Newt Gingrich supports healthcare mandates

  As I wrote when it was learned that Newt Gingrich was in fact going to run for president, I have no intention of voting for him. I find him to be morally suspect and a flip-flopper on the issue of cap and trade. He appeared in a commercial with Nancy Pelosi claiming that action (cap and trade) must take place in order to save the world, but when it became politically expedient for him to do so he did an about face and now claims that he opposes cap and trade. Much like Mitt Romney and his evolving positions Newt Gingrich cannot be trusted.

  But yesterday came revelations that change my mind–I will not only not give Newt Gingrich my support but I will actively work against him to ensure he does not gain the Republican nomination.  On “Meet the Press” yesterday David Gregory called out Newt Gingrich for comments he made during the healthcare debate in 1993, here is what Gingrich said back then:

“I am for people, individuals–exactly like automobile insurance–individuals having health insurance and being required to have health insurance, and I am prepared to vote for a voucher system which will give individuals, on a sliding scale, a government subsidy so we insure that everyone as individuals have health insurance”

  That is interesting because it sounds quite a bit like the policy of healthcare mandates that Barack Obama has put in place, surely he cannot support Barack Obama’s healthcare mandates can he? David Gregory pressed Newt Gingrich and asked him if the mandates included in the healthcare law enacted by Barack Obama we the same as what he was advocating for in 1993. Newt Gingrich tried to claim that they were not quite the same, but he never quite explained why his version of requiring people to have healthcare insurance was any better than Barack Obama’s version–or how it was constitutional for that matter.

  As you can read here, Newt Gingrich tried desperately to distance his healthcare mandates from Barack Obama’s mandates but the fact is that you either support forcing the American people to purchase a goods and service or you do not, and it is quite evident that Newt Gingrich supports some sort of healthcare mandate and for that alone he is no better than Barack Obama.