that the candidate is among three generations of Romneys -- including his father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, and five sons -- who were of military age during armed conflicts but did not serve.
As a presidential candidate in 2007, Romney told The Boston Globe he was frustrated, as a Mormon missionary, not to be fighting alongside his countrymen.
"I was supportive of my country," Romney said. "I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there, and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam."
Indeed, Romney strongly supported the war at first. As a freshman at Stanford University, he protested anti-war activists. In one photo, he's shown in a small crowd of students, smiling broadly, wearing a sport jacket and holding up a sign that says, "Speak Out, Don't Sit In."
But the frustration he recalled in 2007 does not match a sentiment he shared as a Massachusetts Senate candidate in 1994, when he told The Boston Herald, "I was not planning on signing up for the military."
"It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam, but nor did I take any actions to remove myself from the pool of young men who were eligible for the draft," Romney told the newspaper.
But that's exactly what Romney did, according Selective Service records. He received his first deferment for "activity in study" in October 1965 while at Stanford.
As Soltz notes, the younger Romney was under no obligation to seek a college-related deferment.
"Vietnam was a war that the poor and the people who couldn't afford to go to college had to go to," Soltz said.
After his first year at Stanford, Romney qualified for 4-D deferment status as "a minister of religion or divinity student." It was a status he would hold from July 1966 until February 1969, a period he largely spent in France working as a Mormon missionary.
He was granted the deferment even as some young Mormon men elsewhere were denied that same status, which became increasingly controversial in the late 1960s. The Mormon church, a strong supporter of American involvement in Vietnam, ultimately limited the number of church missionaries allowed to defer their military service using the religious exemption.
But as fighting in Vietnam raged, Romney spent two and a half years trying to win Mormon converts in France. About that same time, Romney's father would famously speak out against Vietnam, declaring that he had been "brainwashed" by military officials into supporting the conflict.
Young Romney's comments indicated his support had waned, too.
"If it wasn't a political blunder to move into Vietnam, I don't know what is," a 23-year-old Romney would tell The Boston Globe in 1970 during the fifth year of his deferment.
His 31-month religious deferment expired in early 1969. And Romney received an academic studies deferment for much of the next two years. He became available for military service at the end of 1970 when his deferments ran out and he could have been drafted. But by that time, America was beginning to slice its troop levels, and Romney's relatively high lottery number -- 300 out of 365 -- was not called.
Romney's past may not be enough to hurt his popularity in this year's election among veterans, who typically lean Republican.
A Gallup survey released last week found that veterans prefer Romney over Obama by 58 percent to 34 percent. That voting bloc, consisting mostly of older men, makes up 13 percent of the adult population. Obama won the presidency four years ago while losing veterans by 10 points to Sen. John McCain, a former Navy pilot.
Still, some veterans say Romney's reluctance to serve irks them.
"I volunteered for the draft. Romney could have, too. Simple as that," said Wade Lieseke, of Nevada, who served as a helicopter gunner in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970.
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
It's prudent for our country to recognize human resources should be delegated effectively.
He's paid for many drones, ya heard?
Woot
I've heard those Swiss bank accounts create tons of jobs.
Romney 6-13-12
happy flag day to all my fellow patriots.
http://liberty.com/content/ragged-old-flag
woot
"Yesterday the president gave a speech. A Very. Long. Speech," Romney said. "You might have thought that it would be a moment when he would acknowledge his policy mistakes and suggest a new course. But no. He promised four more years, of more of the same. Four. More. Very. Long. Years."
well, pretty sure Romney is going to be able to solidify his base now. This is going to be dope. Obama said that this madate wasn't a tax all along. Good times.
Believe in America
Woot!
Okay.
Published June 28, 2012
Sep 20, 2009
Obama: Mandate is Not a Tax
ABC News Interview
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: ...during the campaign. Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don't. How is that not a tax?
