Buttigieg: Obamacare Is Too Conservative – IOTW Report

Buttigieg: Obamacare Is Too Conservative

AT: The contenders for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination are coming out of the woodwork, along with their policies — although we still can’t take that for granted.  Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg, chief among them, has voiced his opinion on Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

This contentious piece of legislation is depicted by Buttigieg as “a conservative proposal.”  It was, after all, conceived at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank.  The mayor is filled with respect; the way Obama came through with enough votes for it was nothing short of a masterwork of policy chops.  It was a wonderfully constructed compromise that allowed for private doctors along with a public payer.  The right has been playing with the goalposts a bit too much, writing the ACA off as a left-wing brainchild.

The idea that the monster Obamacare became was reared by conservatives is laughable.  Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D., distinguished fellow at The Heritage Foundation, balks:

Is the individual mandate at the heart of ‘Obama Care’ a conservative idea?  Is it constitutional?  And was it invented at The Heritage Foundation?  In a word, no.

Heritage and I actively oppose the individual mandate, including in an amicus brief filed in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court.

Additionally, the meaning of the individual mandate we are said to have “invented” has changed over time.  Today it means the government makes people buy comprehensive benefits for their own good, rather than our original emphasis on protecting society from the heavy medical costs of free riders.

Moreover, I agree with my legal colleagues at Heritage that today’s version of a mandate exceeds the constitutional powers granted to the federal government. Forcing those Americans not in the insurance market to purchase comprehensive insurance for themselves goes beyond even the most expansive precedents of the courts.

Still, Buttigieg will accuse conservatives of crying wolf if they dare condemn a program now tainted by socialist ideals.  No honest Republicans would reject a health care plan they helped draft.

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11 Comments on Buttigieg: Obamacare Is Too Conservative

  1. A good way to fix his perceived entangled conservatism would be by moving death panels to the front of the line. You don’t see a doctor first or anyone currently in healthcare should you get ill. You would first have to make it past the death panel which of course includes background checks including any criticism found on social media. If you make it past the death panel, you’ll get some pills to take home and the scheduling department will get ahold of you within 8 to 12 months.

    That should fix it for him.

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  2. How in the hell can anything like obummer care ever be considered to be conservative by any measure? The democraps totally wiped out a perfectly good medical system and now want to say it was conservative. BULLSHIT! I had very good insurance before 2010 thru my employer and then everything went South and now the insurance I have is absolutely worthless and so damn expensive I could never afford it. If I wasn’t 66 and on Medicare I’d be totally screwed. Eff the democraps and their push for equality in all things which will make us all equally miserable except for the hoity toity well connected elitist snob SOB’s.

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  3. Buttplug proves everyday that homosexuality is just an outward symptom of a defective mind and a broken moral compass. Anyone who cannot figure out the purpose and intended use of reproductive organs is clearly mentally deficient.

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