On second thought, Jonah Goldberg really insulted East German robots
when he compared them to Mitt Romney
It was pretty obvious
from the get go what Mitt Romney meant by "I like to fire people," but
this confirms it:
Mitt Romney sought to limit damage Monday from a morning comment about liking to "fire people," which he said was "taken out of context."
Romney, the former head of a private equity firm that sought to turn around troubled companies, said he was only talking about President Obama's healthcare plan and that political opponents were doing what he expected them to do with the remark.
"As you know, I was speaking about insurance companies and the need to be able to make a choice," he told reporters after his tour of the Gilchrist Metal Fabricating factory.
To be fair, it is understandable how somebody could have been confused. Most Americans use the word "people" to describe human beings—but not Mitt Romneybot. Sure, he thinks human beings are people—but corporations are people too, my friend. Insurance companies included, apparently.
Of course, it would be possible to take Romney's words totally out of context and make it sound like he was getting all hot and bothered about pink slipping workers just so he could collect a mint after bankrupting their companies and receiving federal bailouts. But why do that when (a) it's already obvious that's how he built Bain and (b) if you take what he said in its proper context, it's equally ridiculous.
As I noted this morning, Romney can wax poetic about firing insurers all he wants, but unlike his tenure as governor, Mitt Romney the presidential candidate not only would weaken the ability of consumers to choose their insurance provider, he would give insurance companies the power to "fire" unhealthy customers.
How would Romney accomplish this? Simple: by repealing Obamacare. Under Obamacare, every person who purchases health insurance through the individual market will be able to choose whatever provider they want with the confidence that each health care plan will be tightly regulated and won't contain any hidden gotchas. Just as importantly, they'll know that insurers won't be able to deny coverage based on a preexisting condition. Mitt Romney wants to repeal that. Under a Romney administration, insurance companies would be allowed to to deny coverage to anyone they deemed too expensive to cover.
So when Mitt Romney talks about wanting to inject "freedom" into the health insurance marketplace, what he's really talking about is the freedom for health insurance companies to fire unhealthy customers. That would be a massive step backwards for America, and it's one of the many reasons this country will not hire Mitt Romney as president.