Mitt Romney said Friday that the United States wouldn't have ObamaCare without him — this despite the fact that Romney spent the entire 2012 election pledging to repeal ObamaCare and distancing it from his own universal health care law in Massachusetts. Romney's comment appeared in an obituary for Thomas Stemberg, the founder of Staples who passed away Friday at the age of 66:
Romney said that shortly after he was elected, Mr. Stemberg asked him why he ran for governor. Romney said he told him that he wanted to help people, and Mr. Stemberg replied that if he really wanted to help, he should give everyone access to health care, which Romney said he hadn't really considered before."Without Tom pushing it, I don't think we would have had RomneyCare," Romney said. "Without RomneyCare, I don't think we would have ObamaCare. So, without Tom a lot of people wouldn't have health insurance." [The Boston Globe]
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and the billionaire space raceThe Explainer Tesla CEO and Amazon founder vie for dominance of satellite launch market and could influence Nasa plans to return to Moon
-
Oliver! – triumphant revival with a 'flash of panache'The Week Recommends Matthew Bourne's 'exuberant' production of Lionel Bart's classic musical can consider itself a success
-
Schools' Send crisis: how can it be fixed?Today's Big Question Government urged to reform support for children with special educational needs and disabilities and save councils from bankruptcy
-
California declares bird flu emergencySpeed Read The emergency came hours after the nation's first person with severe bird flu infection was hospitalized
-
Bird flu one mutuation from human threat, study findsSpeed Read A Scripps Research Institute study found one genetic tweak of the virus could enable its spread among people
-
Dark chocolate tied to lower diabetes riskSpeed Read The findings were based on the diets of about 192,000 US adults over 34 years
-
ACA opens 2025 enrollment, enters 2024 raceSpeed Read Mike Johnson promises big changes to the Affordable Care Act if Trump wins the election
-
McDonald's sued over E. coli linked to burgerSpeed Read The outbreak has sickened at least 49 people in 10 states and left one dead
-
Texas dairy worker gets bird flu from infected cowSpeed Read The virus has been spreading among cattle in Texas, Kansas, Michigan and New Mexico
-
Dengue hits the Americas hard and earlySpeed Read Puerto Rico has declared an epidemic as dengue cases surge
-
US bans final type of asbestosSpeed Read Exposure to asbestos causes about 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year
