This is my first post here on dailykos!
After years of reading and observing, I decided to join in.
Some of you may know me from twitter @TheNewDeal.
Sometimes 140 characters just doesn't cut it. So in those moments, I decided to come to the best website on the internet. :)
So anyway.... below the fold you can see the Republican's complete hypocrisy on the individual health care mandate.
I'm not sure why this hasn't been a central talking point for the left, but the problems with Democratic Messaging is for another post.
Every liberal needs to know this and shove it in the face of every right-wing looney fighting for insurance companies that would deny them and their family in a New York minute to make a few bucks.
More below the fold!
When George H.W. Bush was president, he came up with this crazy idea on how to improve our health care system.
H.W. Bush had this radical plan to propose an individual health care mandate to bring down health care costs by forcing every American citizen to purchase insurance because the uninsured raise the cost for everyone else. This would also end pre-existing conditions.
The Heritage Foundation supported and even helped write H.W. Bush's bill with an individual mandate. Today they are one of many conservative groups fighting the current mandate.
Republicans eventually tabled this plan because they didn't think they could get enough Democratic support in congress to pass it. (My, how times have changed)
Then Bush lost the '92 election to Bill Clinton.
In the early 90's, President Clinton was pushing for single-payer healthcare in America.
Since it would help millions of Americans and put an end to unfair and unethical insurance practices, Republicans had to kill it.
They came up with two plans of their own called the "Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act of 1993" and the "Consumer Choice Health Security Act of 1994" to counter Clinton's. It was very close to the plan that H.W. Bush and the Heritage Foundation penned a few years earlier. And guess what both of these bills included?... an individual health care mandate.
This was not a mistake, it was not put in the bills by Democrats. Republican Senator John Chafee (RI) proposed the "Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act of 1993" and Republican Senator Don Nickels (OK) proposed the "Consumer Choice Health Security Act of 1994". Half of the GOP Senate at the time sponsored both bills including Individual mandates.
Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act of 1993 Sponsors:
Robert Bennett [R-UT], Christopher Bond [R-MO], David Boren [D-OK], William Cohen [R-ME], John Danforth [R-MO], Robert Dole [R-KS], Pete Domenici [R-NM], David Durenberger [R-MN], Duncan Faircloth [R-NC], Slade Gorton [R-WA], Charles Grassley [R-IA], Orrin Hatch [R-UT], Mark Hatfield [R-OR], Nancy Kassebaum [R-KS], Robert Kerrey [D-NE], Richard Lugar [R-IN], Alan Simpson [R-WY], Arlen Specter [R-PA], Ted Stevens [R-AK], John Warner [R-VA]
Consumer Choice Security Act of 1994 Sponsors:
Robert Bennett [R-UT], George Brown [R-CO], Conrad Burns [R-MT], Daniel Coats [R-IN], Thad Cochran [R-MS], Paul Coverdell [R-GA], Larry Craig [R-ID], Robert Dole [R-KS], Duncan Faircloth [R-NC], Charles Grassley [R-IA], Judd Gregg [R-NH], Orrin Hatch [R-UT], Jesse Helms [R-NC], Kay Hutchison [R-TX], Dirk Kempthorne [R-ID], Trent Lott [R-MS], Richard Lugar [R-IN], Connie Mack [R-FL], Frank Murkowski [R-AK], Alan Simpson [R-WY], Bob Smith [R-NH], Ted Stevens [R-AK], Strom Thurmond [R-SC], Malcolm Wallop [R-WY].
You may recognize a few of those names and remember that the last time you seen these people they were telling you how Obamacare would kill your grandmother and resurrect Karl Marx from the dead. We call them hypocrites.
Once again the Heritage Foundation Supported the GOP plans with an individual mandate.
But wait... I feel like I'm forgetting someone.... oh duh...
Unofficial but most probable GOP Presidential nominee Mitt Romney backed the GOP's individual mandate in 1994.
But Romney is a RINO, right? Surely he came to his senses and opposed an individual mandate after this?.... We'll come back to Mittens.
A real conservative like... let's say... Newt Gingrich would never support a communist plot like an individual mandate, right?
Wrong!
Gingrich supported the individual mandate in the '90's, then again in 2005, then again in 2007, then again in 2009. - Source
So to clarify where we are so far....
A former Republican President, a Republican Congress, a Former Far-Right GOP Speaker of the House, and this year's Republican nominee for President have supported an individual mandate.
The Republicans created the individual mandate. It's their F$#king idea.
But that was the '90's. Surely the GOP realized this was a horrible idea and never touched it again.
Well after Clinton's plan failed, Democrats were too afraid to even mention fixing our broken healthcare system for a long time to come and Republicans preferred our broken system. In the following years, we moved on to take action on stains on blue dresses and wars with countries that never attacked us and were no threat to us.
However, there was one Republican who wouldn't give up the fight for an individual mandate.
This brings us back to Mitt Romney.
In 2006, as Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney fought for and passed a bill that required all residents of Massachusetts purchase health insurance A.K.A an individual mandate.
But who cares? Everyone knows about that. Republicans don't mind because that was different... Romney was a Republican... kinda.
What many don't know is that MA's health care reform law including an individual mandate worked.
Romney's plan covered almost all residents of MA, lowered costs, and made MA's healthcare system the best in the country.
I hope you know that this is why Republicans are trying to kill health care reform before it starts... because it works and it works well. They can't have you liking something that Obama has done, so they have to kill this plant before it sprouts and before you find out that Obamacare will be pretty awesome.
Also, what many people don't know about Mitt Romney and the individual mandate is that when Obama was in the process of crafting his healthcare bill in 2009, Romney urged him to include an individual mandate in the bill.
This is the man Republicans are running for President against Obama and his evil health care bill. The same guy who urged him to include it in the first place. Wow.
Overall, I hope this helps shed light on one glaringly obvious fact...
THE GOP DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU.
Republicans supported an individual healthcare mandate up until the very moment Obama supported it. Then it became evil.
The GOP's one and only goal is to spite Obama and make life as hard as possible for him until he's gone, even if that means making your life hell in the process. They know Obamacare will work, they know it will help the people of this country. This is why they can't support it, because a Democrat is President and if you are happy under Democrats, That doesn't bode well for them.
Obama will be fine either way. He is a wealthy man and will never have problems affording or having access to healthcare.
The Republicans in congress who are fighting to kill health care reform will also be just fine. They have the taxpayer-funded, government healthcare they tell you is satan incarnate.
The real victims of this are us and our families, friends, and neighbors. The health insurance industry's greed has no party lines or partisanship. Working and common folk like us, whether your Liberal or conservative will suffer if the ACA is overturned.
And if it is overturned, please pay close attention to all the teabaggers celebrating the return of pre-existing conditions, price gouging, rising premiums, and the insurance industry denying customers care that they paid for.
This is what they think freedom and America is all about.
They will also own our healthcare system again. They won't be able to point to Obamacare. When the insurance industry goes back to their standard practice of killing people for profit, it will be all theirs. When families go bankrupt because one of them made the mistake of getting cancer, it will be all theirs. We will go back to CorporateCare. yay.....
But I don't want that and neither do you.
And at one time, not that long ago... Republicans didn't want that either.
