Romney Says Obama’s Health Care Plan Is the ‘Wrong Direction’
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ABC/ DONNA SVENNEVIK(METAIRIE, La.) — On the second anniversary of the passage of President Obama’s health care plan, Mitt Romney delivered a speech Friday highlighting the “wrong direction” he says the plan takes, dubbing the policy as “one more example” of the president’s “attack on economic and personal liberty.”
“I’d like, instead of having the government come in and mandate price and cost controls, I would like to have individuals have a greater incentive to shop around, and make this act more like a market,” said Romney, who spoke inside a mall just miles from downtown New Orleans on the eve of Louisiana’s primary.
“Obamacare in my opinion is simply the wrong direction,” he said. “Obamacare substitutes government intrusiveness for the dynamics of individual responsibility for individuals being able to pursue different options and for the dynamics of a free market. I believe in the marketplace. I believe in consumers pursuing their own dreams. I believe in individuals being able to make their own choices. And so as I look at this administration I see Obamacare as one more example of a president pursuing his attack on economic and personal liberty.”
Romney noted that the White House has no plans to celebrate the two-year anniversary of the president’s landmark legislation.
“This presidency has been a failure and at the center piece of this failure is this piece of legislation back here, Obamacare,” said Romney, who was surrounded by new signage that read “Repeal & Replace Obamacare.”
“And I say that for many reasons one you’ll note the White House is not celebrating Obamacare today they don’t have any big, big ceremony going on the president not giving speeches on Obamacare and that’s for a reason,” he said. “Most Americans want to get rid of it and we’re among those Americans, I want to get rid of it too.”
Romney used the speech to outline what he would suggest to take the place of Obama’s health care plan, making a veiled dig at his GOP rivals.
“I think I’m the only person in this race who has actually laid out what I would replace it with,” he said.
In addition to his pledge to issue a waiver from Obamacare to all 50 states on his first day in office, Romney spoke about giving states the responsibility of crafting their own health care plans.
Romney also said he wants small businesses and individuals to be able to buy insurance on the same “tax advantage basis and low cost basis” that bigger employers have.
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