Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the U.S. House with a hankering to see the inside of the Oval Office, reversed his position on the individual insurance mandate just a day after defending it against fellow Republicans’ “right-wing social engineering.”
Gingrich raised the hackles of fellow conservatives by lambasting House plans to re-vamp Medicare and backing the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) was quick to draw down on Gingrich on Laura Ingraham’s conservative talk radio show.
"With allies like that, who needs the left?" Ryan said.
Gingrich has been a vocal champion of mandated coverage for many years. In his 2008 book Real Change he wrote "We should insist that everyone above a certain level buy coverage (or, if they are opposed to insurance, post a bond). Meanwhile, we should provide tax credits or subsidize private insurance for the poor." He made similar statements in his 2005 book, Winning the Future. In 2000, Gingrich partnered with then-Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) to advocate a federal solution to the nation’s health care woes, endorsing both state and federal mandates.
But the wave of criticism from conservatives forced Gingrich to recant the comments he made yesterday, telling the Wall Street Journal that his rhetoric was exaggerated out of his concern over the issue. And in an email to The Weekly Standard, Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler wrote that the differences between Ryan and Gingrich are "in design but not in substance," arguing that the former speaker’s beef with ideological descendant Ryan is only over the latter’s proposal to make his Medicare voucher program compulsory.
There’s likely even more back-tracking in Gingrich’s future, given the unequivocal nature of his comments Sunday on Meet the Press.
“I’ve said consistently we ought to have some requirement that you either have health insurance or you post a bond … or in some way you indicate you’re going to be held accountable,” he said.
But by Monday Gingrich had released a YouTube video disavowing his support.
“I am against any effort to impose a federal mandate on anyone because it is fundamentally wrong and, I believe, unconstitutional,” he said.
But he has more to do to win back the conservative crowd. A WSJ editorial today writes Gingrich off entirely:
"The episode reveals the Georgian’s weakness as a candidate, and especially as a potential President—to wit, his odd combination of partisan, divisive rhetoric and poll-driven policy timidity."
Gingrich isn’t the only candidate backing away from mandated insurance coverage. Massachusetts’ first-in-the-nation health care reform law, passed on the watch of former governor and GOP White House hopeful Mitt Romney, also contains an individual mandate. Romney defends his record by arguing that states should be able to mandate coverage but the federal government should not. Conservatives remain unconvinced — Romney was the target of an earlier WSJ diatribe, taking him to task for his flip-floppery.