[muleskinner]

??? Mitt got Newt to agree that Romneycare was based on an idea from Newt and the Heritage Foundation. Newt at first denied it, then agreed Mitt was right.

Newt got dunked.

[newzjunkey]

It was an idea from Heritage in 1989, 17 years before RomneyCare. They later dismissed and rejected the mandate concept.

WSJ has a piece from former low level Heritage workers on the "mandate" history there.

It's disingenuous of Romney to paint Newt as an intellectual father of RomneyCare and ObamaCare for supporting Heritage's concepts in discussions as an alternative to HillaryCare 13 years before Romney's scheme became law.

It never went anywhere as policy, and the idea itself was rejected upon greater reflection. Romney learned nothing from this.