By Meghan Schiller, Contributing Writer

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s speech yesterday on health care has given some 2012 GOP hopefuls plenty of material to sink their teeth into.

Former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) is the latest presidential hopeful to comment on Romney’s health care initiative saying, “Both Romneycare and Obamacare infringe upon individual freedom and exponentially increase the government’s health care cost burden.”

Santorum suggests that “Romneycare” has not improved the state of health care in Massachusetts, but rather done just the opposite.

“We need leaders who believe in the American people again, not the power of government to solve our problems,” said Santorum in his recent press release.

The speech, given yesterday afternoon to a small group of invited reporters and guests at the University of Michigan, was not an apology for Romney’s political mishaps but rather a commitment to honesty.

“A lot of pundits around the nation are saying that I should just stand up and say that this whole thing was a mistake, it was just a boneheaded idea…and I presume that a lot of folks would conclude that if i did that it would be good for me politically, but there’s one problem with that- it wouldn’t be honest,” said Romney.

Romney’s approach differed significantly from the way that Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, another 2012 hopeful, spoke about his past political mishaps. During a last week debate in Greenville, SC, Pawlenty spoke of his poorly received cap and trade legislation saying, “It was wrong, it was a mistake, and I’m sorry.”

It had been suggested that Romney’s camp might take a lesson from Pawlenty, but instead Romney light-heartily responded to the audience’s murmurs, saying that his new plan is virtually the same and not “adjusted for political sentiment.”

Santorum suggested that more than simple ‘adjustments’ are necessary, saying that the so-called lack of success of Romeny’s health care policy was “not a failure of execution, but a lack of foresight on Government Romney’s part to understand the implications of his policy proposals.”

Romney hopes that his essentially identical health care policy will evoke change and improve the quality of the current health care system. Unlike ObamaCare, his plan aims to empower the individual by focusing on federal regulation as opposed to making overly broad reforms.

“[ObamaCare] discriminates on a tax basis against individual and small businesses. Mine provides for tax fairness. His includes overly broad pre-existing condition rules and mine has I think fair and reasonable pre-existing elements,” says Romney.

Still, some are disappointed his blatant hatred for Obamacare. Following his speech, someone questioned Romney saying, “What’s to prevent states from a ‘race to the bottom,’ where they cut their costs by slashing spending on health care?”

A critic from USA Today suggests he “needs to get out more” saying, “Romney had no good answer beyond a vague assertion that Americans are a ‘generous people’ who would not deny health coverage to their fellow citizens.”