Political Hotsheet
By

Stephanie Condon /

CBS News/ April 12, 2012, 10:45 AM

Obama team celebrates anniversary of Romney's health care law

Six years after Mitt Romney signed into law a signature health care reform package in Massachusetts, it's his chief political rival, Barack Obama, who's celebrating.

President Obama's re-election team on Thursday released a three-minute web video marking the sixth anniversary of the law that's now known as "Romneycare," reminding voters that the signature effort in Massachusetts helped inspire Mr. Obama's landmark legislation.

The video features health care reform experts who helped shaped both "Romneycare" and "Obamacare," and it has the awkward effect of seemingly reminding voters that they may not like what Mr. Obama did-- but if that's the case, Romney should get some of the blame.

"Massachusetts health reform was going to be Mitt Romney's central accomplishment that he would use on the national stage running for president," John McDonough, who helped shape both the Romney and Obama plans, says in the video.

Most Americans want to get rid of at least parts of the federal law, according to the latest CBS News/ New York Times poll, and during last month's Supreme Court hearings on the law, the issue proved to be as divisive as ever.

But perhaps more importantly for the Obama team, the similarities between the Massachusetts law and the federal law -- and Romney's staunch opposition to "Obamacare" -- help the president's re-election campaign cast Romney as a partisan with no principles.

"It was to President Obama's credit he that said, yeah to borrow some ideas from the right, but look, here's something that really worked," health reform consultant Jonathan Gruber, who advised both Romney and Mr. Obama, says in the video. "Then all of a sudden, Mitt Romney started attacking basically what he'd done. Here's a guy who came up with this brilliant idea, made it work in Massachusetts, then suddenly because it was from another party it was a bad idea."

Romney has said during the Republican primary that he would repeal Mr. Obama's reforms if he became president. In spite of his past remarks that the Massachusetts law could serve as a national model, his campaign maintains that the reforms are wrong for the country.

"President Obama was wrong to impose a one-size-fits-all plan for the nation on healthcare," Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul said in response to the video released today. "Obamacare is bad policy and it's bad law. What is important is that states should be free to pursue their own solutions, and we look forward to celebrating the day Obamacare is overturned and that power is returned to the states."

Heart of health care law in focus in high court
Poll: 1 in 4 want Supreme Court to uphold health care law
Special Section: Health Care

© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
51 Comments Add a Comment
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Whiteowlstwo says:
We live in Massachusetts, are self-employed, have first hand experience with Democrat Deval Patrick's version of RomneyCare (Obamacare).

Check the facts. Most people living in Massachusetts are receiving subsidies from taxpayers to pay for their healthcare. (I have read as much as 67%). That is why they like it. They don't pay for it.

My husband and I do NOT receive subsidies from the government. For our family of four, we pay almost $30,000 per year for our mandated healthcare in Massachusetts. This is for an average family plan from Blue Cross, including yearly deductibles, prescription deductibles, all co-pays, etc. My daughter attending school and working in New York is not covered to see a physician under our plan but must come back to Massachusetts to do this. She can go to an emergency room and a pharmacy in New York. To avoid emergency room visits, we have often paid out of pocket for her to see a doctor. $30,000 per year.

Our costs for healthcare under the Massachusetts Democrats' version of RomneyCare (Obamacare) just keep going up. This is crazy. Will everyone except the superwealthy have to receive subsidies in order to pay for mandated healthcare insurance? Can only the poor and superwealthy have healthcare (and affordabe college education) in our country?
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reelman1946 says:
Gas up 100.6%.
Food Stamps up 35.1%.
Jobless up 146.2%.
People in poverty up 9.5%
Jobless blacks up 25.4%
National debt up 34.4%

debt grows, 16% U6 jobless..and OzBama rammed thru socialized medicine and exempted himself, the admins and fed drones...why? Why does such a wonderful bill exempt them? (Hint: the pain of socialism is for us...not them)

