Mike Huckabee Says Mitt Romney Should Apologize For Massachusetts Health Care Plan

WASHINGTON — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Wednesday that potential White House rival Mitt Romney should offer an apology for the health care overhaul he oversaw as Massachusetts governor.

"I think it's not a killer for him. But he has to say either 'I love it,' 'I hate it,' or, 'Hey I tried it, it didn't work and that's why I would say to you, let's not do it nationally,'" Huckabee said.

"He's got to figure out how he wants to deal with it. It's the 800-pound elephant in the room for him," said Huckabee, who is on tour to promote his latest book, "A Simple Government: Twelve Things We Really Need from Washington (and a Trillion That We Don't)."

Romney's health plan in Massachusetts has many similarities to the national overhaul that President Barack Obama championed, including requiring coverage and fines for those who do not have insurance. Conservatives who are likely to choose the Republicans' presidential nominee loathe Obama's plan and equate it to socialism, while Romney has said that his plan worked for Massachusetts but should not be applied from coast to coast.

In the paperback edition of his book "No Apology: Believe in America," Romney calls the Democrats' plan an unconstitutional power grab that took a one-size-fits-all approach that cannot work. He blames the Massachusetts legislature for altering his plan and the current Democratic governor, Deval Patrick, for poorly implementing it

During his 2008 campaign, Romney said he would have structured the plan differently but said the Massachusetts plan worked because everyone had health coverage.

Huckabee said the only explanation Romney should consider is a complete reversal.

"The position he should take is to say: 'Look, the reason Obamacare won't work is because we've tried it at the state level and we know it won't work,'" Huckabee said, offering an unsolicited script to his fellow former governor.

"'We gave it our best shot and I'm proud we tried it because – in a world where we all agreed something needed to be done – we thought this might be a way to fix the crisis we had in health care. Our experiment did not turn out as we had hoped. It cost more, waiting times were higher, quality of care went down, people were greatly dissatisfied and it ended up having almost the polar opposite effect of what was intended.'"

Huckabee, who is mulling a second White House run, is on a book tour that takes him through Washington and then Iowa and South Carolina, early nominating states. He said he has not yet made a choice whether to run again for president and said it will be months before he reaches a decision.

Romney, too, is weighing a second presidential bid. But questions about his health care overhaul dog him and his potential rivals have not shied from pointing out the similarities to Obama's efforts. Romney is not expected to make a decision to enter the race until after March.

Comments

[jhallnh]

02:37 PM on 03/21/2011

And he still claims to be a christian? The guy's a sickening fraud.

[Greg Petty]

01:16 PM on 03/29/2011

His parents should have used birth control, Huckleberry what a joke

[Allen Reed Jensen]

07:13 PM on 02/25/2011

Romney is not as thin skinned as Sarah Palin. He's not going to immediately show up on Fox and play the victim. I think Huckabee knew this and his call for an apology is ill-founded and meant only to prop himself up. Romney should not apologize as long as a large majority of MA citizens are support his most important piece of legislation. Huckabee is a slimy guy and his political posturing is anything but Christian.

[conservativelady]

01:14 PM on 02/26/2011

I agree with you. I don't agree with Health Care Mandates. I think it is misguided. The reason why health costs are out of control is for a couple of reasons. It has to do with illegals, it has to do with people's lack of character. Some think is is ok to use something just because it is available, even though they don't really need it, like running to the Doctor every time they get the flu. Part of it is because people have become fat and lazy, so they have more health problems. Government can't fix those problems. Many of the illegals fit into all of the catagories I mentioned, which only compounds the problems. Romney shouldn't applogize. He was the Governor of a liberal state, and they wanted that. He gave it to them. Maybe it served a purpose, it showed that some things shouldn't be done. And if Romney was part of that, then I say at least he accomplished something. His heart was in the right place. And he can still be a very effective conservative President. He has the brains and heart for it. He's a strong man too. People misread Romney. Huckabee needs to appologize to Romney for conspriring with McCain to deny Romney the nomination that he could have won were it not for the vindicative behavior of Huckabee.

[marijam]

06:09 PM on 02/25/2011

These Republicans are very entertaining because nobody could meet the criteria for what they want in their next leader, even Reagan wouldn't stand up to all the tests. I'm really surprised, though, that there are so many one-issue Republicans.

[ProgressivesLoveAmerica]

02:38 PM on 02/25/2011

Why should he apologize?

Doesn't it hold up to typical right-wing standards?

Mitt Romney's healthcare plan was devised with the help of the right-wing Heritage Foundation.
Obama based his version of healthcare reform on what Romney did in Massachusetts.


I find both Obama's and Romney's health care plans inadequate to say the least, but most conservatives ought to be happy abou those plans because they do everything Republicans love: give away free hand-outs to sorporations!

