Finally and at long last, it seems to be true. The many lies and hypocritical positions taken by top Republican politicians over the past several years is catching up to them. What is staggering is the range of issues on which Republicans don't even feel the need to maintain a pretense of principle. If President Obama or the Democrats in congress take a position, even if Republicans have vehemently argued for the same thing a few years ago, they treat that position as if it is evil or "Socialist."
Take the case of the Health Care individual mandates, that portion of the current Democratic Health Care Reform bill that says that individuals will be required to purchase Health Insurance or face a stiff fine. Republicans such as Senators Orrin Hatch (Utah) and Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) complained that this is a terrible and Unconstitutional idea. However, as reported in places like Time Magazine and on Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow's shows on MSNBC, both McConnell and Hatch supported Republican Health Care reform bills in the early 1990s that contained similar individual mandates.
Hatch's record of being of two minds on healthcare goes much further.
Regarding deficit spending, Hatch says that it would be unacceptable for the current Health Care Reform bill to add to the deficit. The problem with this is that Senator Hatch voted for and enthusiastically supported a Medicare drug entitlement bill that added to the deficit a few years ago.
Why was it ok then and not now and does Orrin Hatch start arguing with himself when he looks in a mirror? (This is beyond the fact that the Congressional Budget Office has scored the various iterations of the Democrats' Health Care Reform plans and none add to the deficit)
Let's look at how we deal with terrorism suspects. Republicans, including Dick Cheney, jumped all over the idea that the Obama administration intends to try the Christmas bomber suspect in a regular court. They seem to have forgotten that the shoe bomber, Richard Reid, was tried by the Bush administration (yes, Dick, that thing you were part of for eight years) in a regular civilian court. No elected Republican said anything negative about the Bush administration's actions at the time.
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