Posted on 12/11/2011 12:55:16 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Gingrich: Health Insurance Mandate 'Started As Conservative Effort to Stop Hillarycare' By Terence P. Jeffrey December 11, 2011
(CNSNews.com) - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Saturday defended his previous support of a federal mandate requiring people to buy health insurance by saying that "virtually every conservative saw the mandate as a less dangerous future" than the health-care plan being advanced by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1993 and that the idea of mandating that people buy health insurance "started as a conservative effort to stop Hillarycare in the 1990s."
As recently as this May, Gingrich defended what he called a "variation" on the insurance mandate.
On Saturday, however, said: Its now clear that the mandate, I think, is clearly unconstitutional.
Gingrich explained the evolution of his view on the individual mandate in a Republican presidential debate from Des Moines, Iowa, that was broadcast Saturday night on ABC.
"I just wanted to make one point that is historical, Gingrich said in the debate. In 1993, in fighting Hillarycare, virtually every conservative saw the mandate as a less dangerous future than what Hillary was trying to do. The Heritage Foundation was a major advocate of it. After Hillarycare disappeared, it became more and more obvious that mandates had all sorts of problems built in to them. People gradually tried to find other techniques. I frankly was floundering trying to find a way to make sure that people who could afford it were paying their hospital bills, while still leaving an out for libertarians to not buy insurance. And thats what we were wrestling with. Its now clear that the mandate, I think, is clearly unconstitutional. But is]t started as conservative effort to stop Hillarycare in the 1990s.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
LMAO
Of course, there was an alternative staring the HHS in the face:
Since Medicare is mandatory - any medical debts could have been garnisheed from future Medicare reserves.
OH dear - there are no Medicare reserves. Dang!!
The index, cover pages, Medicare cuts? There are no specifics as far as I know.
Gingrich on Obamas healthcare law: About 300 pages are pretty good'
So-called conservatives, but we, the people were NEVER aware that that was an option they were pushing! I’ve heard that Heritage was promoting it, and at that time I did not hear that. But, had we heard that we’d have let them know that it was NOT an option that we’d support! He comes off sounding like the country was for it when we (the voters) were not aware that it was being considered. The “elites” were considering it, maybe, but we’d not been brought into this discussion, and had to come to light, we’d have probably sent him packing, ourselves.
By what, setting up more government machinery to implement and enforce a mandate?
Let's face it - when the rubber meets the road, most of the Republican Party's "upper management" is FOR various forms of Big Government, in direct contradiction of the small, limited government rhetoric it spouts off every election.
One only need look at the "compassionate conservatism" of the Bush years, six of which were marked by Republican control of both the legislative and executive branches of the Federal government with a tie in the judicial branch, for an example. That the Democrats support bigger, more activist government is a foregone conclusion; that the Republicans should do so too is more shocking because of their feigned allegiance to the opposite.
The heart of the matter is that the only real difference between the two parties is which departments of the Federal government grow faster under their tenures.
The heart of the matter is that, next year, just like many elections past, Fedzilla wins and middle-class Americans lose. Whether Obama wins or either of Gingrich or Romney wins, there will be bigger and bigger government, with more and more unkeepable promises made, debt stacked on top of debt, lies stacked on top of lies, until the whole house of cards comes crashing down. And, believe me, when the music stops, ordinary middle-class Americans won't have chairs to sit in, but the folks right here in the Federal swamp and its suburbs will.
Thanks Sub-Driver.
“The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit”. He, The Spirit owns the body, no government or any other organization...”ye are not your own”,
....not the government, or a hospital, or an insurance company, an insurance lobby behind bank bonds, not the pharmacia companies, not a bureaucrat, not the ritalin enforcers in education, a teacher or principal requiring a student to be “medicated” before the age of accountability vs. parents, not a doctor of medications, a so called “health secretary”, an investment lobby that attempts to call itself “insurance” and an “industry”, an agency, a foundation, or any other individual or organization.
Nor do any of the above have speech rights on mandates of the body. For the Spirit dwells within, speaks within,
“He whom the Son sets FREE, is free indeed.”
Same old story: The Democrats propose to tear down the Washington Monument and the Republicans respond with a plan to do it in three stages.
‘Medicine is the Keystone in the Arch of Socialism.’
—V.I. Lenin
I doubt that is true. I think he means that Republicans were willing to settle for a mandate.
Romney flip flops but Newt has “evolutions”....priceless
its kind of hard to stop something when you controlled nothing dont ya think...dems had all three houses
Perhaps you should check with the Heritage Foundation. It was their idea first. They since decided it was not a Conservative idea.
By definition, while they were having this idea they weren’t conservative. They were far left, big government, anti-constitution, wack jobs. Fortunately, they aren’t always that way.
Methinks the goal of the GOP’s mandate plan was to say to democrats “here is exactly what you’re asking for ... Oh, you don’t want it? Ok, fess up and tell us what you REALLY want but are afraid to tell us!” It’s a rhetorical tool, used to force an opponent to admit that their argument is just a diversion to a more sinister ulterior motive.
“Romney flip flops but Newt has evolutions....priceless”
Yes I do think Newt has evolved in his thinking regarding the health insurance issue. Mitt on the other hand still defends Romney Care. Whether one wants of believe Newt is entirely another matter. I tend to believe him. Others will not.
at that point Ill have already burned all the furniture for firewood...
spot on rabs...
only took 3 wives, 17 yrs, and a couch dance from nan, for newt to come to the enlightened decision that forcing an individual citizen to buy a private product, at gunpoint, is "cleary, I think UN-Constitutional...
whats the point spread down to now ??? 'clearly' if hes locked in a room with bambam, hed be the smartest man, and possibly the only man, in the room...
Unfortunately, many people (not, of course, “everyone”) will decline to purchase insurance voluntarily when they know that every Hill-Burton hospital in the country must treat them for free even if they don't have insurance. I am waiting to read a coherent, conservative solution to this “free-rider” problem that doesn't involve turning uninsured sick or injured people away from the hospital. We can all beat our chests and claim that is exactly what should happen to the uninsured but the social reality is that we won't allow it to happen, and the cost of “uncompensated care” (paid for by either the taxpayer or the privately insured) will then explode.
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