The mandate is a HUGE problem with the healthcare bill and the whole damn thing needs to be done away with. If you and Newt don't think the Federal Government telling private citizens they must have X or Y or be fined is a major freaking problem, then you may be on the wrong site.
Conservatives don't do Federal overreach. We need to be cutting Federal power, not making excuses for expanding it.
Please tell me what is conservative about forcing hospitals to give medical care to anyone who shows up without finding a way to pay for it when those people are uninsured and can’t pay? What’s conservative about shifting those costs onto the people who do have insurance and onto the taxpayers who fund Medicare? You have to realize the status quo in health care was not working. Newt and others tried to come up with a solution, especially when Hilary and Obama were both pushing for single-payer socialized medicine. The individual mandate is far better compared to those. We certainly hope now we can come up with a better solution yet.