Romney has peaked. It's all downhill from here

[Anonymous]

Poor mitt, he has been hoping that the Supreme Court was going to take issues off of his plate. They have bounced him on Immigration, and now on Health Care. Eventually the public is going to demand that he say what he is doing on these, and for that matter they are going to want more on the economy than "I ran Bain Capital".

He doesn't want to answer these questions. He has been hoping to attack Obama without proposing anything. That plan isn't going to get him to the end of the contest.

[Anonymous]

He was never going to win anyway

[Anonymous]

Romney: Obamacare is bad policy! An individual mandate to purchase health insurance should never be imposed on the people. At least by the federal government, I mean. If it's a state, well that's something different and admirable for the person who enacted it, amiright?! Who's with me?

[Anonymous]

Oh guys, don't get over confident!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh guys, don't get over confident!

Let us enjoy our day. Back to life, back to reality tomorrow.

It will be interesting to see which way this pushes Obama and Romney in the polls, though. Although it's surely only a temporary blip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh guys, don't get over confident!

Let us enjoy our day. Back to life, back to reality tomorrow.

It will be interesting to see which way this pushes Obama and Romney in the polls, though. Although it's surely only a temporary blip.

Nothing big is going to happen in the polls until Romney is forced to say what he will do about all of the issues that have been teed up:

economy
health care reform
gay marriage
immigration
middle east/foreign policy
the budget stalemate

That's what Obama has been doing for the last three months and he hasn't taken that much of a hit. Now can anyone say what Romney plans to do, other than repeal and replace with an unspecified plan to be decided after the election? He can't get through debate season like this. Once he puts forth is own plans, his numbers sink. How do we know this? If he thought his policy would win votes, he would be out talking about it right now.

[Anonymous]

Thankfully he doesn't have to tee up any issues (he isn't the sitting president). Any Rs who were a bit uncertain of Romney -- like me, will be running to the polls in Nov. to deal with Obamacare.

Thank you Justice Roberts! I can't help but think he knew exactly what he was doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thankfully he doesn't have to tee up any issues (he isn't the sitting president). Any Rs who were a bit uncertain of Romney -- like me, will be running to the polls in Nov. to deal with Obamacare.

Thank you Justice Roberts! I can't help but think he knew exactly what he was doing.

Don't discount how much this has reenergized the left.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Thankfully he doesn't have to tee up any issues (he isn't the sitting president). Any Rs who were a bit uncertain of Romney -- like me, will be running to the polls in Nov. to deal with Obamacare.

Thank you Justice Roberts! I can't help but think he knew exactly what he was doing.

Obamacare is here for the long run. Let's say Romney gets elected (not likely, but play along). He won't be a dictator. On his first day in office he can submit a bill to Congress to repeal Obamacare. There is a chance that the House will actually be Democratic at that point, but more likely will be Republican-led and will pass it. But, even under the rosiest Republican scenario, the Senate will be pretty evenly split. Senate Dems will filibuster any repeal. So, it will never happen.

There has been talk that the reconciliation process would be used to get passage with only 51 votes in the Senate which would be possible if the Republicans captures the Senate. However, my understanding of reconciliation suggests that first a resolution would have to be passed allowing reconciliation to be used. Senate Dems could presumably filibuster that. Also, reconciliation can't be used for measures that will increase the deficit, which repeal of Obamacare would do. So, the upshot is that Obamacare is here, get used to it.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thankfully he doesn't have to tee up any issues (he isn't the sitting president). Any Rs who were a bit uncertain of Romney -- like me, will be running to the polls in Nov. to deal with Obamacare.

Thank you Justice Roberts! I can't help but think he knew exactly what he was doing.

Obamacare is here for the long run. Let's say Romney gets elected (not likely, but play along). He won't be a dictator. On his first day in office he can submit a bill to Congress to repeal Obamacare. There is a chance that the House will actually be Democratic at that point, but more likely will be Republican-led and will pass it. But, even under the rosiest Republican scenario, the Senate will be pretty evenly split. Senate Dems will filibuster any repeal. So, it will never happen.

There has been talk that the reconciliation process would be used to get passage with only 51 votes in the Senate which would be possible if the Republicans captures the Senate. However, my understanding of reconciliation suggests that first a resolution would have to be passed allowing reconciliation to be used. Senate Dems could presumably filibuster that. Also, reconciliation can't be used for measures that will increase the deficit, which repeal of Obamacare would do. So, the upshot is that Obamacare is here, get used to it.

I wouldn't be so sure. It would be pretty easy to have Obamacare scored accurately -- recall that the D's intentionally delayed effect of the measure to push some costs outside the 10-year CBO scoring window to create the appearance of deficit reduction -- and, POOF!, the repeal shows a decrease in the deficit. What is good for the goose, is good for the gander, after all. The D's gamed the system to get it passed, the R's can game the system to get it repealed -- if they have the votes. If the R's win big, repeal won't be a problem; if they don't, Obamacare isn't going anywhere. 2012 is for all the marbles.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
I wouldn't be so sure. It would be pretty easy to have Obamacare scored accurately -- recall that the D's intentionally delayed effect of the measure to push some costs outside the 10-year CBO scoring window to create the appearance of deficit reduction -- and, POOF!, the repeal shows a decrease in the deficit. What is good for the goose, is good for the gander, after all. The D's gamed the system to get it passed, the R's can game the system to get it repealed -- if they have the votes. If the R's win big, repeal won't be a problem; if they don't, Obamacare isn't going anywhere. 2012 is for all the marbles.

Think about what you are saying. You are saying that the law was written in such a way to get a good CBO score. The Republicans can't repeal a law that is written to get a different score. They have to repeal the existing law.

On top of all of this, the insurance companies are going to like having people required to become their customers. They need to have the mandate/tax. So, the Republicans would face lobbying from them. I expect that all of this is going to sink in shortly and Obamacare will disappear as a campaign issue in most cases. It will be trotted out in specific cases in which the Tea Party needs to be hoodwinked.

[Anonymous]

Romney can just dismantle implementation and stop enforcing tax law like Obama doesn't enforce immigration.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Romney can just dismantle implementation and stop enforcing tax law like Obama doesn't enforce immigration.

How is that going to work? The exchanges will be set up by states. He can't stop appropriations of funds. If he just stops administering the program there will be chaos. Even Romney acknowledges that the law can't be stopped through executive order. He has said that he would issue and executive order giving all states waivers in order to gain time to pass a law through Congress. But, some states are likely to not take a waiver and continue implementation.

Plus, you all are putting a lot of faith in Candidate Etch-a-sketch who actually implemented nearly the same law when he was governor. Are you sure he is not talking you all for a ride?

[Anonymous]

You just allow states who don't want to set up exchanges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thankfully he doesn't have to tee up any issues (he isn't the sitting president). Any Rs who were a bit uncertain of Romney -- like me, will be running to the polls in Nov. to deal with Obamacare.

Thank you Justice Roberts! I can't help but think he knew exactly what he was doing.

Always seeing the sunny side, aren't you. Everything is a victory.

Let's face it, you were always running to the polls. And since you have insurance, this bill does not change anything about your policy, except that preventive care is free and you can cover your kids when they are just out of college, on your plan. How horrible for you.