Tag Archives: Social Conservative

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Rick Santorum destroys Mitt Romney on RomneyCare in CNN debate

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Is Rick Santorum right to criticize Romneycare as being essential a state-level version of Obamacare?

Reason magazine explains the similarities between Obamacare and Romneycare.

Excerpt:

ObamaCare, which includes a health insurance mandate, is a near carbon copy of RomneyCare: a hefty Medicaid expansion coupled to equally large middle-class insurance subsidies, new regulations that all but turn health insurance into a public utility, and an individual mandate to buy a private insurance plan. Indeed, the same Obama administration that Romney accused of being fundamentally anti-American has on multiple occasions explicitly cited the plan that Romney signed into law as the direct model for their plan.

Romney’s only real contrast between his plan and the president’s plan boiled down to a single, simple distinction: Obama’s overhaul was a federal overhaul; Romney’s was state-based. Romney would have us believe that the same system of mandates and regulations that constitutes an unconscionable imposition on individual liberty at the federal level is somehow a natural and great part of the American way of life at the state level.

Is Rick Santorum right about the number of “free riders” who choose to pay a fine and get free health care? Of course.

As The Wall Street Journal pointed out this morning:

Uncompensated hospital care [in Massachusetts] rose 5% from 2008 to 2009, and 15% from 2009 to 2010, hitting $475 million (though the state only paid out $405 million). “Avoidable” use of emergency rooms—that is, for routine care like a sore throat—increased 9% between 2004 and 2008.

Romney also decried ObamaCare for failing to lower health costs. He’s right. But the overbudget RomneyCare doesn’t either: Indeed, its designers have explicitly admitted that the state’s plan was to increase coverage first and hope to figure out how to control spending sometime later.

National Review cites a Boston Herald article to explain what RomneyCare did to Massachusetts:

For Mitt Romney, who’s been campaigning on his ability to create jobs, this study from the conservative Beacon Hill Institute can’t be welcome. From the Boston Herald:

The Beacon Hill Institute study found that, on average, Romneycare:

  •  cost the Bay State 18,313 jobs;
  •  drove up total health insurance costs in Massachusetts by $4.311 billion;
  •  slowed the growth of disposable income per person by $376; and
  •  reduced investment in Massachusetts by $25.06 million.

Here’s another must-see clip from my friend Tim:

And another one I found for Jeremy:

Here’s the full transcript of the debate.

Mitt Romney

Rick Santorum

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Does Mitt Romney’s Romneycare health care plan fund abortion with taxpayer dollars?

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Fred Thompson made the point about Romneycare and abortion during the 2008 campaign, and Politifact agreed with Fred’s charge against Romney.

Excerpt:

Fred Thompson’s campaign is trying to take the much-touted health insurance program that Mitt Romney helped create as governor of Massachusetts and turn it into a liability with conservative Republican voters who dominate the party’s primary elections.

The Thompson campaign, which has been playing up the former U.S. senator’s antiabortion stances, sent out this e-mail in November 2007:

“So what sort of services does Romney’s health care plan provide? Per the state Web site: $50 co-pay for abortions.

“While court mandate requires Massachusetts to cover ‘medically necessary’ abortions in state-subsidized health plans, Mitt Romney’s plan covers ALL abortions — no restrictions.”

And it’s true.

One of the crowning moments of Mitt Romney’s tenure as governor of Massachusetts was the creation of Commonwealth Care, a state-run, state-subsidized health insurance program for people making up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level. Although private insurers provide the coverage, the state helps pay the bills and determines what services must be covered.

That list includes abortion. And the co-pay is indeed $50.

Romney has recently sought to distance himself from some details of the plan, but he has touted it in debates and interviews as a model for the nation.

“I love it. It’s a fabulous program,” Romney said during a May 3, 2007, Republican debate in Simi Valley, Calif. “Now I know there’s some people who wonder about it. Sen. Kennedy at the signing of the bill, we were all there together, he said, ‘You know, if you’ve got Mitt Romney and Ted Kennedy agreeing to the same bill, that means one thing — one of us didn’t read it.’

[…]Although Romney shares responsiblity with the state legislature and the program’s board, Commonwealth Care was his pet project, and he takes credit for it. We find Thompson’s claims true.

Those are the facts. Romney may say he is pro-life, but he doesn’t have the record of pro-life activism of Rick Santorum, or even the good pro-life voting record of Newt Gingrich.

Many more details of Romneycare and abortion here.

Watch Mitt Romney explain his views on abortion and stem cell research in his own words.

