Jon Huntsman: “I’m comfortable with a requirement [for all Utah residents to carry health insurance], you can call it whatever you want.”
Ken Cuccinelli: The individual mandate “unconstitutional because the Congress doesn’t have the power under the Commerce Clause to compel you to buy a product from another American or a company, it can’t do it.”
By the way, it’s not just Jon Huntsman vs. Ken Cuccinelli on the individual mandate. As Think Progress points out, Huntsman “joins Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and possibly Tim Pawlenty as a potential GOP candidate who was for encouraging individuals to take personal responsibility for their health care before he was against it.” In addition, of course, the “individual mandate” originally was a Republican idea and was supported by many (most?) Republicans for nearly 30 years. Why do they suddenly oppose it now? Simple: because Democrats finally came around to support it, just as Democrats came to support another big conservative idea, “cap and trade,” which Republicans now demonize as the socialismcommunismjobkillingruination. Except, again…it was THEIR IDEA!
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