[I]n a 2007 interview with Glenn Beck, Romney called the fact that people without insurance were able to get "free care" in emergency rooms "a form of socialism." "When they show up at the hospital, they get care. They get free care paid for by you and me. If that's not a form of socialism, I don't know what is," he said at the time. "So my plan did something quite different. It said, you know what? If people can afford to buy insurance ... or if they can pay their own way, then they either buy that insurance or pay their own way, but they no longer look to government to hand out free care. And that, in my opinion, is ultimate conservativism."

Pelley: Does the government have a responsibility to provide health care to the 50 million Americans who don't have it today? Romney: Well, we do provide care for people who don't have insurance, people-- we-- if someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care. And different states have different ways of providing for that care. Pelley: That's the most expensive way to do it. [...] Romney: Different, again, different states have different ways of doing that. Some provide that care through clinics. Some provide the care through emergency rooms. In my state, we found a solution that worked for my state. But I wouldn't take what we did in Massachusetts and say to Texas, "You've got to take the Massachusetts model."

Mitt Romney, 2007 Mitt Romney, Sunday night on 60 Minutes Does Romney know better? Of course he does. He knows sending people to the emergency room and hit-or-miss free clinics isn't a system. That's why Romneycare exists. That's why he was defending his plan in terms Glenn Beck would understand—calling having emergency room care as the last resort for millions "socialism."

Now it's apparently an adequate health care system for every state except Massachusetts. Wanker.

Double wanker, if that's possible.





@AdamSerwer via web In his book, Mitt referred to realization ER care raised costs as "an epiphany." How do you forget an epiphany? http://t.co/...

He's running for President, for Pete's sake. You can't expect him to remember every little epiphany.