Barack Obama ran for president espousing a far different health reform plan than he is about to give us. My latest piece for the American Spectator argues that he deliberately perpetrated a bait and switch on the voters:
On a host of reform issues, including insurance mandates, taxing health benefits and patient choice, Obama has demonstrated that his campaign rhetoric was utterly disingenuous.
Read the entire article here.
UPDATE:
One of Obama’s most audacious pirouettes has been on the question of insurance mandates. During the Democrat primary campaign, he relentlessly attacked Hillary for favoring such a mandate.
Now he’s willing to sign the Baucus bill, which contains a provision for an individual mandate. Ed Morrissey links to this Politico post indicating that the penalty for noncompliance is jail:
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance.
Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it “Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold.”
That’s a position change we can believe in.
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