Mitt Romney flip flop on immigration, healthcare plan irks Republicans

By NVONews.Com Correspondent,

Washington DC: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s wrong moves and flip-flops on immigration and healthcare have greatly disappointed some of his supporters who are calling for a shake-up of his staff. They are worried that he could bungle Republicans’ chances of ousting Democratic President Barack Obama.

All this happened after his presidential campaign was charting a relatively steady course, though it is also true that he was trailing to Obama even then.

Some of the leaders  are quit upset over the state of affairs in the party. For example, former presidential candidate, Jon Huntsman, announced on Friday that he plans to stay home in protest and not attend this year’s GOP convention.

“I will not be attending this year’s convention, nor any Republican convention in the future, until the party focuses on a bigger, bolder, more confident future for the United States—a future based on problem solving, inclusiveness, and a willingness to address the trust deficit, which is every bit as corrosive as our fiscal and economic deficits,” Huntsman was quoted in Salt Lake Tribune.

Now many of Romney’s supporters are saying that his Boston-based staff was slowly squandering an historic opportunity.

Romney’s decision to take this week off at his lakeside home in New Hampshire prompted some fellow Republicans to say that he had blown a chance to strike a more patriotic theme around July 4 Independence Day holiday.

Last month, he struggled to articulate a detailed response to Obama’s executive order that stopped deportations of thousands of children of illegal immigrants.

Though Obama is the first choice for three-fourths Hispanics Romney still has not come up with an immigration plan that might cut into lead among them without angering conservative base.

Of particular concern to conservatives was Romney’s policy over whether requiring Americans to buy health insurance under Obama’s healthcare plan should be considered a tax, as the Supreme Court ruled last week, or a penalty.

That allowed Republicans to campaign on the notion that the Obama’s plan amounted to a tax increase.

But on Monday last, Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said that Romney believed the Obama healthcare law carried a penalty. He further added that under a similar healthcare plan for Massachusetts that Romney backed as governor, the fee charged to those without coverage was considered a penalty, not a tax.

This put Romney squarely in opposition to the view held by Republican leaders of Congress and many Republican voters. Some of his supporters said that by continuing to discuss the healthcare ruling, Romney’s team was reminding voters of his role in creating the Massachusetts plan and thus diverting the campaign from its focus on jobs and the economy––considered by many as Obama’s weakest point.

But on Wednesday Romney made a somersault when he was quoted as saying: “The Supreme Court has the final word, and their final word is that Obamacare is a tax. So it’s a tax. They decided it was constitutional. So it is a tax, and it’s constitutional.”

Both the supporters and critics within the party are surprised by his lack of clarity over immigration and U-turn on healthcare issue.

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Posted by admin on July 7, 2012. Filed under world. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry