What's The Difference Now, GOP? (with update!)

Prior to last Thursday's Supreme Court ruling, the GOP's main argument as to why ObamaCare is different from RomneyCare was that RomneyCare is constitutional whereas ObamaCare is unconstitutional. Given that the U.S. Supreme Court has declared ObamaCare constitutional, what's the run-of-the-mill Obama-hating Republican supposed to say now?

If GOP Senator Marco Rubio's recent attempt to differentiate the two laws is any indication, the Republicans generally -- and Romney specifically -- are going to have a tough time on this issue. Incredibly, Rubio stated on Thursday (and I'm not making this up):   "[Romney] supported it on the state level, which means if you didn’t like it in Massachusetts, you could move to another state."

If the Republican Party is really going to push ObamaCare as a major issue during the General Election, then it must come up with a better answer than that.  The real difficulty for the GOP, of course, was summed up by Rick Santorum last February when he said with regard to health care:  "The problem is, we have a candidate . . . who is the worst possible person in the field to put up on this most fundamental issue in this campaign, and that is Gov. Romney."

UPDATE: I guess you can place this one in the Holy Shit! category:



Romney and Obama agree! The Individual Mandate is not a tax (starting at 1:26 in video), despite the fact that the entire radical right-wing echo chamber has been screaming for the last several days that it is a tax:

CHUCK TODD (MSNBC): What you just said is that Governor Romney agrees that it's not a tax. But you guys call it a penalty.

ERIC FEHRNSTROM (TOP ROMNEY AIDE): The governor disagreed with the ruling of the court. He agreed with the dissent that was written by Justice Scalia which very clearly stated that the mandate was not a tax.

TODD: So ... I think we're talking around each other. The governor does not believe the mandate is a tax, that's what you're saying?

FEHRNSTROM: The governor believes that what we put in place in Massachusetts was a penalty and he disagrees with the court's ruling that the mandate was a tax.

TODD: But he agrees with the president that it is not, that you shouldn't call the tax penalty a tax, you should call it a penalty or a fee or a fine?

FEHRNSTROM: That's correct.

Let's see how long it takes the Romney Camp to reverse itself on this one.