By Adam Bitely – Newt Gingrich has a health care problem. And what mainstream candidate running for President in 2012 doesn’t?
Voters got a preview of what health care reforms to ObamaCare might look like should Gingrich win the 2012 election. To say the least, GingrichCare isn’t much different than ObamaCare.
Appearing on last Sunday’s Meet the Press with David Gregory, Gingrich criticized Romney’s health care mandate in Massachusetts and the ObamaCare mandate passed in March of 2010. Newt, himself, is a health care mandate supporter — and it appears the only mandate he supports is his own version.
What’s that version look like?
Well, exactly like Obama’s — and Romney’s.
Newt told the Meet the Press host, “Well, I agree that all of us have a responsibility to pay — help pay for health care. And, I think that there are ways to do it that make most libertarians relatively happy. I’ve said consistently we ought to have some requirement that you either have health insurance or you post a bond.”
As Politico reported yesterday, Gingrich has long supported mandates. In 2007, he penned an op-ed in the Des Moines Register where he stated, “Personal responsibility extends to the purchase of health insurance. Citizens should not be able to cheat their neighbors by not buying insurance, particularly when they can afford it, and expect others to pay for their care when they need it.”
Statements like that don’t make him sound much like the conservative crusader he has claimed to be since the ’94 Republican revolution.
But then again, he did say in 1993 that he was, “for people, individuals — exactly like automobile insurance — individuals having health insurance and being required to have health insurance.”
Perhaps Newt Gingrich was never the great Conservative leader that he sells himself as. He definitely appears to be more like the inside-the-beltway charlatans that try to fix all of the people’s problems all of the time.
Newt infamously sat on a couch with Nancy Pelosi and supported measures to fix climate change. And now Newt infamously has appeared on our television screens and defended the number one problem with ObamaCare, the individual mandate. Not to mention he has defended one of the key issues that drove folks to the polls in 2010 to vote against Democrats.
Gingrich has long backed down and compromised on principles that are supposedly near and dear to him. The squeamishness from Gingrich to stand on principle indicates a politician that tests the political winds before taking any formal positions on any issues.
As Americans for Limited Government Chairman Howard Rich once wrote, “Such squeamishness is not surprising given the party’s recent pattern of backing down in the face of an ideologically inferior foe. In fact, I refer to this flight reflex as ‘going Gingrich.’”
And Newt’s 2012 platform amounts to nothing more than a wind sock — always changing whichever direction the wind is blowing.
Newt should know that you can’t please all of the people all of the time. A majority of Americans want to do away with the monstrosity known as ObamaCare. Dressing ObamaCare up as GingrichCare won’t fool anyone.
Adam Bitely is the Editor-in-Chief of NetRightDaily.com. You can follow Adam on Twitter at @AdamBitely.