Obama is toast...only because socialism is always so painful it cannot be hidden...
the pain is personal...gas/food/housing/jobless...IMHO he cannot steal enough votes
or tell enough bold lies to cover reality...no matter how many days he smiles and tries...
even a billion dollars cannot change the data.
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smirk5 replies:
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Bush rammed us into an iceberg. The ship didn't sink. But, don't cry because the ship still has a bunch of water that needs to be removed.
smirk5 replies:
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jgg00010,
When Bush left the economy was taking on water big time. Of course, it continued to take on water. But, the amount of water is decreasing. It always takes longer to clean up a mess than it takes to make it. Are we losing 750,000 jobs a month like we were when Bush had just left? Is the stock market in total free-fall? Is the domestic auto industry about to disappear in the U.S.? Things are better than they were when Obama inherited the economic free-fall Bush left him.
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smirk5 says:
Romney supported the Wyden-Bennet version of healthcare as a model for the country in 2009. It included a federal individual mandate.
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kevjustice says:
obama did not invent obamacare a.k.a. romneycare. mitt invented it. obama just copied it from mitt. funny stuff! lol!
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hypnotoad72 says:
It's either chess...

Or two sides of the same coin.

If there's a third possibility that isn't linked to those two primary possibilities, I'm all ears.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/aroy/2011/10/11/how-mitt-romneys-health-care-experts-helped-design-obamacare/

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/05/romney-slams-president-obamas-health-care-law/

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57403492-503544/on-2-year-mark-romney-goes-all-out-against-obamas-health-care-law/?tag=contentMain;contentBody
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zebra62 says:
There is are major differences between a healthcare law and Obamacare, which is loaded with taxes, rules on education loans and significantly increases the controls on the people by federal government. You also have to recognize the fact that the Affordable Healthcare Act, a la Obama, includes numerous blanks to be filled in only by the Secretary of HHS and/or the Insurance Commissioner, another czar. Blind liberals can claim they are the same; but, if they would read the masterpiece of government control, they would see it is a dangerous open-ended law that costs too much, is aimed to increase the fed's control on our lives and is only in a small portion, a healthcare benefit act. Don' be BLIND. Read it.
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hypnotoad72 replies:
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Good. That means Romney is just as much pro-tax, pro-pork, pro-irrelevant-additions-into-the-bill, and everything else.

See my links before, one of which comes from the NON-Liberal source known as "Forbes", so you may stop spreading your manure about "blind liberals" as well...
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elbamba says:
Why didn't Obama celebrate the one year anniversary of the Affordable Healthcare Act? Because it is unpopular and Obama,as an encumbant, is afraid to run on his record. Even Bush ran on his record for re-election. Obama is acting like a sissy. Man up to your crappy policies.
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Rafterman11 replies:
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Its only unpopular with the far right wing and only because Obama proposed it.
hypnotoad72 replies:
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Rafterman11 -

Bingo.

Had Romney done it, they would love it.

Granted, as I've pointed out in the past, Romney is indeed responsible, but it's Obama's signature because he is the current figurehead in charge.
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politicalcomments says:
I'm republican and of coarse I celebrate Romney care. It increases state rights & decreases federal government control over our lives. I'm glad to see Obama is starting to see it Romney's way.
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hypnotoad72 replies:
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And states' budgets are already strained...

BTW: Since when was Obama not seeing things Romney's way? Have you not paid attention since 2009, when he had already brought in people who were not left-of-center?

Including Judd Gregg? But if you haven't paid attention and I posted and cited numerous references, would you be bothered to look?
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RandallRichard says:
The big excuse of the republicans who came up with the mandate is now that it is ok for states but not for the Federal government. This is totally bogus. The Heritage Foundation originally came up with the plan as a National alternative to Hillary care. There is video of Jim Demint calling for Romneycare as a model for the nation. Romney supported it as a model for the nation last time he ran. Chuck Grassely who is now vehement in his opposition to the mandate is on record saying it is good idea and the he thinks most republicans would support it. The level of republican hypocrisy on this issue is sky high.
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mr_kim_b says:
The video would be right on the money IF RomneyCare wasn't a disaster. ObamaCare is many times the disaster RomneyCare is and counting. ObamaCare is the "foot in the door" to Marxism.
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Robert_G_Ingersoll replies:
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@mr_kim_b

From what you say, regardless of who wins the election, our President will be a Marxist...
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