Mitt Romney’s invocation of birtherism on Friday took his campaign to a new level of involvement with the bogus idea that President Obama is actually Kenyan-born and therefore ineligible to serve as Commander-in-Chief. But that dog-whistle theory has already been embraced by many major Republicans with whom Romney has long been happy to consort.

Indeed, as Republicans head down to Tampa for their convention next week, they are preparing to see a veritable festival of politicians who have dabbled in — or fully embraced — birtherism.

Here are the members of the birther bunch who will be speaking in Tampa next week:

1. Donald Trump. The famed billionaire/birther king Donald Trump has been the most vociferous — and most closely connected to Romney — person alleging that the President wasn’t born in the United States.

2. Actress Janine Turner. The Northern Exposure star who has her own conservative radio show wrote a long screed titled “Reasoning ‘Kenyan Born.’” In it, she complains that anyone who questions the president’s citizenship is deemed a racist: “If this were a legal case in court, [Obama's] book bio stating that Obama was ‘born in Kenya’ would be taken into consideration.”

3. Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens. During a town hall captured on video (at 3:5), Olens said, “You know the state of Hawaii says he’s produced a certified birth certificate… so on one hand I have to trust the state of Hawaii follows the laws. On the other hand it would be nice for the President to say, here it is, I have a copy.”

4. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. On one radio appearance during Huckabee’s bid for president, the former governor said, “I would love to know more [about where Obama was born]. What I know is troubling enough.” He later walked back the statement.

5. Florida Gov. Rick Scott. In 2010, the Orlando Sentinel reported than an audience member at one of Scott’s campaign events asked “what he would do about President Obama’s ‘birth certificate’ and whether he could legally appear on the 2012 ballot in Florida.” Scott responded, “I’ll have to look into it.”

6. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA). The Vice-Chairman of the House Republican Conference once told reporters “Oh, I’d like to see the documents.”

7. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Jindal was willing to sign a “birther” bill into law. It would have required all presidential candidates to release their birth certificate in order to qualify for a spot on the state’s ballot.

Massachusetts Citizens for Life announced Thursday it plans to back Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) in his reelection bid against Elizabeth Warren. Brown has been attempting to portray himself as pro-choice to win over moderate Massachusetts after the “legitimate rape” comments by Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) drew attention to his party’s extreme anti-abortion positions.

But Anne Fox, president of the Massachusetts Citizens for Life, told the Boston Globe:

We consider him a senator who votes pro-life. We have to take his word for it when he says he is pro-choice. But what we’re looking for is someone who votes prolife, and he does.

Indeed, Brown has co-sponsored bills curtailing womens’ right to choose, including the Women’s Right To Know Act, which would require women to wait 24 hours and review pictures and information detailing the development of their fetus, and the infamous Blunt Amendment, which would strip women of any health coverage an employer or insurer opposed on moral grounds. Massachusetts Citizens for Life also backed Brown in his 2010 campaign, and as a senator he has sided with the National Right to Life Committee on four of its five key votes.

Mitt Romney joked about the right-wing conspiracy theory claiming that President Obama was born in Kenya, during a rally in Commerce, Michigan on Thursday afternoon.

“No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised,” Romney declared to loud cheers. Watch it:

Both Mitt and his wife Ann Romney were born in Michigan, though a small group of so-called Romney birthers question the claim, noting that since Mitt’s father George Romney was born in Mexico, “his candidate son is not a natural-born citizen, and therefore Constitutionally ineligible to occupy the Oval Office.” Some believe that Romney himself was also born in Mexico.

The Romney campaign has sought to distance itself from claims that Obama wasn’t born in the United States, through Romney continues to associate himself with prominent birther Donald Trump. Trump is expected to participate at the Republican convention on Monday.

The Romney/Ryan proposal to transform Medicare’s guaranteed benefit into a “premium support” structure for future retirees could increase costs by almost $60,000 for seniors reaching the age of 65 in 2023, a new report from the Center for American Progress finds. Current seniors would also have to pay more for preventive, hospital, and physician services should Romney and Ryan repeal the Affordable Care Act, facing an increase in health spending of between $7,900 and $18,600 over the course of their retirement.

Beginning in 2023, Romney’s proposal — which is modeled heavily on Paul Ryan’s FY 2013 budget — would provide all retirees with a premium support subsidy to buy coverage from an exchange of private insurance plans or traditional Medicare. Private insurance plans in each geographical area would bid for how much they would charge to provide Medicare benefits and the premium subsidy would be tied to the premium of the plan with the second-lowest cost, or the premium for traditional Medicare—whichever is lower. If seniors choose a plan that costs more than the voucher, they will have to pay the difference. As a result, most seniors will have to spend more on coverage. Here are 5 reasons why:

1) Current seniors will pay more. The premium support structure does not kick in until 2023, so current seniors will remain in the existing Medicare program. But should Romney/Ryan repeal the Affordable Care Act’s savings, beneficiaries will face higher cost sharing and premiums (particularly for preventive services) and seniors who have received prescription drug discounts, will now pay more for their medications. What’s more, Romney/Ryan would lower Medicaid spending significantly beginning next year, shifting federal spending to states and beneficiaries, and increasing costs for the 9 million Medicare recipients who are dependent on Medicaid.

2) Cost shift to future retirees. The average beneficiary will receive a premium support credit of $7,500 in 2023 to purchase coverage in traditional Medicare or private insurance. But that amount will only grow at a rate of GDP plus 1.5 percentage points and will not keep up with health care costs. So while the federal government will spend less on the program, seniors will pay more in premiums.

3) Private insurers will charge more. Private plans lack the market clout and efficiencies of traditional Medicare, experience higher profits and administrative costs, and will charge more for the same coverage seniors currently enjoy in the traditional program.

4) Private insurers will cherry pick the healthiest beneficiaries. The existing private plans in Medicare — insurers that participate in Medicare Advantage — have long attracted the healthiest, lowest-cost enrollees from the Medicare population. Without robust regulations, private insurers will have an incentive to ramp up benefits that attract healthier seniors (i.e. preventive services), while playing down care that sicker beneficiaries rely on (i.e. chemotherapy or services to manage expensive chronic conditions). If healthier applicants leave the program, premiums for traditional Medicare will increase.

5) Medicare will yield fewer savings. As some seniors opt out of traditional Medicare and enter into private coverage, “Medicare’s market share will fall and neither Medicare nor any single private insurer would have sufficient market share to negotiate provider prices as low as Medicare can achieve.”

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