hortysir
In Memorial of 47
Don't forget the Individual Mandate was originally a Republican idea.
Historic obstructionism
Waterloo | FrumForum
At the beginning of this process we made a strategic decision: unlike, say, Democrats in 2001 when President Bush proposed his first tax cut, we would make no deal with the administration. No negotiations, no compromise, nothing. We were going for all the marbles. This would be Obamas Waterloo just as healthcare was Clintons in 1994.
Could a deal have been reached? Who knows? But we do know that the gap between this plan and traditional Republican ideas is not very big. The Obama plan has a broad family resemblance to Mitt Romneys Massachusetts plan. It builds on ideas developed at the Heritage Foundation in the early 1990s that formed the basis for Republican counter-proposals to Clintoncare in 1993-1994.
David Frum - former G.W. Bush speechwriter
"To unequal privileges among members of the same society the spirit of our nation is, with one accord, adverse." --Thomas Jefferson to Hugh White, 1801. ME 10:258
From your own NPR link:
In those days there was compromise and bargaining going on.Democrats were pushing not just a requirement for employers to provide insurance, but also the possibility of a government-sponsored single-payer system "a group of economists and health policy people, market-oriented, sat down and said, 'Let's see if we can come up with a health reform proposal that would preserve a role for markets but would also achieve universal coverage.' " The idea of the individual mandate was about the only logical way to get there
Clinton was involved (not vacationing in Rio or golfing) with legislative processes.
Congress didn't lock them selves up in a room and dictate policy for everyone.....
I'm at a forum.
Why would I want to read someone else's forum post, as evidence?