OBAMA: Well, hold on a second, George. Here - here's what's happening. You and I are both paying $900, on average - our families - in higher premiums because of uncompensated care. Now what I've said is that if you can't afford health insurance, you certainly shouldn't be punished for that.
That's just piling on. If, on the other hand, we're giving tax credits, we've set up an exchange, you are now part of a big pool, we've driven down the costs, we've done everything we can and you actually can afford health insurance, but you've just decided, you know what, I want to take my chances. And then you get hit by a bus and you and I have to pay for the emergency room care, that's ...
STEPHANOPOULOS: That may be, but it's still a tax increase.
OBAMA: No. That's not true, George. The - for us to say that you've got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase. What it's saying is, is that we're not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you anymore than the fact that right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase. People say to themselves, that is a fair way to make sure that if you hit my car, that I'm not covering all the costs.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But it may be fair, it may be good public policy ...
OBAMA: No, but - but, George, you - you can't just make up that language and decide that that's called a tax increase. Any ...
STEPHANOPOULOS: Here's the ...
OBAMA: What - what - if I - if I say that right now your premiums are going to be going up by 5 or 8 or 10 percent next year and you say well, that's not a tax increase; but, on the other hand, if I say that I don't want to have to pay for you not carrying coverage even after I give you tax credits that make it affordable, then ...
STEPHANOPOULOS: I - I don't think I'm making it up. Merriam Webster's Dictionary: Tax - "a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes."
OBAMA: George, the fact that you looked up Merriam's Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you're stretching a little bit right now. Otherwise, you wouldn't have gone to the dictionary to check on the definition. I mean what ...
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, no, but ...
OBAMA: ... what you're saying is ...
STEPHANOPOULOS: I wanted to check for myself. But your critics say it is a tax increase.
OBAMA: My critics say everything is a tax increase. My critics say that I'm taking over every sector of the economy. You know that. Look, we can have a legitimate debate about whether or not we're going to have an individual mandate or not, but ...
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you reject that it's a tax increase?
OBAMA: I absolutely reject that notion.
"What the court did not do on its last day in session, I will do on my first day if elected president of the United States," Romney said. "And that is I will act to repeal ObamaCare."
The Republican presidential candidate, as expected, said he disagrees with the high court's finding. He stressed that the court did not speak to the merits of the policy itself.
"What the court did today was say that ObamaCare does not violate the Constitution. What they did not do was say that ObamaCare is good law or that it's good policy. ObamaCare was bad policy yesterday. It's bad policy today."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
There is a difference. The State can do it, the General Government is not supposed to.
And, I think todays ruling enforced state rights. Chris Christie is a winner today with the veto move he made. Saved tons of money in litigation and set up costs.
Woot!
June 28, 2012, 11:09 a.m.
The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the individual mandate central to President Obama’s health care law carried immediate benefits for Mitt Romney, namely a newly energized Republican electorate and the ability to keep hammering his promise to repeal the law on “Day One.”
“This is the time of choice for the American people,” the presumptive nominee said during an appearance in Washington D.C. on Thursday. “If you don't want the course that President Obama has put us on, if you want instead a course that the Founders envisioned, then join me in this effort. Help us. Help us defeat Obamacare.”
But the Supreme Court’s decision also was a reminder of what Romney’s campaign would like Republican voters to forget — that he too embraced an individual mandate in his efforts to win universal healthcare for his state as governor of Massachusetts. The law that was once considered Romney’s signature achievement is one that he now rarely mentions.
Romney’s healthcare law, which required most state residents to purchase health insurance or pay a fine, engendered distrust among millions of Republican primary voters who viewed the law as the precursor to Obama’s healthcare plan. And Romney’s rejection of the president’s federal effort opened him to charges of flip-flopping from opponents on both sides.
On the eve of Thursday’s decision, the Democratic outside group American Bridge 21st Century dredged up video of Romney from a 2006 press conference speaking favorably of a healthcare mandate.
