By endorsing his rival Mitt Romney in the Republican primary, Tim Pawlenty has just given a de facto endorsement to President Obama’s health care legislation.
One of the ongoing stories during Pawlenty’s short-lived presidential run was his on again, off again, attempt to attack Romney over his Massachusetts health care plan. He famously dubbed the approach to health care as “Obamneycare.”
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In his final debate appearance, in the Fox News/Examiner event in Ames, Pawlenty finally settled on the strategy of attack.
“Yeah, Mitt, look, Obamacare was patterned after Mitt’s plan in Massachusetts,” Pawlenty said. “And for Mitt or anyone else to say that there aren’t substantial similarities or they’re not essentially the same plan, it just isn’t credible. So that’s why I called it Obamneycare, and I think that’s a fair label, and I’m happy to call it that again tonight.”
That was an accurate statement. Both plans: force individuals to purchase government approved insurance policies, expand Medicaid, and provide subsidies for individuals to purchase government designed coverage on government-run insurance exchanges. As I’ve written before, Romney’s attempts to differentiate the two don’t hold up to scrutiny. But at least he has tried to come up with phony arguments to separate the two. Pawlenty has said they’re “essentially the same plan” and is still endorsing Romney.
So whatever Pawlenty thinks he’ll gain by endorsing Romney, the one thing he’s lost is any credibility on health care. You simply cannot agrue with a straight face that Obama’s health care plan is a disastrous government takeover of health care, and cite it as a reason why he needs to be defeated, and then turn around and endorse Romney, who is responsible for the law that you’ve said Obamacare was “patterned after.”
