Romney: Without Romneycare there'd be no ObamaCare, and lots of people would be without insurance

From the very beginning, Mitt Romney's campaign was hit with two main lines of attack. The first was that he was a flip-flopper who'd tried to have it both ways on virtually every issue. The second was that he created RomneyCare - the blueprint for ObamaCare - and seemed pretty pleased with himself for doing so. Sane people everywhere asked "Why would you run a candidate like Romney, who can't mount a successful attack against ObamaCare, when it's your number one campaign issue."

Of course, we all know how things turned out. Romney continued to call for the repeal of the ACA, but failed - badly - to offer any legitimate reason why the healthcare system he'd supported in Massachusetts was such a bad thing for the rest of the country. He took a stab at saying it was a question of constitutionality, arguing that what a state could do was different than what the federal government could do. That may be correct, but it didn’t explain the discrepancy in his opinions about the systems in question. This, maybe more than any other single issue, crystalized Romney's campaign problems and turned off conservative voters. The base didn't show up and the rest was history. Fast forward to last week. Thomas G. Stemberg, cofounder and inventor of the Staples office supply chain, passed away. He was a close friend and confidant of Romney's, and was instrumental in the creation of RomneyCare. As the Boston Globe reports, Romney had nice things to say about his friend, as well as an unexpected line regarding healthcare:

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Romney also credited Mr. Stemberg with persuading him to push for health care reform in Massachusetts when he was governor. Romney recalled that shortly after he was elected, Mr. Stemberg asked him why he ran for governor. Romney said he wanted to help people, and Mr. Stemberg replied that if he really wanted to help, he should give everyone access to health care, which Romney said he hadn’t really considered before. “Without Tom pushing it, I don’t think we would have had Romneycare,” Romney said. “Without Romneycare, I don’t think we would have ObamaCare. So without Tom, a lot of people wouldn’t have health insurance.”

Never mind that RomneyCare was a mess in Massachusetts. It failed to control costs, drove up premiums and emergency room use, all while going way over budget. Yes more people were insured but, just as they are under ObamaCare, the overwhelming majority of gains were completely taxpayer subsidized. In short, it had the same impact in Romney's state as the ACA is having nationwide. So, what's the point? We already knew all of this, and Romney's not running for anything. He's trying to say something nice about a buddy. Why make a big deal about it? ...Because just last month the elite RINOs within the GOP were floating Romney's name as a possible savior for the Republican Party. They think Trump's a monster, Carson's is too quiet, and everyone else is crazy. So rather than listen to the desires of their base, they were praying that Mitt might jump in and rescue everyone. That should tell you two things: A: The party elite has learned nothing from its humiliating 2012 defeat. B: As I've argued before, the top levels of the GOP have never really wanted to repeal ObamaCare. If the man they see as a potential savior is touting its non-existent success, it's pretty clear that many (if not most) of them were in the tank all along. They payed lip service to the ACA's destruction but, in the end, they're perfectly comfortable with exactly the same kinds of federal controls the Democrats desire. Romney's comments just drive the point home.