We understand that the White House is experiencing some difficulties of late across many fronts—the Solyndra scandal and Operation Fast and Furious are two issues that come to mind. That, however, does not give spokesman Jay Carney license to misrepresent what The Heritage Foundation supports or does not.
Yesterday Mr. Carney once again defended Obamacare, this time by strongly implying that we think the health care law is wise and Constitutional. Specifically, the spokesman said:
We note that not only have lower courts upheld its constitutionality, but the fact of the individual mandate being both constitutional and wise policy is an opinion shared across the ideological spectrum. A former governor of Massachusetts just said the other day, ‘The idea for a health care plan in Massachusetts was not mine alone. The Heritage Foundation, a great conservative think tank, helped on that’.
For the record, and hopefully for the last time, we would like to make it crystal clear to the White House that we think Obamacare is unconstitutional and very, very unwise.
Indeed, on May 11 this year, The Heritage Foundation filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, reiterating our opposition to the individual mandate that is a key piece of the Obamacare statute.
We had no other choice after the Obama Administration misrepresented our position earlier this year. In its merits brief before the appeals court, the U.S. government—though well aware of our very public opposition to Obamacare—quoted a 21-year-old statement by a Heritage Foundation policy expert supporting an individual mandate for health insurance, when Heritage’s view now is to the contrary.
As we said the next day:
The government’s reliance on this dated policy lecture is like arguing that a medical researcher who expressed qualified support for one therapy 21 years ago should naturally favor a broader application of that therapy today, even if his own and other research has disproved the assumptions that supported the original approach.
As for the comparisons between Gov. Romney’s health care plan, on which our analysts provided technical assistance on creation of a market-based health insurance exchange, Massachusetts residents can certainly debate the success or framework of his efforts at health care reform, but it is disingenuous for the White House or anyone else to pretend that Obamacare is one and the same. After raising taxes, hiking health care costs and violating the U.S. Constitution, hiding behind these familiarly false talking points won’t save Obamacare from its predictable failure.
For the record, Mr. Carney, The Heritage Foundation believes that Obamacare is an abomination that must be repealed. While the courts judge its constitutionality, we will continue working for its legislative repeal. We will continue to advocate smarter solutions as outlined in our plan to fix America’s debt, Saving the America Dream, which we released this year.
You can follow Mike Gonzalez on Twitter @Gundisalvus