Among the less-noticed elements of the wisdom of the Paul Ryan pick by Governor Romney:  it surgically removes Romney’s Achilles’ heel – his advocacy of the individual mandate (IM) device in RomneyCare.  The “Ryan Plan,” Rep. Ryan’s controversial budgetary plan for reform of the US economy, does not involve an IM, and  Romney has not just announced his unequivocal support for the Ryan Plan, he has made its author his running-mate.   So much for the argument that Romney is foreclosed from attacking ObamaCare because his idea of healthcare reform is RomneyCare, which has its own IM and is supposedly virtually identical to ObamaCare.   So much for the need for any further discussion of an IM; a careful reading of the Ryan Plan reveals that there is no IM in the Ryan Plan because none is needed.   Romney can now be correctly seen as an advocate of the Ryan Plan, not an advocate of RomneyCare.

The Ryan pick also helps to explain why the Romney camp wasted little energy in assailing the Supreme Court’s upholding of the constitutional validity of the IM:  Romney had no interest in building his opposition to ObamaCare around the IM issue, because he was much more concerned with ObamaCare’s primary flaw, which is its determination to use governmental controls, rather than free-market forces, to halt he runaway escalation of the costs of healthcare.  The Ryan plan does an admirable job of addressing that flaw and attempting to restore free-market competition to the healthcare industry.

Gov. Romney appears to have been astute in his management of the healthcare issue, all things considered.  When it comes to healthcare, he can now be identified primarily with the Ryan Plan, which, though itself less than a perfect solution (as pointed out in http://www.mecmoss.com/a-quietly-revolutionary-replacement-for-obamacare/ ), is far and away the best thing currently out there.