Romney admits GOP should NOT manage healthcare

For once, I agree with Mitt:

"I don't want the people who ran the Katrina cleanup to manage our health care system."

The GOP was in charge of the Katrina recovery effort. As expected, they did a horrible job: when someone openly claims they don't trust the government to work, it makes little sense to put them in charge of running it.

What's more, Romney said something else equally prescient:

"No more free rides," he said. "Everybody pays what they can afford."

Right. I sure think insurance companies could afford to pay for more "medical losses" (e.g., necessary medical procedures). Let's start with them.

But in all seriousness, props to the Edwards campaign for the rapid response, ripping apart Romney's pathetic excuse for a healthcare fix:

Edwards said in a statement released by his campaign the tax cuts proposed by Romney would primarily benefit the wealthy and the healthy, and that "taking money away from emergency rooms is downright dangerous."

"Mitt Romney's cure is worse than the disease," the former North Carolina senator said.

Every weekend, I work in a blood pressure and diabetes screening clinic. I know what it's like for people not to have insurance: It's downright depressing to see the same poor and sometimes homeless people come to our clinic to get their blood pressure and blood sugars checked. Most of the time they are coming not so much for the blood pressure/sugar measurements, but for the free food or to talk to the attending doctor about some completely unrelated health problem they have. If you can hardly afford your next meal, a tax break isn't going to do squat to get you health insurance.

•  Tips for Mitt!

  by ARingMD2B on Sun Aug 26, 2007 at 09:56:42 PM PDT

•  I agree that

  the GOP shouldn't manage ANYTHING. And I plan to help show Mitty just how little respect Americans have for HIS managerial skills next year when I help him get stomped by Obama/Hillary/Edwards(hopefully) -- it doesn't matter. He's going to be a pile of pretty Mitty toast.

  Who the hell does he thinking is getting a %#^$% "free ride"? I paid skyrocketing premiums to Kaiser for years while I was a freelancer and never even got a checkup after the copays increased to $15 or $20 because I had no money left after paying the premium. The only people getting a 'free ride" are the insurance company executives and yes, I t hink their free ride needs to end.

  God, is this guy a vacuous, amoral clown.

  by anastasia p on Sun Aug 26, 2007 at 10:00:55 PM PDT

•  Well, they say

  even a broken watch is right twice a day, right?  heh.

  by bythesea on Mon Aug 27, 2007 at 12:53:02 AM PDT

•  I'm glad you caught this.

  I noticed this too a few weeks ago when I first heard him say it, and thought, "Um ... Mitt?  The people who ran the Katrina cleanup were REPUBLICANS."  (And wasn't Karl Rove, for a time, the main person heading it?)

  Now if one of those crack journalists from our savvy media would just think to call him on it ...

  by niemann on Mon Aug 27, 2007 at 03:41:11 AM PDT