I’m Just Say’n…

A usnews.com article entitled ”Republicans Are Hypocrites on Healthcare Individual Mandate”, points out that when a Virginia judge  ruled against the individual insurance mandate portion of the healthcare reform legislation,  Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, one of 20 REPUBLICAN attorney  generals exploiting TAXPAYER dollars on anti-healthcare reform lawsuits, “BRAGGED that the ruling bolstered his case AGAINST the individual mandate”.  Thanks to the right wing agendas pushed by Tea Partied Republican state attorney generals and cheered on by Tea Partied Republican Governors, Tea Partied Republican state legislators, Tea Partied Republican congressional members, and right wing pundits,   the fate of the individual mandate affecting quality, affordable health care for MILLIONS of Americans lies in the hands of Supreme Court justices.

What makes the Tea Partied Republican war against the “individual mandate” so crazy is that the “individual mandate” was ORIGINALLY a Republican idea!

1. A nj.com article entitled “GOP has short obamacare’ memory” states that “Republican politicians are giving speeches condemning Obamacare as “unconstitutional” and “government overreach”. Conservative pundits are painting apocalyptic scenarios of Soviet-style government crushing our freedoms by forcing us to buy health insurance… lost in the din of Republican noise is the fact that the individual mandate was ORIGINALLY a Republican plan.  In 1993 when Hilary Clinton was proposing health care reform, Republicans ADVOCATED an alternative that included the individual mandate”!

2.  A  usnews. com article entitled “Republicans Are Hypocrites on Healthcare Individual Mandate” reported that “it was the individual mandate that REPUBLICANS TOUTED as a “personal responsibility pushback to President Clinton’s healthcare reform efforts in the 90’s.”

3. An article at mahablog.com entitled “GOP for Individual Mandate Before They Were Against It” documents that “way back when Republicans were battling the evil “Hillarycare” instead of the evil “Obamacare”, REPUBLICANS pushed an individual mandate to purchase health insurance as a SOLUTION for soaring health care costs”!?!?

4. a npr.org article entitled “In 1993, Republicans Proposed a Mandate First” , a transcript of an interview with former REPUBLICAN Senator Bob Bennett about the Republicans’ SUPPORT  of the idea revealed that “during his 18 years in the Senate, Bennett, CO-SPONSORED health care reform bills containing the  individual mandate”!

5. A huffingtonpost.com article entitled “Individual Mandate” Republicans Were for it Before They Were Against It. In Fact, It Was THEIR Idea” points out that in a Republican presidential debate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich slipped up when he stated that “a core element of “Obama Care” - the requirement that all Americans be enrolled in either a private or public health insurance plan - was a proposal ORIGINATED by the Heritage Foundation, a powerful conservative think(?) tank”!

And let’s not forget our ‘good old boys’ Obama-basher, 2012 presidential candidate MITT ROMNEY. A voices.yahoo.com article entitled “Republicans Were for the Individual Mandate Before They were Against It” points out that “ROMNEY is now trying to disassociate himself from the POPULAR healthcare reform bill that HE signed in Massachusetts. The article further states that “the people of Massachusetts are happy with their healthcare. The Affordable Care Act e.g. Obamacare  was largely in part, based on the Romney plan!

I’m just say’n …based on all of the above facts,  it seems to me that the whole Tea Partied Republican uproar against  the “individual mandate has NOTHING to do with the mandate and EVERYTHING to do with the fact that it was pushed by President Obama!

I’m interested in knowing what you’re saying!