Will Mitt be undone by RomneyCare?

There is a specter haunting the presidential aspirations of Mitt Romney. It is the specter of defeat occasioned by his unapologetic role in implementing RomneyCare. When the Massachusetts universal health care plan was signed into law in 2006, it was neither a politically contentious issue nor one that many believed would come back to haunt the former Governor. Yet three years later, amidst the tumult created in the post-Scott Brown world, the political landscape has changed dramatically. If the present trajectory of opinion polls reflecting strong opposition to Obamacare remain unchanged, the issue will be front and center during the 2012 Republican presidential primaries and Romney has nowhere to hide.

The compulsory aspect of the 2006 universal plan notwithstanding, Romney can not comfort himself with the assertion that the principal reason for passing the legislation was to contain escalating costs. Health care costs in Massachusetts have not in fact decreased. Premiums have increased dramatically and per capita health care spending in the state is 27%  higher than the national average.

As a preview to the criticism Romney will face on this issue, perhaps the unkindest cut of all came recently from President Obama during an appearance with Matt Lauer on the Today show. While referencing his own health care plan, Obama gleefully noted that, “I mean, a lot of commentators have said this is sort of similar to the bill that Mitt Romney, the Republican governor and now presidential candidate, passed in Massachusetts.”

Romney’s rejoinder on the striking similarity between Obama’s plan and his own? “They’re as different as night and day. There are some words that sound the same, but our plan is based on states solving our issues; his is based on a one-size-fits-all plan.’’ But according to MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, who advised both the Romney and Obama administrations on their health insurance programs, the two plans are nearly identical.

It has been painful to watch the rhetorical contortions in which Romney is forced to engage when questioned about the similarities between the two health care plans. Romney’s preemptive and increasingly desperate defense of the Massachusetts’ program is downright discordant. The fact is there are more similarities than differences between the two health care programs. The verbal gymnastics Romney employs to distinguish the two is unavailing, for at heart, it is a distinction without a difference.

It is hard to see how Romney helps himself with his argument that the plans are substantially different. It is disingenuous and easily susceptible to refutation. Is Romney prepared to argue that while it is impermissible for the federal government to force its citizens to purchase health care they may not want or need on pain of being fined, it’s unobjectionable for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to similarly coerce its residents? Romney doesn’t squarely address the potential constitutional issues at either the state or the federal level, because these issues, for him, may become philosophically insuperable. Conservative Republican primary voters will more likely view Romney’s role as a co-conspirator in the modern welfare state’s continuing assault on its citizens liberties.

Massachusetts’ conservatives may be more lenient towards Romney on this issue as they are acutely aware of the political difficulties presented to Republican Governors in a state whose legislature has for decades been controlled by Democrats. But conservative Republican primary voters in other states will not be so forgiving. And, while Romney is correct that the legislature modified his original plan, this justification will not resonate much beyond the borders of the Bay State.

The first rule of damage control for politicians is that when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. The more strident his defense, the more he attempts to distinguish what essentially is indistinguishable, the deeper Romney keeps digging the hole. Perhaps Romney would be better served by heeding the advice of  Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi, and simply come clean and admit mistakes were made.

Will Mitt be undone by RomneyCare? 2012 is a long way off and anything can happen between now and the Republican presidential primaries. After his pivotal involvement in the Comprehensive Immigration Reform debacle in 2007, many conservatives wrote off John McCain as a viable presidential contender. But, Lazarus-like, he returned from the dead to capture the party’s nomination.

But, unless the national antipathy surrounding Obamacare subsides by 2012, it will be hard to see how Romney can effectively respond as his detractors bestow upon him the unwelcome and unsolicited title as the intellectual father of national universal health care.