Obama’s Mandate Flip-Flop
Following Monday’s ruling in Virginia striking down the health care law’s individual mandate, the Washington Post reports this morning that the ruling means “President Obama has landed in the position of defender-in-chief of an idea he once opposed.” The article points out that the individual mandate is one of the most unpopular provisions of the health care law, and that “over and over, [Obama] said on the campaign trail that such a mandate was unnecessary.”
There are many Obama campaign quotes on the individual mandate, but my favorite – and perhaps the most telling one – is this: “If a mandate was a solution, we could try that to solve homelessness by mandating everyone buy a house.”
Obama’s U-turn on an individual mandate to purchase health insurance raises the following question: If the President reversed himself on forcing people to buy insurance, and liberals are arguing that Congress has the power to force individuals to engage in activity (even to eat three vegetables a day), who can argue that this Administration – or any future Administration – will not take the position that candidate Obama so derided, and attempt to “solve homelessness by mandating everyone buy a house?”