“With regards to the mandate, the individual responsibility program which I proposed, I was very pleased to see that the compromise from the two houses includes the personal responsibility principle,” Romney said in the 2006 video released by American Bridge. “That is essential for bringing healthcare costs down for everyone and getting everybody the health insurance they deserve and need. So I was very, very pleased with that development.”
On the campaign trail over the past few years, Romney’s emphasis has been dramatically different. He has insisted, as he did Thursday, that Obama’s healthcare law was an overreach of federal power. And he has argued that while states may have the power under their constitutions to care for the uninsured (as his state did), “the federal government should not take over that power,” he has said.
When pressed in interviews, the former Massachusetts Governor has also rejected the notion that his law inspired Obama’s federal law. “People asked me, would you use your RomneyCare and have a federal program just like it? And I said, absolutely not,” Romney told CNN host Piers Morgan last year, “It would violate the Constitution, and states have differences that you have to accommodate.”
At the same time, Romney has refused to disavow the Massachusetts law, noting that it is popular within his state and has helped to insure millions of children.
But those are fine distinctions to make in the heat of a presidential campaign. For that reason, when Romney has talked about healthcare on the campaign trail, his focus is squarely on his criticisms of Obama’s plan, which he described this week as a massive “power grab by federal government.”
Romney’s vow to repeal and replace Obama’s healthcare plan as one of his first acts in office has become one of his most reliable applause lines. But he has offered few details about how he would “replace” that plan as president, though his aides promise that there is still plenty of time to reveal those details in the remaining four months of the race.
Among the few hints about his plans: he has said he would task states with caring for the uninsured and the poor, rather than having the federal government impose “a one size fits all Obamacare-type plan.” But he has offered only the vaguest details about how that would work, stating, for example, that he would distribute the money that “the government normally sends” to states as block grants.
The former Massachusetts governor has come under fire from Democrats for failing to embrace one of the most popular provisions of the president’s plan, which prohibits insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions.
During a question-and-answer session with voters in Ohio in late February, Romney said that he would support a federal law that would prevent insurance companies from dropping patients who become sick, but then offered a different definition of “pre-existing conditions coverage.”
“I want to make sure that at the federal level we have a law that says the insurance company can’t drop you from coverage if someone gets sick in your family or if you get sick,” he told the audience in Ohio. “I also want to make sure that someone who’s been continuously insured and becomes ill, if they change jobs or lose a job can’t be denied coverage. That’s the so-called preexisting coverage provision.”
On Thursday, he did not mention the “continuously insured” requirement of his plan when announcing that as president he would make sure “that those people who have pre-existing conditions know that they will be able to be insured and they will not lose their insurance.” Th Romney campaign said there had been no shift in his policies.
As usual, there was no mention of Romney's own plan in Massachusetts, much less the lessons that he learned from that experience.
Today, the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare. But regardless of what the Court said about the constitutionality of the law, Obamacare is bad medicine, it is bad policy, and when I'm President, the bad news of Obamacare will be over.
It was always a liberal pipedream that a 2,700 page, multi-trillion-dollar Federal Government takeover of our health care system actually could address the very serious problems we face with health care. With Obamacare fully installed, government will reach fully half of the economy - that is the recipe for a struggling economy and declining prosperity.
On Day One, I will work to repeal Obamacare to stop the government's takeover of our health care and intrusion in our lives. I will push for real reform to our health care system that focuses on helping patients and protecting taxpayers.
We cannot afford Barack Obama's on-the-job learning, Big Government proposals, and irresponsible spending. Our basic liberties are at stake - and I will fight to restore our freedoms, renew the respect for our Constitution, and halt the government takeover of health care.
This November it's all on the line. The stakes couldn't be higher.
Donate $10 or more to put a stop to the policies of Barack Obama and the liberal Democrats.
Thanks,
Mitt Romney
:fp:
he forgot to admit that this is the same bill he championed as his own legislative masterpiece while governor.... "i loved it before, but that would make me unelectable, so i hate it now...."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
I can't remember if he also said his health care plan was a model for the nation. I think he did, but not 100% sure.
