Various things come along sort of as a nebulous idea and people think they're reasonable until the full effects start to get reasoned through. The first time I heard Newt mention anything about mandates was as a counterpoint to Hillarycare to illustrate how if anything had to be done it didn't have to be done at the Federal level like Hillarycare. So, at least at that point in time he didn't see it as anything like RomneyCare, OmbamaCare, or anything else that dictated what services were available to who.
Regards
Some of the videos I’ve found of him, and perhaps the Beck interview but I don’t remember that one specifically, he is talking about wealthier people being forced to participate because some of them are opting to not buy insurance and then will skip out on their hospital bills. While I agree that, if that is indeed happening, it’s not right for the people to do, I have to wonder how that cost compares to all the illegals making use of the hospital ERs because they know they won’t have to pay anything. I suspect that that total amount is much higher than the instance Newt was talking about.
I’ve never come across him saying that the individual mandate he was talking about being at the state level, or that it was only for low income or those freshly entering the work force. Even if he had, it’s still an individual mandate and unconstitutional. I don’t see how what he’s said, as recently as 2 months ago, can be explained away. And certainly it casts much doubt on his supposed conservatism.