Rick Santorum 'Death Panels' Speech: Mitt Romney 'Incapable' Of Making Case Against 'Obamacare'

Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) is down, but not out. After a last-place finish in Saturday's Nevada caucus, the GOP presidential hopeful is upping his attacks against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's health care record.

TPM reports that Santorum appeared before a crowd in Minnesota on Monday, criticizing Romney's role in paving the way for a federal individual mandate.

"I wanted to lay out today the facts as to why this debate on health care is central to our country, central to this race, and specifically why Gov. Romney is absolutely incapable of making the case against Obamacare successfully, and therefore greatly damages our ability to win this election, this very critical election, in 2012," Santorum said.

Santorum also took aim at the inclusion of boards that judge the effectiveness of health treatments: "Someone referred to these types of boards as 'death panels,'" Santorum said, according to TPM.

That "someone" could have been former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Back in September 2009, Palin invoked the same rhetoric, charging that Obama's health care plan could kill her child:

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

At a Jan. 27 Florida GOP debate, Santorum hammered at Romney's role in that system, drawing more attention to his Massachusetts record. The former senator questioned how well Romney's current views would stack up against his state plan history.

Think about what that means going up against Barack Obama. ... You are going to claim [about the Affordable Care Act], well, it doesn't work and we should repeal and he's going to say, wait a minute Governor, you said it works well in Massachusetts. Folks -- we can't give this issue away in this election. It is about fundamental freedom. ... It's going to be on your ballot as to whether there should be a government mandate here in Florida. According to Gov. Romney, that's OK. Those are not the clear contrasts we need if we're going to defeat Barack Obama and a billion dollar debt.

Comments

[MosesDidItBest]

12:27 AM on 02/13/2012

The argument here is based on "death panels" but they're not in Obamacare, they're in how insurance comapnies handle claims and of course the obvious one, the GOP and how they are prefectly willing to let the country fail so they can blame it on Obama and thus according to their thinking, win the white house.

Keep in mind that it was Eric Cantor who held the unemployed and victims of natural disasters hostage to get more money for the already bloated bank accounts of the rich.

Santorum is more of the same, but dumber than the rest.

[MosesDidItBest]

12:16 AM on 02/13/2012

More lies from Rick "the homophobe" Santorum.

There are no death panels. End of story.

[GeneEUss]

08:00 PM on 02/12/2012

Texas has Death Panels

For Real Real....
with the Texas Futily Care Legislation... signed into law by Governor George W. Bush..
ain't that By..tc..H

The Texas Advance Directives Act (1999), also known as the Texas Futile Care Law, describes certain provisions that are now Chapter 166 of the Texas Health & Safety Code. Controversy over these provisions mainly centers on Section 166.046, Subsection (e),1 which allows a health care facility to discontinue life-sustaining treatment ten days after giving written notice if the continuation of life-sustaining treatment is considered futile care by the treating medical team.

[bdelraso]

12:11 PM on 02/12/2012

Santorm is only saying this because Romney's NOW coming backs with these wins and notice Romney pick-up another 11 delegates where Santorum this time pick-up none. So of course Santorom is going make a statement like this - the problem with Santorom is by picking on Romney - voters will notice just like towards Gingrich - showing signs of weakness. Every time a GOP canidate challenges Romney they are actually making Romney look better and better. What Santorom and the rest of the GOP sj=hould be doing is NOT to attack Romney but STRICTLY ATTACK Obama and thats it. Keep helping Romney's population grow with these statements. If they don't change and NOT directly attack Obama - Romney will EASILY win the GOP nomination - without a doubt. For me - I hope Romney does because "Moderate" to me as that Romney is in the same class I'm in.

[DoubleFixed]

05:54 PM on 02/10/2012

Medical Care to Die For

Kaiser Permanente is Rosemary’s HMO baby. President Obama adopted the evil creature, anointed Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, who invented death panel rationing, to be its private tutor, and ordered American taxpayers to pay lifetime child support.

Violations of patients’ rights and protections can mean life and death for vulnerable plain folk’s patients.
Patient advocacy and documented investigations are posted on http://www.hmohardball.com/Death%20Panel%20Birth%20&%20Attachments%201st%20in%20Series%202-14-2011.pdf and http://www.hmohardball.com

[Craig Casey]

12:23 AM on 02/08/2012

Romney is capable of making his case against obamacare. Romney is very eloquent with his double talk. But look at his liberal record, not his well rehearsed speeches

[bdelraso]

12:14 PM on 02/12/2012

Thats very true but don't you think his fellow republicans are going to make sure that the liberal part of him willl hopefully be eliminated in his character. I strongly believe Romney will make this change without no doubt - Romney will listen to his fellow republicans.