[Allen Reed Jensen]

07:25 PM on 02/25/2011

I am a conservative but I agree with you. What did Huckabee do with health care during his 11 years as Arkansas's governor? Nothing. Pawlenty in his 8 years as MN's governor? Zero. Palin in her short 2 years in Alaska? Zip. Romney is the strongest Republican on health care and the economy. Plus if he apologizes, Huckabee and other Mitt-haters would just label him as a flip-flopper.

[Cleverboots]

01:41 PM on 02/25/2011

He,Mike! At least Romney tried to do something constructive for the people of Massachusetts. What did you do for the people of Arkansas?

[Douglas Campbell]

06:42 PM on 02/24/2011

Let's make a list of the things and people Huckabee should apologize for, like the people who were murdered when he early released violent convicts or even more recently when he blamed gays for the "3 billion Dad deficit".
BTW- if someone can explain what a dad deficit is and how gays are to blame, I would appreciate it.

[LibDrummer]

04:54 PM on 02/24/2011

This is why conservatives continue to be such a disaster at leadership. This is what happens when you take the party stance based on what is best for the party not the people. Now he is up against doing the right thing or promoting the GP talking points. Huckabee is a clown. He is not against the health carereform for any other reason except the party has no issues to stand on. They can't run on thier records or thier past, that was a mightmare, so all they have it so attack and deomonize and now they have run up against the truth and it has no place in the GOP.

[pinlin]

04:46 PM on 02/24/2011

huck&mitt sounds like 2 cartoon characters

[sus2222]

04:32 PM on 02/24/2011

Promoting HEALTH INSURANCE is the BEST THING Romney ever did. And they can criticize the Mormons all they want, but Romney has acted in a more MORE CHRISTIAN manor than any of the cutters, liars, and deniers like Huck, Palin, Brewer, Sandoval, Walker, and the rest.

[Fritz1964]

02:28 PM on 02/24/2011

Maybe next time Huck decides to thump his Bible, he should move his head out to the way...

[kenrynne]

01:25 PM on 02/24/2011

Mike Huckabee should apologize to Jesus of Nazareth.

[blanchedub]

01:22 PM on 02/24/2011

Mike Huckabee is the worst kind of "Christian." The no-sharing, no-caring GOP kind!

[Seaworthy1]

01:07 PM on 02/24/2011

And Huck's elephant is the prisoner he pardoned that went to Washington State and shot dead 4 police officers. Way to do your job Huck.

[Donkey Party]

12:42 PM on 02/24/2011

Keep your religion out of my politics, Huckster. If I want a Theocracy, I'll move to Iran.

[Actongue]

12:10 PM on 02/24/2011

Even Conservative CEO's know our health insurance system is broken and favour a Single Payer/Public option system to save them money, so they can have more money to invest back into the company and in human resources.

The problem though is not just with Republicans, it is with Senators like Baucus.

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=3665

Single-payer advocates protest Senate hearing
Chair of Finance Committee takes single-payer plan off the table

Doctors Protest Exclusion of Single-Payer at Senate Finance Committee

Doctors and other advocates of a national single-payer health system – also known as an improved Medicare for All – directly confronted senators at a Senate Finance Committee “roundtable” on health reform today.

One-by-one, eight single-payer advocates in the audience stood up during the opening comments of the hearing and asked why single-payer experts were being excluded from the proceedings

JAY: Perhaps if single-payer advocates had been at the table, they might have pointed out the following. According to the 2009 OECD factbook, the tax on an average worker in Canada is 33.3 percent. In the UK, it's 32.6 percent. In Sweden, it's 50.1 percent, but people there get free university, and a host of other social services to boot

[Actongue]

12:11 PM on 02/24/2011

JOHN CASTELLANI, PRESIDENT, BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE: We want to be in this game, but it is the single biggest cost pressure that we face, day in and day out. It took oil at $150 to even tie it. In an increasingly international marketplace, where we are competing against companies who reside in countries that have a different model—a different tax model, a different health-care cost model—or we're competing against companies that do not provide health care, this cost burden for US corporations, particularly ones who participate in the global marketplace, is really unsustainable.


JAY: Well, you might ask, if a company that comes from a country with a government health plan (that is, a government single-payer plan) has a competitive advantage, then why doesn't the Business Roundtable favor the single-payer government plan? Well, perhaps Mr. Castellini should've informed us that of his 150 member CEOs, 35 are CEOs of HMOs, health insurance, and pharmaceutical companies, all of whom stand the most to lose from a government-run single-payer plan. Well, according to Senator Baucus, the single-payer option is not on the table. Is that because it's not the best plan for the American people? Or is it because of the power of the insurance and pharma industries and the pressure of Cold War rhetoric? Perhaps it would make more sense putting the single-payer plan on the table. But I guess you can always do this instead: