WASHINGTON — Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who promised early in his campaign to repeal President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, says he would keep several important parts of the overhaul.
"Of course there are a number of things that I like in health care reform that I'm going to put in place," he said in an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." ''One is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage."
Romney also said he would allow young adults to keep their coverage under their parents' health-insurance.
Those provisions have been two of the more popular parts of Obama's Affordable Care Act.
"I say we're going to replace Obamacare. And I'm replacing it with my own plan," Romney said. "And even in Massachusetts when I was governor, our plan there deals with pre-existing conditions and with young people."
In the interview, Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, also said he would offset his proposed tax cuts by closing loopholes for high income taxpayers.
"We're not going to have high-income people pay less of the tax burden than they pay today. That's not what's going to happen," he said.
When pressed, however, Romney declined to provide an example of a loophole he would close.
"I can tell you that people at the high end, high-income taxpayers, are going to have fewer deductions and exemptions. Those numbers are going to come down. Otherwise they'd get a tax break. And I want to make sure people understand, despite what the Democrats said at their convention, I am not reducing taxes on high-income taxpayers," Romney said.
Romney also defended his decision to say nothing about the war in Afghanistan or the U.S. troops serving there during his acceptance speech last month at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla.
He said that he'd been to Afghanistan and the troops "know of my commitment."
"I have some differences on policy with the president. I happen to think those are more important than what word I mention in each speech," he said.
wdgnas posted at 7:19 am on Mon, Sep 10, 2012.
isn't closing loopholes the same as raising taxes? what does saint grover of norquist have to say about that?
soricobob posted at 5:20 am on Mon, Sep 10, 2012.
Mitt does care, he cares what way the wind is blowing, and he goes that way. He, unlike his father, never speaks his mind, but always speaks what he thinks others want to hear.
Fudd posted at 6:55 pm on Sun, Sep 9, 2012.
Test
Dale Whiting posted at 3:55 pm on Sun, Sep 9, 2012.
He ought to like Obamacare. Let's be honest. Obamacare was modelled on Romneycare. And Mitt is a caring person!
REG in AZ posted at 1:39 pm on Sun, Sep 9, 2012.
Something just doesn't seem right. Should there be concern for unbiased political reporting when the media is actually owned and controlled by billionaires and staffed by millionaires? We see complaints reported about an unfair Class Warfare mentality yet Class Neglect and Class Favoritism run rampant and are substantially ignored. We actually have 1% of the population concerned with feeding their insatiable "more" (never enough) appetite while the 99% are constantly loosing and the Republicans are focused on serving just that 1%, while the Democrats are faulted for being concerned for the 99% ... something is definitely wrong with that. We know that the 1% is spending mega-millions, literally amounting to billions, to aggressively con the people and deceptively manipulate public opinion but does their influence and power subtly reach all the way to the general media? It just seems that it wouldn't hurt for the 99% to be more cynical in scrutinizing what is reported and to apply common sense judgement before accepting what is offered. It likely would really serve people well to just recognize the biases and motivations before believing the words. There aren't any saints out there.