Romney assures conservatives: Obamacare repeal starts on day one

Matt K. Lewis Senior Contributor
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News that Mitt Romney had tapped former Utah Governor and HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt to be the point man of what Politico described as a “government-in-waiting” worried at least one conservative opinion leader Sunday.

Ben Domenech, a think tank policy fellow, and co-founder of RedState.com, unleashed a torrent of Tweets, noting that Romney had “chosen as his transition leader one of the handful of Republicans who supports Obamacare’s central expansion.” (Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that, Leavitt “strenuously backed the core piece of President Barack Obama’s health-care law and urged the states to move forward together in adopting health insurance exchanges.”)

The worry, of course, is that this selection perhaps says something about Romney’s commitment to overturning ObamaCare.

But Team Romney was quick to dismiss those worries. Reached for comment, Romney spokesman Lenny Alcivar said: “Unlike President Obama, voters can rest assured that a Romney Administration will put America back on track. That starts with repealing Obamacare, starting Day One. Make no mistake, the only person who will make policy decisions under a Romney Administration is Mitt Romney.”

Matt K. Lewis