Make Up Your Mind GOP

Posted on July 2, 2012 at 3:00 pm by JM Ashby

Is the individual mandate a tax or a penalty?

According to the Mitt Romney of 2008 the Obama campaign, it’s a penalty for free-loaders who can afford to buy health insurance but choose not to.

According to the Republicans, it’s the “largest tax in history.” At least that was the story until Eric “Etch a Sketch” Ferhnstrom strayed off message today during at interview on MSNBC.

TODD: The governor does not believe the mandate is a tax? That is what you’re saying?

FEHRNSTROM: The governor believes what we put in place in Massachusetts was a penalty and he disagrees with the Court’s ruling that it is not 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. But the president also needs to be held accountable for his contradictory statements. He has described it variously as a penalty and as a tax. He needs to reconcile those two very different statements.

So it’s not the “largest tax in history?” It’s not a tax at all? It’s a penalty?

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has scheduled a vote for July 11th to repeal the “tax.” Are you saying they’re wrong?

Let’s consult Mitt Romney himself. Here he is in 2008.

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GIBSON: ”Governor … you imposed tax penalties in Massachusetts?”

ROMNEY: ”Yes, we said, look, if people can afford to buy it, either buy the insurance or pay your own way; don’t be free-riders.”

Eric Fehrnstrom offers the caveat that President Obama should be held accountable for making what he claims are contradictory statements, but if that’s the case, Mister Romney should also be held accountable.

The Obama campaign is offering the same rhetoric to defend Obamacare that Romney once employed to defend Romneycare. Or as Ben Cohen put it, he’s using Karl Rove’s own strategy against him.

Unfortunately for Romney, such rhetoric is no longer an option. He can’t agree with the president. Proposing the opposite of whatever President Obama does is the entire premise of his campaign, for Pete’s sake.

(tweet via LGF)

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  • Victor_the_Crab

    As long as we’re calling a spade a spade, Eric Cantor, why don’t we call you and your GOP collegues American traitors as well as vile, evil, despiciable forms of sub-human life.

    • Lazarus Durden

      I love the code speak the GOP employs. The racial dog whistle just went off again.

  • astrocat96

    I wonder how long the GOP can survive with the basis of their whole platform being “Fuck that Obama guy.” Surely they can’t expect to maintain support without expanding their platform somewhat.

    • http://drangedinaz.wordpress.com/ IrishGrrrl

      Unfortunately they can because that message appeals to a lot of Americans. This weekend while waiting on line at IHOP I overheard to middle aged white guys talking politics and one asks the other, “who are you going to vote for?”, the other guy replies “Anyone but Obama…a dog would be better than Obama”. S0 yeah, large swaths of this nation have that kind of mindset. So if that asswipe votes for Romney he will at least be voting for someone who lies like a dog.

      • astrocat96

        Sure it will work for this election cycle, but how much longer can they hope to capitalize on anti-Democrat sentiment? Their inability to participate in keeping the government functioning seems self-defeating. Without some evidence to show they can do more than obstruct, the GOP will eventually lose their support.

        • nathkatun7

          “…but how much longer can they hope to capitalize on anti-Democrat sentiment?”

          In my humble opinion, the GOP venom is not at all about being “anti Democrat.” The venom is 100% about being anti-Obama.

      • ranger11

        Nice guys. Somebody should have poured syrup on his head.

        • http://mdblanche.myopenid.com/ mdblanche

          No, it’s best to leave that tactic to the people who invented it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/samella.williams Samella Williams

    Video: Mitt Romney explains why health insurance mandate is necessary

    http://www.americablog.com/2012/07/video-mitt-romney-explains-why-health.html via @AMERICAblog

  • D_C_Wilson

    They’ve made up their minds:

    Everything Obama does is wrong, even when he agrees with them.

    If I were Obama, I’d start issuing statements like the following:

    I like puppies.

    Mothers are great

    Breathing is good for you.

  • Lazarus Durden

    You know just on an observational note the GOP messaging machine is in a sad state of affairs. Man what the hell happened to them? They used to be on it. I mean everyone was lock step, on message, BAM-BAM-BAM without fail. Now they’re frankly… well like Democrats.

    Then there’s B-rock. Setting the pace, controlling the tempo, on message, even in the face of not having a liberal news network to back him. (And if any of you trolls think MSNBC or Huffington Post is even close to being on par as Fox News is to the GOP I’ve got a bridge to sell you.)

    Trust me I love it. I think it’s great because the GOP’s screw up is the Democrats gain, and man we need all the help with can get especially with the stakes being as high as they are. Still it’s kind of like watching someone who was once a master of their craft stumbling around in a drunken stupor oblivious to the fact they’re nothing more then a has-been now.

  • http://mdblanche.myopenid.com/ mdblanche

    But if the mandate is a tax, that means Romney raised taxes as governor of Massachusetts. Eric Fehrnstrom can’t very well imply that now, can he? It’s “every man for himself” time for the GOP messaging machine.

    • nathkatun7

      I am still puzzled at how the GOP/Romney messaging machine will sell Romney’s opposition to Obama Cares when it’s so similar to Massachusetts’s Romney care. How does Romney sell the idea that the health care reform he instituted as governor was great for the people of Massachusetts, but a national healthcare reform, similar to the one he instituted in MA, is not good for the people in the other 49 States? Does Romney and the GOP think that the people in MA are superior to the people in the rest of the other 49 states? Or do they think that the people in MA were dumb and gullible to accept a reform that deprived them of their God given freedom and taxed them to death? I suppose they will do it by bamboozling people about freedom and taxes, so as to distract them from learning about the Romney care that Willard “Mitt” Romney instituted as Governor of Massachusetts. If they do manage to sell this then I say shame on all the people who are gullible enough to buy into the BS.

      Mitt Romney knows better about the importance of health care reform and the similarity between what he did in MA and what President Obama is doing on the national level. But he is so afraid of the dominant right wing faction in the GOP. He wants to be President so bad that he is willing to sell his soul. Sadly, the media, which should be in the business of educating people, and thus exposing the disconnect between Romney as Governor and Romney as Presidential candidate, have abrogated their responsibility because they too are afraid of the right wing noise machine.