Here is the opening:
During Thursday night's CNN debate -- the final such event before the Florida primary on Tuesday, January 31 -- Rick Santorum attacked Mitt Romney over the individual mandate contained in the health reform legislation passed by Romney as governor of Massachusetts.Rhoads analyzes the real truth behind Romney's disingenuous claims.
Santorum said that Romney's mandate requires individuals to buy an insurance policy "as a condition of breathing." He called it a top-down model that is "no different than Barack Obama’s mandate."
Romney objected to it being called a "top-down model" and contested that the logic behind the individual mandate in Massachusetts is that "if you don't want to buy insurance, then you have to help pay for the cost of the state picking up your bill." He noted that under federal law, hospitals are required to treat certain patients regardless of whether the patients have insurance. Romney then followed with, "... [W]e said, no more, no more free-riders. We are insisting on personal responsibility. Either get the insurance or help pay for your care. And that was the conclusion that we reached."
In particular, Romney employs a faulty concept of "responsibility" to justify government infringements on individual freedoms.
For a proper analysis of genuine personal responsibility in this context, read the full text of "Fact-checking Mitt Romney on the Massachusetts individual mandate".
