To Business Groups' Chagrin, Healthcare Measure Passes

Bostonist hates to beat an uninsured horse, but big news is big news: The state House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed Speaker Sal DiMasi's proposal to provide healthcare to practically everyone, mostly by taxing businesses. Business groups had initially complained that the proposal imposed an unfair double-tax on certain companies with highly paid employees. Not surprisingly, the correction of this problem didn't change their minds. Bostonist will be interested to see how the Governor, who has joined in saying that this healthcare plan will hurt the state's economy, will phrase his criticism so as not to damn his own record. The Globe quotes Plymouth Republican Vinny deMacedo as saying that the Commonwealth's "job growth is anemic, and the business community is struggling." But Romney, who has touted himself as a businessy-managery-no-nonsense-capitalist type of guy, probably doesn't want to say that his governorship is a failure on the economic front, given that his Republican would-be backers for the presidency already think he's blown it on the moral front.