Orin Hatch said he supported a mandate in 1993 for individuals to buy health care. Remember the mandate was a Republican economists idea, and further refined by the conservative Heritage Foundation. In addition, it has come to light that the conservative American Enterprise Institute restricted their health care experts from contributing because too many of them agreed with the proposed Obamacare plan.

Watch at the 5 minute mark on:

h/t thepage.time.com

Plus this is a ridiculous lie, everyone has to buy (invest) in social security.

Unfortunately the biggest loser on the Republican side of the health care debate things is Mitt Romney. In many ways, Romney is to blame by trumpeting his deal in MA as a signature achievement of his term as Governor. During the health care debates Romney had the ability to distinguish his plan from the Federal plan by virtue of the public option. However, now that the public option has been discarded, Romney has only a very nuanced argument about Federalism to distinguish the two plans.

As Greg Sargent at theplumline puts it:

Romney’s line, in a nutshell: Imposing the individual mandate on the state level is rooted in conservative principles of individual responsibility. Imposing it on the Federal level represents a frightening government takeover that conservatives everywhere should resist.

I don’t think that’s going to work in a Republican primary with Robert Gibbs literally bear-hugging RomneyCare with statements like this:

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Monday that the health care overhaul passed by the House Sunday night was similar to the state-based reform plan enacted in Massachusetts in 2006.

The president’s spokesman joked, unprompted: “I’m sure Gov. Romney hates every time I say that.”

The former Massachusetts governor and possible 2012 candidate called for the repeal of the federal health care bill Monday, calling it an “unconscionable abuse of power.”

But Democrats have consistently pointed to the Massachusetts plan Romney signed into law as a forerunner for national legislation. And twisting the knife further, Gibbs argued that the major difference between the two plans is that the White House proposal attempts to tackle health care costs.

“Massachusetts didn’t do that, and it took them a while to get to that curve,” Gibbs said.

h/t politico.com

Health care passes after 18 months of debate and a night full of intense struggle.

Check out 44 do his speechifying thing!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I’m kind of surprised (honest!) that Tea Party members would allow the more rowdy of their protesters anywhere near Democrats. When tempers flair near the end of a legislative “victory” for a partisan side, there is often little recourse other than engage in the worst of behaviors. Unfortunately for Tea Party Republicans, this allows Democrats to really shift the focus of the complaints about the bill to the behavior of the protesters. For example here’s some information from CNN.com

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Missouri, released a statement late Saturday saying he too was called the “N” word as he walked to the Capitol for a vote and that he was spat on by one protestor who was arrested by U.S. Capitol Police. Cleaver declined to press charges against the man, the statement said.

Protesters also hurled anti-gay comments at Rep. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, who is openly gay, as he left the same health care meeting that Lewis attended in a House office building.

A CNN producer overheard the word “faggot” yelled at Frank several times in the lobby of the Longworth building. Frank said he heard someone yell “homo” at him.

Barack Obama is on the March to Close on Healthcare

Add your name now to join OFA’s campaign to fight alongside President Obama in the final march toward health reform — and stay tuned for national actions and events in your local community in the coming days and weeks.

click here to see what’s up at Organizing for America and the final march for healthcare

Obama introduced his own version of health care earlier today. In fact, they have posted the new health care guidelines online on a new area of the Whitehouse.gov web site:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/02/22/a-walk-through-presidents-proposal

Interestingly, according to Politico.com the Whitehouse is shifting strategies this year, and going to begin pushing for increasing the reform and transparency of United States government. Politico has a senior Whitehouse advisor saying: [...]