Steve Benen points out that Jon Huntsman’s willingness to lie about his past support for the individual health insurance mandate undermines his “veracity as a candidate.” Several weeks ago, Huntsman was telling reporters that he “did not back a mandate as part of his reform package in Utah,” but this video from September 28, 2007 says otherwise:
HUNTSMAN: I’m comfortable with a requirement [to have coverage]. You can call it what you want, but at some point, we’re going to have to get serious about how we deal with this issue. And that means there will have to be a multitude of different policies that are available in the market place. It means that it will be incumbent upon citizens to look at responsibility, their own responsibility in terms of health and the choices that are made…. There is a mandate today, let’s not forget, it’s called the emergency room…. We’re living today in an environment, to be sure, where there’s a mandate in place. It’s whether you really want to make the system more efficient.”
Watch it:
Huntsman is of course in good company. He joins Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and possibly Tim Pawlenty as a potential GOP candidate who was for encouraging individuals to take personal responsibility for their health care before he was against it.