“[The individual mandate had] been at the heart of Republican
health-care reforms for two decades. The mandate made its
political début in a 1989 Heritage Foundation brief titled ‘Assuring
Affordable Health Care for All Americans,’ as a counterpoint to the
single-payer system and the employer mandate, which were favored
in Democratic circles…. The mandate made its first legislative
appearance in 1993, in the Health Equity and Access Reform Today
Act—the Republicans’ alternative to President Clinton’s health-
reform bill.”          —Ezra Klein, The New Yorker
 
Oh, why do we so loathe this thing?
We used to love it so.
We used to say, “For health reform
This is the way to go.”
We said it was free enterprise
(And we explained just how).
If this was our idea back then,
How could we hate it now?
 
We hate it ’cause it’s his, lads. We hate it ’cause it’s his.
We hate it ’cause it’s his, lads. That’s what our hatred is.
You needn’t be a whiz, lads, to ace this simple quiz.
We hate it ’cause it’s his, lads. We hate it ’cause it’s his.
 
If Mitt’s plan was the model here,
What caused this great upheaval?
If Mitt’s makes sense, then why is this
Just socialistic evil?
If this approach once seemed so good
That all of us were for it,
How come it is so wicked now
That all of us abhor it?
 
We hate it ’cause it’s his, lads. We hate it ’cause it’s his.
We hate it ’cause it’s his, lads. That’s what our hatred is.
You needn’t be a whiz, lads, to ace this simple quiz.
We hate it ’cause it’s his, lads. We hate it ’cause it’s his.