News

Why Christians and social conservatives should vote for Rick Santorum

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Mary sent me this article from Life Site News.

Excerpt:

GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum has taken the Obama administration to task for its role in eroding traditional views on sexuality to make way for a more pluralistic view.

During a campaign event in Muscatine, Iowa last month, Santorum took on a questioner challenging his marriage views by expounding on the benefits of a traditional household for children and society, and blasting the “hate” branding used by gay rights leaders and media against marriage defenders.

Santorum said that he learned radio conservative pundit Bill Bennett’s wife, who runs an abstinence program called Best Friends, had been pressured by the Obama administration not to use the word “abstinence” or uphold the traditional family as better than other lifestyles.

“The Obama administration has said to them, they can’t use the word abstinence anymore. They can’t use it, because of course that is a cultural artifact of a bygone era, and therefore you can’t promote that,” said Santorum. “You can’t promote traditional marriage, because it’s one of a variety of different lifestyles, and it’s no better or worse than any other lifestyle, which is simply not the case.”

“I love it when the left says, quit trying to impose your morality on us,” he continued. “What’s that? that’s their morality, and they’re now imposing it on us.

“The idea that this is a morality that may not be based in faith does not make it more legitimate than one that may be based in part in faith. But in their eyes, it is different. They want to drive faith and moral conclusions that come from faith out of the public square of the public law, and replace it with their values.”

In a recent discussion with Dr. James Dobson, Bennett had said that his wife Elayne had been told by the Obama administration that they “strongly prefer that she not use the word ‘abstinence’” in her program, which received public funds.

Santorum went on to defend marriage as a fruitful union uniquely suited to raising children that society is best served by defending, and blamed its erosion beginning with the no-fault divorce movement of the 1960s and 70s.

“We have seven children, and I can tell you that my wife brings a very different thing to our children’s growth and development than I do, because we’re different. It’s not just we’re different because we’re different people, we’re different because we’re husband and wife, male and female, and there are different attributes and qualities that go with that. Yes, true: the way God made us.

“So what we need is a society that promotes that. … other relationships are important in society: my relationship with my aunt, my relationship with my friends … but they don’t have the unique benefit that men and women bonding together for the purposes of marrying, having, and raising children and nurturing them to be successful citizens of our country. That’s why we should focus and promote marriage as something that is a good.”

He also took a moment to criticize those who were poised to label his position or statements “hateful” because he defended marriage, something he said doesn’t mesh with the values America promotes.

“Everybody’s trying to impose their values. … Come into the public square make your case as to why same-sex marriage should be the law of the land. I have no prob with that at all. Make the argument,” he said. “But accept the fact that other people who disagree with you don’t hate people who disagree with them, they just happen to believe that marriage is a good that should be preserved.”

I think there really is only one social conservative activist left in the Republican Primary. Rick Santorum. He knows how to debate social issues well enough to spot the self-refuting rhetoric of the “tolerant” left. The left wants to impose their moral relativism on society, and Rich Santorum will fight them. If you are sick and tired of being labeled as hateful because you think that traditional marriage is best for children, then vote for someone who can make the case for you.

The Christian Post says that social conservative stalwart Gary Bauer has endorsed Rick Santorum.

Excerpt:

Social conservative leader Gary Bauer endorsed Rick Santorum at a campaign event in South Carolina on Saturday.

In a Sunday press release, Bauer said, “the main ‘pillars’ of Senator Santorum’s governing philosophy – smaller, constitutionally-based government, lower taxes, a strong and confident American role in the world to keep our nation safe, a commitment to defending America’s families and defending the sanctity of life – is exactly the blueprint to put America back on the right track.”

Bauer was previously president of the Family Research Council and helped build that organization into the top advocacy organization and think tank representing social conservatives. Bauer also served in the Department ofEducation under President Ronald Reagan. Currently, he heads Campaign for Working Families and American Values.

Here is Rick Santorum’s speech at the Right to Life convention in 2011.

Part 1:

Part 2:

If you are a pure social conservative, there here is the candidate ranking for you:

  1. Rick Santorum
  2. Newt Gingrich
  3. Rick Perry
  4. Ron Paul
  5. John Huntsman
  6. Mitt Romney

Santorum is the best, and Gingrich has a good voting record. Perry would be OK, but he can’t persuade anyone in a debate. The rest are all social liberals. Mitt Romney would be the absolute worst candidate on social issues. And that’s why the Republican establishment and the news media are pushing him as the nominee.

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