Oh, the irony: Obama and Romney, and that infamous mandate

Mitt Romney, who is against the White House's health care act, actually implemented a similar plan in Massachusetts. President Obama pledged not to raise taxes on the middle class, but the Supreme Court has ruled the plan will essentially do just that.

|
Luke Sharrett/Pool/AP
President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012, after the Supreme Court ruled on his health care legislation. Obama, who previously pledged not to raise taxes, is now facing criticisms that his health care plan does just that.

In the previous post I pointed out that Mitt Romney only a few years ago passionately defended the legal mandate to purchase health insurance. Obama on the other hand argued against it.

And of course, since it was upheld because it is a form of taxation, Obama again violates his 2008 election pledge not to raise taxes on families earning less than $250,000.

So now we are going to have a presidential race where the person who previously defended and implemented in Massachussetts a policy will argue for its nation wide repeal while his opponent will defend a policy he argued against until after he was elected.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Oh, the irony: Obama and Romney, and that infamous mandate
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Stefan-Karlsson/2012/0629/Oh-the-irony-Obama-and-Romney-and-that-infamous-mandate
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe