Facts matter: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter. Support our nonprofit reporting. Subscribe to our print magazine.
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.
