Hillary Clinton Dissed Individual Mandate, Docs Show

[Purveyor]

By DAVID NATHER | 2/28/14 3:20 PM EST

Hillary Clinton may be a champion of the individual mandate now — the centerpiece of Obamacare — but that’s not how she felt in 1993.

At a September 1993 briefing for Senate and House Democratic leaders, Clinton said an individual mandate would be a “much harder sell” than the employer coverage requirement at the heart of President Bill Clinton’s health care plan, according to a transcript released as part of a collection of memos made public by the Clinton Presidential Library Friday.

“But if the Republican alternative, as it appears now to be shaping up, at least among the moderate Republicans in the Senate, is an individual mandate, we have looked at that in every way we know how to,” Clinton told the congressional Democrats, according to the transcript. “That is politically and substantively a much harder sell than the one we’ve got — a much harder sell.

“Because not only will you be saying that the individual bears the full responsibility; you will be sending shock waves through the currently insured population that if there is no requirement that employers continue to insure, then they, too, may bear the individual responsibility,” Clinton said.

By the 2008 presidential campaign, Clinton had changed her mind. Her health care plan at the time featured an individual mandate — and it was her opponent, then-Sen. Barack Obama, who campaigned against the mandate, saying it would be unfair to people who couldn’t afford coverage.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/hillary-clinton-individual-mandate-104095.html#ixzz2uf0J6cMA

[itsrobert]

1. "if there is no requirement that employers continue to insure"

But, there is a requirement in the ACA for employers to insure.

[spanone]

2. 21 years ago she acknowledged it would be a hard sell. is that a diss?

[djean111]

3. Good grief! What politicians DO is the only thing that counts. What they SAY is almost

meaningless.
They may need to bow to political pressure, because getting reelected is really the most important thing these days. They may just be playing eleventy-dimensional chess. They may have "evolved". They may have just been spouting campaign blather, and it has been carefully explained to me that campaign blather doesn't really count, except for getting votes. Many other factors.

Anyways, what a politician says should never be remembered, referred to when they do something completely different, or otherwise pointed out, except at campaign time, when it is permissible, no, expected, that the bullshit is pretty deep. What Hillary said about insurance in 1993 is meaningless today.

[30cal]

4. I like her a lot but money talks. The Congress and the Senate are bought off

She was no different when it came to large political donations to her Senate campaign

[MisterP]

5. I remember another Dem saying "if a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve

homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house" (or something like that)

[Pretzel_Warrior]

6. that is not dissing. she looks like a prophet. this round...all GOP screamed about was mandate

so Purveyor, once again, you lose.

[Purveyor]

7. "so Purveyor, once again, you lose." Lose at what I must ask? Posting an article?

[Pretzel_Warrior]

8. as Paul Simon said, "There were hints and allegations". It seems to be your modus operandi.

In this case it was A SWINGANDAMISS!!

[joshcryer]

9. So Obama campaigned in 2008 on her old platform.

And she was courageous enough to accept the mandate.

Good for her.