We don't need another undercover video to show Mitt's true feelings about personal responsibility. Romney's now famous "victims" speech in front of wealthy campaign donors simply parrots the party line that Republicans have been railing over for years. His comment that "I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives" just mirrors so many of the speeches we heard at the Republican Convention. Isn't it ironic that Governor Romney's signature healthcare legislation did just that? The individual mandate he championed in Massachusetts and is at the heart of the Affordable Care Act does exactly what he said can't be done - it legislates personal responsibility.
Republicans have made it their mantra that they are the party of people that take responsibility for their lives, the party of people that "built that". They've railed against welfare and any other government intrusion that prevents personal responsibility through handouts and giveaways. The secret video capturing Romney's pitch is just another instance of what we've seen for years and years. So does it strike anyone as odd that the party of individual responsibility is so opposed to the Affordable Care Act?
Although many Republicans will always oppose the ACA simply because it was championed by Obama, surely there are independent (and moderate Republican) voters out there that are big fans of personal responsibility and would respond favorably to descriptions of the ACA as the "Accountable Care Act"? The biggest piece of personal responsibility legislation to pass since Bill Clinton's Welfare reform?
And on the topic of Welfare reform, the ACA is also a strong reform piece in its own right. To the Right, what's wrong with welfare is that it corrupts its recipients by giving them something for nothing. Aside from its financial cost, many Republicans are opposed to the concept of Welfare simply because (in their view) it rewards people for doing nothing. But the ACA puts an end to that in the healthcare realm by requiring everyone to have insurance. That ends the "free lunch" that the old way of distributing healthcare used to propagate.
Before the ACA, if you didn't have insurance, you could get care without contributing anything. No one was forced to take responsibility of their health care, but instead were reliant on society to cover them. The fact is that if you don't have insurance, you can get health care from an emergency room when you need it. Basically, anyone without health insurance was on the biggest welfare program in the country, with everyone else subsidizing their lack of personal responsibility. But now, thanks to the Democrats and President Obama, everyone will be required to chip in what they can to help support their health care.
What's really surprising to me, is how absent this discussion is from public discourse. No one ever describes the ACA in the terms of Welfare Reform. No one describes the Individual Mandate as a bulwark for personal responsibility. Truthfully, I never thought about the Individual Mandate in the terms of personal responsibility until I listened to the Republican convention. Maybe it's time we turn their arguments back upon them?
