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First, the conservative mandate was quite a bit different than the Obama mandate
In Massachusetts, Mr. Romney didn't include an individual mandate in his original proposal, but soon adopted the idea. The emails show his aides later came to champion it, even amid uncertainty from some Democrats. At the time, the mandate was a favored policy of the right, with the left instead pushing for government-run insurance programs.
"We must have an individual mandate for any plan to work," Tim Murphy, Mr. Romney's health secretary, wrote the governor and several aides on Feb. 16, 2006, in an email analyzing the latest confidential Democratic proposal, which he wrote was "unclear" about that requirement.
That Democratic proposal, obtained by the Journal, didn't include such a mandate, and instead focused on "individual responsibility," aiming to "encourage individuals to buy health insurance, not go uninsured." - How Romney Pushed State Health Bill - WSJ.com
Mitt Romney has distanced himself from the health care reform bill he signed as governor of Massachusetts amid criticism the law bears more than a passing resemblance to Obamacare, which he's repeatedly pledged to repeal if elected in November.
But a series of emails obtained by the Wall Street Journal reveals Romney was actively engaged in negotiating the specifics of the 2006 Massachusetts bill and that he and his top aides championed a provision identical to one in President Obama's law requiring individuals to have or buy health insurance.
The so-called individual mandate is at the heart of most conservative criticism of Obama's health care law, with many Republicans calling the provision unconstitutional. But in 2006, emails obtained by the Journal under a public records request show, Romney and his top aides pressed for an individual mandate even when Massachusetts Democrats weren't yet embracing such a proposal. - Romney pushed for individual mandate in Massachusetts health care law, emails show - ABC News
From the outset, Governor Romney stated that requiring individuals to buy health insurance in the currently fragmented and overly expensive insurance market would be wrong and counterproductive. But he also argued that if the market could be reorganized to make coverage universally available and portable, deregulated at least enough to make it affordable for the middle class, and subsidized enough to make it affordable for the low-income, then there would be no reasonable excuse for anyone to forgo health insurance.
Romney also pointed out that to allow people to go without health insurance when they can expect someone else to pay the tab for their treatment is a de facto mandate on providers and taxpayers. Romney's plan was to take that option off the table, leaving only two choices: either buy insurance or pay for your own care. He proposed that those who want to go without coverage could place $10,000 in an interest-bearing escrow account, which providers could claim against if the individual did not pay medical bills.
Unfortunately, the state legislature changed that idea into a mandate: either buy coverage or pay a fine. This provision is more onerous and philosophically objectionable, but it is unlikely to prove onerous in practice. That is because the legislation includes three avenues through which Massachusetts residents can meet the individual coverage requirement by purchasing an inexpensive health plan. - The Significance of Massachusetts Health Reform
eek contradicting FOX News too (my attempt to NOT link to FOX has fallen to pragmatism 
): The Heritage Foundation's constitutional law expert, Todd Gaziano, fired back last week at people who have said the group came up with the idea of a law that requires everyone to buy health insurance also known as the individual mandate.
“It wasn’t really our idea. Any constitutional scholar worth their salt should have known that the individual mandate was unconstitutional,” Gaziano told Newsmax.TV during an exclusive interview Thursday.
Read more on Newsmax.com: Heritage Foundation's Gaziano: Individual Mandate ‘Not Our Idea’
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!
- Heritage Foundation's Gaziano: Individual Mandate
The mandate, requiring every American to purchase health insurance, appeared in a 1989 published proposal by Stuart M. Butler of the conservative Heritage Foundation called "Assuring Affordable Health Care for All Americans," which included a provision to "mandate all households to obtain adequate insurance."
The Heritage Foundation "substantially revised" its proposal four years later, according to a 1994 analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. But the idea of an individual health insurance mandate later appeared in two bills introduced by Republican lawmakers in 1993, according to the non-partisan research group ProCon.org. Among the supporters of the bills were senators Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who today oppose the mandate under current law.
In 2006, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who was then governor of Massachusetts, signed off on a law requiring individuals of the state to purchase health insurance. American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic opposition research group, on Wednesday released a 2006 video in which Romney says he is “very pleased” with the mandate.
Read more: Individual health care insurance mandate has roots two decades long | Fox News
- Individual health care insurance mandate has roots two decades long | Fox News
The Heritage Foundation's constitutional law expert, Todd Gaziano, fired back last week at people who have said the group came up with the idea of a law that requires everyone to buy health insurance also known as the individual mandate. It wasnt really our idea."
Page 6 of the Heritage Foundation
http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/1989/pdf/hl218.pdf
Quoting the Heritage Foundation without first checking under the beds and rugs is now like linking to FOX News for a truthful reference to what is factual (Obamacare struck down!). I may have linked to them, but not for the purposes of veracity.
and it wasn't Democrats, progressives, or liberals who started calling you people "free riders"
Stupid fucking ideas are stupid fucking ideas, no matter who comes up with them or steals them and blames it on the other guys.
Stupid fucking ideas are stupid fucking ideas, no matter who comes up with them or steals them and blames it on the other guys.
Do you understand the difference between state and federal government, Dainty?
Do you understand the difference between state and federal government, Dainty?
As long as health care coverage is a closed-market function of an individuals employment, and not a true product to be shopped for in a reasonably free market place of many choices, government involvement is required.
Unconstitutional
Stupid fucking ideas are stupid fucking ideas, no matter who comes up with them or steals them and blames it on the other guys.
yokie dokie.
Oh, go pound sand, moonbat.
romneycare did not steal 716 billion dollars from Medicare. Obamacare did. It's just that damn simple.
romneycare did not steal 716 billion dollars from Medicare. Obamacare did. It's just that damn simple.
No one stole anything
Oh, go pound sand, moonbat.
poor dud.
You're no better a man than Madoff...Spare us the faux piety.
