Republican Lawsuit against Reform Mandate is Repudiation of their own Brilliant Idea.

It's well established fact that the whole idea of mandating the purchase of health care by every American was a Republican Party construct. But what you didn't know about the GOP proposal in 1993 was the lack of thought that went into the requirement, or so they would like us to think.

Rachel Maddow exposes some shocking comments from Senator's Grassley and Hatch. For instance:

Grassley: "The only difference between 1993 and the year...now, if it was unconstitutional today, it was unconstitutional in 1993, but I DON'T THINK ANYBODY GAVE IT MUCH THOUGHT."

Orin Hatch: "They had a mandate on there, and I DIDN'T REALIZE IT, I DIDN'T PAY ANY ATTENTION TO IT...WE WERE TRYING TO DEFEAT HILLARY CARE."

The 2008 Republican presidential debate shows Mitt Romney proudly proclaiming, "Oh no, I like mandates..." It gets worse, check it out.

(AP) - Republicans were for President Obama's requirement that Americans get health insurance before they were against it.

The obligation is a Republican idea that's been around at least two decades. It was once trumpeted as an alternative to Hillary Clinton's failed health care overhaul in the 1990s. Mitt Romney signed such a requirement into law … in 2006 … defended it as "a personal responsibility principle" and Massachusetts' newest GOP senator, Scott Brown, backed it.

Republicans say Obama and the Democrats co-opted their original concept, minus a mechanism they proposed for controlling costs.

How do you control costs? Republicans are pushing the no minimum required coverage, free market principle that has worked so well in the private sector so far. No matter how minimal the benefits and cheap the premiums, those premiums will go up each year based on rising hospital and doctor services, just like today. People with costly pre-existing conditions will be paid for by taxpayers and not effect the insurers profits.

Not long ago, many of them saw a national mandate as a free-market route. In the 1990s, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, embraced an individual requirement. health economist Mark Pauly of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. "Because the Democrats were in favor, the Republicans more or less had to be against it."