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
http://www.borowitzreport.com/2012/06/2 ... -ever-had/
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/ ... e_day.html
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
Religious leaders pray over a bible and a copy of the verdict on President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul law …For American businesses, uncertainty over the health care law is anything but over.
When the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare on Thursday-including the individual mandate that forces most Americans to have insurance-it made the issue even more political, promising it ultimately will be decided in the November presidential election.
GOP candidate Mitt Romney vowed again Thursday to repeal the act if elected, while President Obama said he would move forward in implementing it.
That means businesses will have a hard time budgeting for health care costs and are likely to delay hiring even further.
U.S. corporations are sitting on more than $1.2 trillion in cash - $3.5 trillion counting the financial sector - that has not been deployed, in large part due to anxiety over health care, the looming fiscal cliff in Washington, and the European debt crisis.
The Supreme Court decision "increases the likelihood that businesses will continue to hold onto that cash to see how the election turns out," said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Potomac Research Group in Washington, D.C. "If Romney wins, he will overturn the Affordable Care Act within days of his inauguration on Jan. 20. Therefore, the reluctance of businesses to spend and hire will persist at least through the election."
The court decision hinged on the individual mandate, a provision the court upheld so long as it is called a "tax" rather than a "penalty" as the law's wording originally indicated.
"From a political standpoint, this significantly improves the chance that Romney wins in November," said Valliere, who called the decision a "Pyrrhic victory" for Obama. "Congress was too chicken to use the word 'tax' because it has such a pejorative implication for voters...Of course, the Supreme Court doesn't have to run for re-election."
That political advantage may cheer the Romney supporters,but it does little to assuage concerns of business leaders and investors alike who were hoping to get the health care issue resolved.
Obamacare serves as one point in a daunting triad of uncertainty the business climate faces.
There also is the accelerating debt crisis in the euro zone, as well as the fiscal cliff, a term coined by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to describe the automatic spending cuts and tax increases that kick in at the beginning of 2013 if Congress fails to agree to a deficit-reduction plan.
To be sure, the reaction to the decision was mixed, with some saying that the decision, good or bad, at least will allow companies to plan for the future.
"As flawed as it is, it still has taken us some way along the path to reduce some uncertainty," said James Paulsen, chief market strategist at Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis. "To throw it all out would have put us back to square one and, net-net, a loss for the country."
Paulsen added that he was glad that what essentially was a political decision did not get overturned at the judicial level.
But the political considerations are no small part of what happens going forward. Not only will the fate of the law under a Romney administration hang in the balance, but there also remain a number of questions with how the mandate will be implemented.
"The level of uncertainty about the outlook and ultimate cost to business of the health care reform bill remains somewhat," said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities in New York. "It kind of leaves us where we were."
How Key Health Care Stocks Are Doing
Among the questions Resler pointed out will be how the Internal Revenue Service collects the new tax, and how reporting will take place. He compared it to the Dodd-Frank banking reform law, which still has many provisions that are being negotiated.
"Most of the scheduled implementation for that has not been met, and it's not clear that the provisions under the health care law will be met as originally envisioned in the law," Resler said. "There's still some uncertainty, but businesses have some clarity about the rules of the road, so to speak, going forward."
The stock market reacted negatively to the decision, sending major averages and health care stocks in particular down about 1 percent or more across the board, though the market could be more inclined to move onto other concerns in future days.
"Stocks themselves are just going to pretty much crash because of what's happening with Europe and because of the fiscal cliff in the U.S.," said Lee Markowitz, partner at Continental Capital Advisors in New York. "The broader issues are so much bigger than some increase in spending related to health care."
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/businesse ... 33956.html
Believe in America
Woot!
Who Needs Healthcare If The President Has Magic Underwear?
"marriage should be between one man, and as many women as he would like..."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."