The GOP and Obamacare

One of the most persistent themes in the Republican primaries is how bad, socialist, and unconstitutional Obamacare (universal health care via a federal insurance mandate) is. And many Republicans talk about how this is a big weakness for Romney since he passed the same basic plan as governor of Massachusetts. He now tries to pretend it's different because he doesn't support it at the federal level, but that isn't true.

What so many people still don't realize is that this isn't just Romney. 3 of the 4 remaining GOP candidates supported this idea at the federal level and seemingly forgot they ever supported it once it became known as "Obamacare". The only difference between Romney and Gingrich and Santorum here is only that Romney was successful in passing it. Newt even openly supported it as recently as 2009.

In fact, "Obamacare" used to be a mainstream Republican plan for health reform as opposed to the type Clinton tried to do. The Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act on 1993 was sponsored by Republicans still in Congress. Bush Sr had a plan for health reform via an individual mandate, as did Bob Dole. And Democrats opposed it; Obama even opposed the individual mandate during his presidential campaign.

The whole history of attempts at universal health care has been a lot like this. Teddy Roosevelt (Republican) was the first president who tried to pass universal health care, via a single-payer system. Then that became the Democratic plan that Republicans opposed. The GOP later switched to supporting an employer mandate; that was Nixon's plan but Democrats opposed it out of preference to a single payer system. Later the Democrats came around to supporting an employer mandate instead - that's largely what "Hillarycare" was. By that time, the GOP moved on to supporting the individual mandate and opposing an employer mandate. Then, of course, Obama proposed a plan based on the individual mandate, and suddenly the whole GOP is against it.

Now, this doesn't mean it's not OK to oppose Obamacare as a Republican. Just because it used to have broad support in the Republican party doesn't mean every Republican supported it. But it does mean that when the Republican candidates talk about how Obamacare is some shockingly socialist, extreme, unconstitutional worst-idea-ever, they are just lying (with the exception of Ron Paul). Opposing Obamneycare is not a reason to support Santorum or Gingrich over Romney. And the fact that so many people are unaware of this is a great example of the failure of the media (some of it, at least).