Emails from Mitt Romney’s time as governor of Massachusetts show that Romney was involved with the details of passing the state’s health care law, including being a strong supporter of the individual mandate, reports the Wall Street Journal. When Romney left office, his aides removed emails from the office’s computer servers and also purchased 17 state-owned computers, but some small amount of electronic communications remained, including a small cache of emails obtained by the Journal.
Romney helped draft op-eds in support of the law and the individual mandate, the emails show. In one op-ed, Romney used an argument that the Obama administration uses to defend the federal mandate: that taxpayers foot the bill for the uninsured.
“Either the individual pays or the taxpayers pay. A free ride on government is not libertarian,” the published op-ed stated. In a line that didn’t make the edited version, Mr. Romney added: “An uninsured libertarian might counter that he could refuse the free care, but under law, that is impossible—and inhumane.”
