RNC gift bag book touts health care mandates 'for everyone in the country'

A gift bag being handed out to delegates at this year's Republican National Convention in Tampa contains a little something the party thought it had sent down the memory hole a long time ago: Mitt Romney's argument that Obama-style health care mandates would work "for everyone in the country."

It's a passage that Romney had edited out of his book "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness," which RNC-goers are being given this year. Problem is, the RNC is handing out Romney's original text, from back when he actually wasn't apologizing for what he once considered to be his greatest accomplishment as Massachusetts governor.

The slip-up was first spotted by Washington Examiner writer Philip Klein, who noted that page 177 of the candidate's book says, "We can accomplish the same thing [universal health care] for everyone in the country, and it can be done without letting government take over health care." The edited version claims Romney's health care mandate "was done without government taking over health care."

Romney has since backed away from his prior stance on health care, saying that "certain aspects" of the Massachusetts system may work for America at large but insisting that most matters pertaining to health care should be up to individual states. He's also described the Affordable Care Act as "a government takeover" of the health care industry, even though the revised version of "No Apology" insists that Romney's mandate was not.

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Photo: Shutterstock.com / Maria Dryfhout