Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Democrats should boycott health bill signing

By

The idea of Ted Kennedy, Sal DiMasi, and Robert Travaglini, among others, standing behind “Governor” Mitt Romney as he signs the health care bill at Faneuil Hall makes me positively ill.  And it should make them ill as well.  Romney has already spit in their faces once by publishing an op-ed yesterday – on the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, no less – promising to veto the modest fee the bill imposes on non-participating employers, and apparently taking a dig at the Medicaid expansion as well, without so much as a heads-up to the Democrats who actually wrote this bill.  Why on God’s green earth would these Democrats return the favor by saying, in effect, “please sir, may I have another?”

Everyone knows why Romney is doing what he’s doing.  Don’t let him get away with it.  Boycott the signing ceremony.  Have a nice big celebration on the day you override his veto – that will be the day that this bill really goes into effect, not today.

JUST DON’T GO.

UPDATE: Check out today’s outstanding editorial in the Herald.  Money quote:

The fact is, of course, that civic leaders like Peter Meade of Blue Cross and Jack Connors, chairman of the Partners board, had a helluva lot more to do with passage of the health-care bill by breaking the legislative logjam than Romney ever did. But since neither is running for office they haven’t scheduled any press interviews on the subject….

And [Newsweek’s Jonathan] Alter notes Romney has “been skillful at negotiating cultural issues like gay marriage and stem-cell research.”  If by “negotiating” Alter means managing to come up with the most intellectually untenable posture on stem-cell research imaginable (he favors using leftover embryos from in-vitro clinics, but not therapeutic cloning) and on gay marriage favoring first a constitutional amendment that paired a ban on gay marriage with approval of civil unions and then opposing that to favor an outright ban – well, then he’s a damned good “negotiator.”

And as for negotiating with the Legislature on issues like stem-cell research, well, the Democratic leadership has pretty much ignored him, doing what they please.

Read the rest.  They really nail it.  The Globe has an editorial on the same subject, but it’s much less fun to read – it just says that Romney shouldn’t do what he is obviously going to do.

Please share widely!
fb-share-icon
Tweet
0

Comments

  2. <

    p>
    From State House News.

    <

    p>

    ROMNEY SIGNS LANDMARK HEALTH BILL: Massachusetts much ballyhooed plan to expand heath care coverage became law Wednesday. The state’s Democratic leaders looked on as GOP Gov. Mitt Romney signed the bill in Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall.  “Massachusetts once again is taking a giant leap forward,” said Romney, who singled out many Democrats for helping to put the landmark bill together.  “Our actions have finally matched our words and we have lived up to our ideals,” added Sen. Edward Kennedy at one of the state’s most memorable and extravagant bill-signing ceremonies in memory. The bill requires those who can afford insurance to purchase it and attempts to enable insurers to offer lower cost health plans. 

    WHAT’S NEXT WITH HEALTH CARE? | Today’s bill-signing felt like the end of something big.  But it’s the start of something even bigger, implementation of a law designed to extend insurance to more than 500,000 individuals, or 95 percent of the uninsured, over three years and under a new governor who will take office in January.  In addition to massive startup costs, the activity will commence with legislative overrides of sections of the bill vetoed by Gov. Mitt Romney, including a $295 per worker fee on most employers who fail to offer coverage to workers. That levy, Romney said, is “not necessary to implement or finance health care reform.”  Insurers must now develop and roll out new affordable coverage alternatives.  Individuals without insurance must start looking at their options.  And not unimportantly, the whole plan also needs federal approval. House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi said he expected the Legislature would “override all of his vetoes.”

Archives