Add Tim Pawlenty to GOP's list of individual mandate flip-floppers (advantage: Sarah Palin)

With Tim Pawlenty on the list of mandate flip-floppers, Sarah Palin may actually
have a shot at the GOP nomination (Palin photo: Roger H. Goun)
 

Everybody knows Mitt Romney supported a health care mandate. Some people know Newt Gingrich did. A few even know John Huntsman did too (but most don't know who he is). And now you can add Tim Pawlenty to the list of mandate flip-floppers:

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty said in a 2006 speech that mandated health insurance was a "potentially helpful" -- but incomplete -- solution to the problem of the uninsured.

Pawlenty described a Massachusetts-style mandate in his speech as "a worthy goal and one that we're intrigued by and I think at least open to," but suggested that the central health care problem was not forcing people to buy insurance but helping them afford it.

As Ben Smith points out, Pawlenty never proposed a mandate for Minnesota, and that does set him apart from Romney in Massachusetts, Huntsman in Utah, or Gingrich on a national level. However, Pawlenty did say he was open to a health care mandate as long as it was combined with things like subsidies and consumer protection regulations:

"If you are poor and don't have the resources or don't have the ability to access insurance because there are barriers to that, a mandate by itself is not much of a solution," Pawlenty said.

"And so, the question then becomes - if you're going to require insurance -- and I think that is a worthy goal and one that we're intrigued by and I think at least open to, how then do you enable people to access the insurance?" Pawlenty said.

The answer, he suggested, was a combination of new efficiencies in health care and new subsidies, starting with a program to insure children -- a move welcomed by Minnesota Democrats at the time. He also suggested both market-based solutions aimed at enhancing competition and transparency, as well as new regulations on, particularly, drug ads.

Sounds an awful lot like the approach President Obama ended up taking, doesn't it? I guess that means that a mere five years ago, Tim Pawlenty was a freaking socialist.

It's tempting to say this is good news for Mitt Romney, as he has a ready-made response to Pawlenty if Pawlenty criticizes him for the Massachusetts mandate, and in truth, it probably does blunt Pawlenty's ability to go on the attack.

But it also means four of the top tier Republican candidates are all vulnerable on health care mandates, and that represents a huge opportunity for a candidate like Sarah Palin or Rick Perry, neither of whom are vulnerable on this issue within the hermetically sealed world of GOP primary voters.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/fC0OCv8d1tY/-Add-Tim-Pawlenty-to-GOPs-list-of-individual-mandate-flip-floppers-(advantage:-Sarah-Palin)

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