ROMNEY: Sometimes You Do Roll Out New Products In August

Conservatives were mildly impressed with Mitt Romney's 8/24 health care plan unveiling. Matt at Race4'08 likes the promotion of Medicaid innovation and liability reform, but also highlights Romney's claim that "this can be done without the need for new spending or taxes." Romney skeptic Soren Dayton finds the plan "reasonable" but argues that Romney is playing 'hide the ball' with the money since: "The fact is, to pay for the health care of the sick and the poor, you need revenue. Romney achieved that through a private sector mandate (with a serious solution, which I do not think that I disagree with, in the end). The other option is tax revenue."

Romney's plan also found fans at The Corner. John Hood blogs: "While there were some promising aspects of the plan the former governor shepherded through the Massachusetts legislature a couple of years ago, it contained far too many mandates and regulations. Now, Romney is pitching a national approach to the issue that relies on deregulation, tax reform, and innovative technologies and treatments."

Yuval Levin adds: "These are crucially important reforms that speak to the concerns of middle class families while enabling more effective assistance to the uninsured, and the kind of Federalism Romney now has in mind (which is much like what Giuliani has proposed, and what the Bush Administration has pursued) would make it easier to do that elsewhere. It's a lot smarter than trying for a national version of the Massachusetts plan. But it means that in some crucial ways the president actually has less, not more, power over health care than a governor. And that is as it should be."