Quote of the Day: the Individual Mandate

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From Sen. Orrin Hatch (R–Utah) on why he supported an individual mandate in 1993 but doesn’t support it now:

Well, in 1993, we were trying to kill Hillarycare, and I didn’t pay any attention to that, because that was part of a bill that I just hadn’t centered on.

Well OK then! I guess we can put this right up there with Mitt Romney’s increasingly strained explanations for why the individual mandate was a good idea when he implemented it in Massachusetts but not so good when Barack Obama implemented it for everyone.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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