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Igor Volsky flagged a great piece from Nancy French, who reported the other day that Rick Santorum supported an individual health care mandate when he ran for the Senate in 1994. His primary opponent, Joe Watkins, supported the same policy.
French highlighted this report from April 1994:
Santorum and Watkins both oppose having businesses provide health care for their employees. Instead, they would require individuals to purchase insurance.
And this report, published a month later:
Santorum and Watkins would require individuals to buy health insurance rather than forcing employers to pay for employee benefits.
For those keeping score at home, that means there are six Republican presidential candidates, and four of them, at one time or another, supported an individual health care mandate — an idea GOP officials now consider an unconstitutional, authoritarian nightmare.
Given Santorum’s far-right ideology, does this news come as something of a surprise? Actually, no. Santorum’s position in 1994, and that of his primary challenger, was entirely in line with mainstream Republican thought.
In case anyone’s forgotten, this was a Republican idea in the first place. Nixon embraced the mandate in the 1970s, and George H.W. Bush supported the idea in the 1980s. When Bob Dole endorsed the mandate in 1994, it was in keeping with the party’s prevailing attitudes at the time. Mitt Romney embraced the mandate as governor and it was largely ignored during the 2008 campaign, since it was such a common GOP position.
In recent years, the mandate has been embraced by the likes of John McCain, Orrin Hatch, Bob Bennett, Tommy Thompson, Lamar Alexander, Lindsey Graham, John Thune, Scott Brown, and Judd Gregg, among many others. Indeed, several of them not only endorsed the policy, they literally co-sponsored legislation that included a mandate.
In the summer of 2009, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), one of the leading Republican lawmakers in the talks over health care reform, told Fox News, “I believe that there is a bipartisan consensus to have an individual mandate.” Did Fox News freak out? Did GOP leaders immediately distance themselves from the comments? Was Grassley forced to immediately backpedal? No, none of those things happened. Grassley said there was a bipartisan consensus to have an individual mandate because there was a bipartisan consensus to have an individual mandate.
But that was before Republicans decided they’re against the ideas they’re for, and this issue could be twisted into a political weapon to be used against the president.
Santorum backed a mandate in 1994? Well, sure, of course he did. It would have been more surprising if he hadn’t.
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TR on January 10, 2012 11:30 AM:
In case anyone’s forgotten, this was a Republican idea in the first place.
See also: Cap and Trade.
c u n d gulag on January 10, 2012 11:34 AM:
Steve,
Need I remind you to check the definition of Modern Conservatism?
"We are FOR whatever Obama, the Democrats, and Liberals are AGAINST.
And we are AGAINST whatever Obama, the Democrats, and Liberals are FOR.
PERIOD!
Practices, policies, and talking points may be changed daily - or, as needed, to fit the above definition."
Thank you, fellow Conservatives.
You may now return to your barking-at-the-moon mad news at FOX.
c u n d gulag on January 10, 2012 11:36 AM:
Ooops!
I forgot - "No retreat! No compromise!! No surrender!!!"
EVAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DAY on January 10, 2012 11:40 AM:
Will ANY of this translate into Democratic House and Senate landslides?
Mimikatz on January 10, 2012 11:49 AM:
A mandate is he only way to save private insurance. As lomg as hospitals must treat emergency patients regardless of ability to pay and insurers are forbidden to discriminate on the basis of preexisting conditions, if there is no mandate to get insurance, too many healthy people will take a pass. Republicans understood that then. Their rigid ideology will get us to single payer within a few years if the mandate goes. Unless they want to allow hospitals to let people die in the parking lot.
Maybe they do. Maybe that's what has really changed.
jonthebru on January 10, 2012 11:57 AM:
Large corporations wanted the government to take over medical insurance in order to save money. The benefits were getting to big for the companies to handle. This was quite a while ago. They probably would still want single payer coverage but the right wing ALEC, etc. say no, so its no.
SYSPROG on January 10, 2012 11:57 AM:
C'mon Steve...this is gratuitous. Romney slipped up and let the GOP philosophy out of the bag the other day. If you AGREE with Democrats (or GOD FORBID 'serve' a Democratic President to help your COUNTRY) you are a traitor. Instead you just wait 4 years, denigrate everything that President says, block any legislation that will help the COUNTRY (and make that President look good) and tell the people to 'EAT CAKE' when they complain about jobs, food, bills, mortgages, etc. etc. That of course, were ALL caused by lameass legislation that the GOP passed when they were in power.
SecularAnimist on January 10, 2012 12:07 PM:
Steve Benen wrote: "In case anyone’s forgotten, this was a Republican idea in the first place."
In case anyone's forgotten, during the debate over the ACA, while Steve was shouting "Pass! The! Damn! Bill!", pro-single payer critics of the ACA who pointed out in comments here that the individual mandate was "a Republican idea in the first place" were called liars, traitors and fools who were making the perfect the enemy of the good and who believed in unicorns.
Doug on January 10, 2012 5:43 PM:
SecularAnimist, I think you may have missed the point of the argument over single payer vs. mandate during the arguments over the ACA. The name-calling you refer to was not, if I recall correctly, because of the mandate, but because of the support for NOT passing the ACA if it DIDN'T have single-payer/public option in it.
The arguments most certainly WEREN'T over whether or not Republicans had supported or originated the idea of mandates. They were over which was the most effective way to cover everyone (while also reining in the increasing costs of providing health care): mandates or single-payer/public option, with the latter winning on every point.
Except having the votes to pass the Senate...