Mitt Romney's "Gifts" - He Offered Them Too!

Mitt Romney has been awfully silent since his crushing defeat on November 6th.  After his concession speech Romney slinked from the public eye but he resurfaced this week when a call Romney made to his millionaire donors became public in which Romney addressed his loss and as to why he was defeated by the president, and his statements are without controversy, especially when considering previous statements he made claiming 47 percent of the population where leaches on society, his subsequent doubling down of that statement, and then his later reversal on the matter.  It appears Romney's latest comments are yet another reversal.

Here is what Romney most recently said:

“With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest, was a big gift…Free contraceptives were very big with young college-aged women. And then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents’ plan, and that was a big gift to young people. They turned out in large numbers, a larger share in this election even than in 2008 … You can imagine for somebody making $25,000 or $30,000 or $35,000 a year, being told you’re now going to get free health care, particularly if you don’t have it, getting free health care worth, what, $10,000 per family, in perpetuity, I mean, this is huge … Likewise with Hispanic voters, free health care was a big plus. But in addition with regards to Hispanic voters, the amnesty for children of illegals, the so-called Dream Act kids, was a huge plus for that voting group.”

So Romney blames these "gifts" - low interest rates on student loans, free contraceptives, retaining health insurance on your parents plan until the age of 26, and amnesty for the children of illegal immigrants - for his loss earlier this month but the funny thing about Romney's gripe is that he at one point or another in his campaign supported these "gifts."

During the campaign, Romney came out in support of the administration's loan forgiveness policy of maintaining low interest rates for student loans.

“I fully support the effort to extend the low interest rate on student loans," Romney said.  "There was some concern that that would expire halfway through the year, and I support extending the temporary relief on interest rates for students as a result of – as a result of student loans, obviously – in part because of the extraordinarily poor conditions in the job market.”

In regards to contraception, Mitt Romney stated during the presidential debates that "every woman in America should have access to contraceptives."

“I don’t believe that bureaucrats in Washington should tell someone whether they can use contraceptives or not, and I don’t believe employers should tell someone whether they can have contraceptive care or not,” he said.

This was in regards to the health care reform act originally requiring employers to provide in their insurance for employees contraception coverage.  Romney's debate response was just another reversal of a previous policy position he had held - when the administration reached a compromise exempting religious organizations (but not their affiliated institutions) from the requirement, Romney said he found it "extraordinary" that the administration can force a church to act contrary to their conscience and that it was "an assault on religious conviction."

For young adults staying on their parent's health insurance policy, Romney voiced support for that as well.

“I’m not getting rid of all of health care reform,” Romney said. “Of course, there are a number of things that I like in health care reform that I'm going to put in place.”

He also continued to “assure that the marketplace allows for individuals to have policies that cover their—their family up to whatever age they might like.”

And as for the deportation of young immigrants, Romney supported that too.  During the campaign Romney stated that he would honor the decision of the administration to grant temporary deportation exemptions.

"The people who have received the special visa that the president has put in place, which is a two-year visa, should expect that the visa would continue to be valid,” Romney stated.

So essentially, these "gifts" Romney blamed for his loss were all things that he also promised.  The problem is that people didn't believe Mitt Romney when he said he would do these things if he were to get in office.  Maybe that had something to do with the fact that with all these positions Romney attempted to stand on both sides of the issue.  It would seem that any future candidate would take Mitt Romney's campaign and learn from its mistakes, much like Romney should have from the John Kerry campaign of 2004, in which Kerry made the much-lampooned statement that he was for something before he was against it.