Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry has found a fresh area for attack of campaign front-runner Mitt Romney — slamming the former governor’s healthcare plan for Massachusetts and his once held view that he backed a national mandate for private insurance.
In a new video ad focusing on the healthcare plan Romney implemented in Massachusetts, a script on the screen proclaims: "Even the richest man . . . can't buy back his past."
The Perry ad notes that Romney's "Romneycare" plan included an individual mandate — forcing every citizen in Massachusetts to buy private healthcare insurance.
Obamacare makes the same requirement.
But Romney has stated he would repeal Obamacare because it should be up to the states to make such laws.
The Perry ad reveals, however, that Romney has flip-flopped on this issue, previously calling for a national individual mandate -- the key tenet of Obamacare. In both his own book and during an appearance on 'Meet the Press' with Tim Russert, Romney insisted all U.S. citizens should be required to get health insurance.
Romney has changed positions on numerous issues since he left the Massachusetts governorship, including once backing abortion and gay rights.
Also, Perry has frequently focused on his own hardscrabble upbringing during the campaign and the ad seems to be the Texas governor’s first explicit slap at Romney’s wealth.
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