It's Not A Mandate, It's A Tax Incentive

Romney supporters get a new chance to slice the salami following the re-emergence of a Romney editorial in USA Today presenting his vision of ntional health care reform.  The offending passage:

The cost issue

Our experience also demonstrates that getting every citizen insured doesn’t have to break the bank. First, we established incentives for those who were uninsured to buy insurance. Using tax penalties, as we did, or tax credits, as others have proposed, encourages “free riders” to take responsibility for themselves rather than pass their medical costs on to others. This doesn’t cost the government a single dollar. 

It doesn't cost the government a single dollar!  Well, not unless it discourages hiring, for example.

Romney exhorted Obama to be patient and bipartisan, so one might argue that most of his advice was ignored.

Or one might argue that Romney favored a "tax incentive", not a mandate (Botox should helphere in keeping a straight face).  Is the Obama mandate a tax?  Team Obama is on both sides of that.

[I digress - using the tax code for social engineering and to promote the social goals of the left has run into a bit of a roadblock.  Taxes on bad behavior, such as smoking, are problematic because they disproportionately impact the poor.  Similarly, an undoubtedly controversial "fat tax" on people who are obese would hit the poor harder, for two reasons - first, they have less money, but secondly, obesity is correlated with low income.  A tax penalty for not buying insurance that won't be applied to the poor or middle class is hardly going to be effective, unless someone thinks we have a national crisis of uninsured one-percenters.]

AllahP has lots more on the evolution of our frontrunner.

Comments

[Jack is Back!]

Cross post: Man bites Dog

Happy Birthday Jane.

[Rick Ballard]

Governor Romney's positions on any matter are constantly [r]evolving towards the harmonic balance of the Goldilocks optimum. Those lacking the credentials to perform detailed harmonic analysis on relatively high speed evolutionary political systems should refrain from commenting.

[Rick Ballard]

Governor Romney's positions on any matter are constantly [r]evolving towards the harmonic balance of the Goldilocks optimum. Those lacking the credentials to perform detailed harmonic analysis on relatively high speed evolutionary political systems should refrain from commenting.

[rse]

So I am reading a book that's about 15 years old back from the last attempt at national ed reform under Clinton. I see 3 names and 2 are familiar and one is not. My favorite use for a smartphone is to identify unknown person, see where they are at, and what they are currently involved with.

So it pulls up this board she serves on with ... Van Jones!!

On the loss of freedom discussion from the previous thread, get Hayek's The Constitution of Liberty. He saw us at great risk 50 years ago and explained what would be lost and why it matters so much.

[Gmax]

If you read nothing else, this paragraph in the Forbes Op Ed is devastating:

The results of the latest, most advanced data collection also suggest that CO2 is not responsible for the modest global warming of the late 20th century. The UN models agree with established science that if human greenhouse gas emissions were causing global warming, there should be a hot spot of higher temperatures in the troposphere above the tropics, where collected concentrations would have the greatest effect, and the warming would show up first. This is known in the literature on climate science as “the fingerprint” for man caused global warming. But data from global weather satellites and more comprehensive weather balloons show no hotspot, and no fingerprint, which means no serious global warming due to human greenhouse gas emissions. QED.

Quod Erant Demostranum "as has been demonstrated" if my latin is correct.

[narciso]

'It's a food topping and a floor wax'

[Gmax]

What is the difference between an Edsel and a Chevy Volt?

The answer is on your next pay stub...

[MarkO]

Yum. That's good bass.

[Chubby]

I wonder why almost every man and his dog is endorsing him. The Ted Nugent endorsement surprised me, I thought he'd lean more Newt.

[Gmax]

If anyone likes good instrumental jazz, here is something I can never get enough of:

http://mp3.baseofmp3.com/files/1-44190733/5070/28900585/8429ec5a035f/baseofmp3.com_John_Klemmer_-_Pure_Love.mp3

[Chubby]

Jane, I hope you have a big, delicious, gooey frosted birthday cake with thick frosting and gobs of ice cream on the side. That's what birthday's are really all about, you know.

[Jane]

I'LL settle for a whoopee pie, Chubby. In honor of my birthday, my laptop died, so I can't post Janet's Bill Whittle linkj, but remember, it's not Obama, it's not the left, it's not Alinsky. It's the media. That's the lesson from Breitbart.

[Porchlight]

Here is the Bill Whittle video, Jane:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95-C8uPez50&feature=player_embedded

[glasater]

Happy Birthday, Jane!

Just remember, women are like fine wine and only get better with age:-)

I will be celebrating your b-day by going to precinct caucuses. Our Tea Party is really flogging us to attend.

[Jane]

You go Glasater! That's the best present I could ask for.

[AliceH]

I wish someone could explain MO's system to me. We had a non-binding primary vote in Feb, and we'll have a non-binding caucus in March which will designate delegates to make their non-deciding votes at the Convention. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel engaged prior to the General Election.

[AliceH]

Oh - we'll have a real primary in August for everything but President. Does that sound right? I must have this wrong.