MA health insurance bill: Shit meets fan in Boston Globe.

The Democrats lined up behind Governor Mitt Romney on the stage of Faneuil Hall last week should have negotiated a modeling fee. Imagine the residuals the fawning extras might have reaped from Romney's inevitable campaign reproductions of the sham signing ceremony of the bogus ''universal" health insurance bill.

Too late. The hapless Democrats, apparently mesmerized by rave reviews of the legislation in the clueless national press, got punked.

Don't sympathize with House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi when he whines that the ''disingenuous" Republican governor never told him he intended to veto the part of the bill requiring larger employers to provide health insurance or pay $295 per employee for the state to help provide it. Romney not only told DiMasi, he told anyone who could read. He laid out his objections in a Wall Street Journal piece published a full day before key Massachusetts Democrats, including the state's senior senator, inexplicably chose to pose for that GOP campaign ad...

...The Democrat-dominated Legislature is likely to override Romney's vetoes, but the photo op in Faneuil Hall made clear that Democrats in Massachusetts have lost all of their political instincts. Romney snowed a lot of guys who should know better. The image of a smiling Senator Edward M. Kennedy sharing the ''watershed" moment with Romney evoked memories of Kennedy posing in 2002 with President Bush for the signing of the ''historic" No Child Left Behind Act, the education reform measure that still has not been fully funded.

Here we go again.

...The Republican governor snatched nearly all the credit for addressing a classic Democratic issue -- increasing access to health insurance.

Bay State Democrats turned up as grinning props for a Romney bill-signing extravaganza at Faneuil Hall. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the great liberal lion, stood declawed and smiling behind Romney. Senate President Robert E. Travaglini and House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi played guffawing supporting roles in Romney's campaign commercial.

Right on cue, the national press is falling in love -- and Massachusetts Democrats are falling in line...

...For Romney, the fallout from the healthcare package doesn't get any better than this: Today, he basks in applause and headlines. Tomorrow's funding headaches are the next governor's problem....

...Romney shouldn't be demonized, but his role in this legislation deserves to be demythified. His big idea -- the personal mandate -- is about punishing people who don't have health insurance. Democrats, especially DiMasi, pushed for expanded access for the poorest citizens and demanded that business accept some moral and financial responsibility for employee health insurance...

Am I the only person who sees the real problem with the $295 annual per-employee assessment on businesses that will not provide health insurance? Governor Romney said that businesses should not be penalized for their failure to provide for their employees, and, of course, business leaders agree with him.

I contend not only that businesses should be required to pay their fair share, but that the $295 fee is too low. I am fortunate to work for a company that provides a good health plan, but my share of the premium amounts to more than $1,800 a year to cover myself and my wife.

Assuming that my employer's share of the premium cost is roughly equivalent to mine, I foresee that a smart businessperson with an eye on the bottom line would conclude that it would be much cheaper to pay the $295 and let the employees fend for themselves.

I'm surprised that I have to point this out.

ALAN MUIR
Waltham

If there is any doubt that Democrats are experiencing a full-blown identity crisis in Massachusetts, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly confirmed it during his interview with reporters from The Globe and New England Cable News network. Asked to identify his political role models, Reilly, a candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination this year, named former governors Michael S. Dukakis, William F. Weld, and A. Paul Cellucci. For the would-be standard-bearer of a flat-footed state Democratic Party, I suppose one out of three is not bad.