[Craig Casey]

01:23 PM on 02/12/2012

Fellow republican­s eliminate the liberal part of Romney's character? What would be left? He is a typical liberal. When did someone that change you? Romneycare increased healthcare cost in Mass by $1 billion and cost them over 18,000 jobs. And just like in Mass, Obamacare will result in rationing: http://www.cobrahealth.com/Obamacare-rationing.html

[tntmcgovern]

01:29 PM on 02/07/2012

Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia stated: I just had a phone call where someone said Sarah Palin’s web site had talked about the House bill having death panels in it where people would be euthanized. How someone could take an end of life directive or a living will as that is nuts. You’re putting the authority in the individual rather than the government. I don’t know how that got so mixed up.

[EmpyPockets]

07:30 PM on 02/07/2012

It's not a mix-up, it's a "spin" in other words a down right lie. It's shameless. And some poor people will believe it.

[tntmcgovern]

12:01 AM on 02/08/2012

Right you are!

[GeneEUss]

07:56 PM on 02/12/2012

The Plan of paying for End Of Life Consultations was Isakson's idea that he had been pushing for For Years..... after the Terri Schiavo debacle........

This was supported by Schiavo and other republicans..
Until Betsey McCaughey started framing it as Death Panels......and Rationing....

She was the woman that came up with the attack lines to derail HillaryCare
Back in the early Nineties...
and she was trying to use her same tactic again......

I just goes to prove
That Republicans are FullOfXhit..... AllOf'Em .... every last one....

[SylvreWolfe]

12:23 PM on 02/07/2012

These people are just downright scary.

[sglahn817]

10:40 AM on 02/07/2012

Insurance companies have run death panels to guide their planning forever. They currently review all patient prescription orders to deduce the health of the patient and then delay and defer approval because the patient will die soon anyway.

[MosesDidItBest]

12:22 AM on 02/13/2012

Insurance companies have actuaries who can within a proscribed parameters fairly accurately predict when someone is going to die based on health, family history along with comparable stats. It's pretty damn accurate.

So when someone says "death panels" think of insurance companies.

They also do this with worker's comp injuries that are catastrophic, because death benefits will always be less than any award, or in hopes there are no surviving spouses or next of kin. It's quite the game insurance comapnies play.

They don't build multimillion dollar buildings because they pay whats due.

[vonric]

10:33 AM on 02/07/2012

Unless I have missed the news coverage, no one has discovered the secret of eternal health, or eternal life. Any responsible adult needs to frame the issues, challenges, choices and personal limits for themselves in a thoughtful and informed way. I'll go so far as to say that anyone past the age of 40 who has not defined an Advanced Directive and a POA (power of attorney) is a fool and risks leaving their loved ones in the lurch in the face of unexpected health "moments". Anyone past the age of 55 who has not dealt with creating an AD and POA document is a blithering twerp. All Obamacare proffers forward is the ability for an individual to sustain those discussions with a physician.

This man is a failed politician from PA whose daughter, with her complex and potentially fatal condition, is covered by a health insurance policy that has to cover her because the dreaded Obamacare forces insurers to NOT review based on prior conditions......

The man needs to match his rhetoric with his personal life....

[IreneNH]

10:30 AM on 02/07/2012

Rick is right about death panels. We have had them for decades. They are more commonly known as insurance companies.

[segdae22]

10:26 AM on 02/07/2012

I would challenge Mr. Santorum to point out exactly what is wrong with the ACA and why the version of enacted into law here in MA a number of years ago has been ineffective. MA has some of the best and most affordable healthcare in the country. So what exactly isn't working Mr. Santorum?

[pfreddie88]

09:46 AM on 02/07/2012

Yeah, quote Sarah Palin. That'll help you.

[OneInEveryFamily]

09:43 AM on 02/07/2012

Rick Santorum purchased healtcare insurance for Bella last year. It was a policy that was required to accept pre-existing conditions for minors.

He must appreciate that the reason that it had to allow the pre-existing condition was because of the healthcare reform law. Why isn't any reporter discussing this with him?

[iquitthegop]

09:40 AM on 02/07/2012

that is a funny pic of scumtorum lols

[Killer1417]

10:05 AM on 02/07/2012

Are there any pictures of him that aren't funny? Some, like this, are just funnier.

[iquitthegop]

10:58 AM on 02/07/2012

amen to that brother lols