Mitt Romney To Obama: 'Press The Pause Button' On Health Care By MICHAEL FALCONE and AMY WALTER
In the wake of yesterday's ruling by a federal judge in Florida declaring the new health care law unconstitutional, potential 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney vigorously defended a similar plan he helped pass as governor of Massachusetts in 2006.
"I'm not apologizing for it, I'm indicating that we went in one direction and there are other possible directions," Romney said in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America" today. "I'd like to see states pursue their own ideas, see which ideas work best." http://abcn.ws/gaG9Y4
Romney conceded that he would probably push for a somewhat different law if he had to do it over again, and offered praise for Judge Roger Vinson of the Northern District of Florida, who ruled yesterday that the individual mandate, which requires individuals to purchase health care by 2014 or pay a penalty, violates the constitution. http://abcn.ws/dOMIyx
"The right thing for the president to do now," Romney advised is to "press the pause button and say, 'You know what, let's hold back on this Obamacare.'"
That's unlikely to happen, according to the White House, which called the ruling an "outlier" and expressed confidence it would be overturned on appeal. Notably, Judge Vinson did not order the government to stop implementing the law.
The law that Romney pushed for in Massachusetts included a similar individual mandate, and it's clear that this is just the beginning of what will be a very awkward set of talking points for Romney heading into the 2012 race. The White House is going to make sure of it.
Obama adviser David Axelrod, who is decamping to Chicago to begin setting up the president's re-election operation, made a point of mentioning Romney's previous health care reform work in an exit interview with USA Today.
Romney "did some interesting things there on health care," Axelrod said. "We got some good ideas from him." http://usat.ly/fb94m9
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