One thing about the health care debate, it exposes many contradictions.

The House voted Wednesday to put a hold on the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act. That’s the bit that would require Americans who can afford health insurance to have health insurance. President Obama, as U.S. News and World Report confirms, has said he would veto any effort to delay the individual mandate. But Obama had no problem this month unilaterally postponing the employer mandate until 2015. That’s the part of the Affordable Care Act that requires employers who have more than 50 workers to provide health care. Obama’s delay gives companies more time to reorganize their workforces to include fewer full-time employees and more part timers.

Another contradiction brought out in the world of politics is the Heritage Foundation’s eager cheerleading of the demise of the individual mandate. “Obamacare is just falling apart — and the Obama Administration is in DENIAL!” read a tweet from Heritage on Wednesday. This is somewhat amusing, confusing or both given that Heritage is credited as the original champion of the mandate, because of a paper the foundation published in 1986 by Stuart Butler.

— Posted by Peter Z. Scheer

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#aca#affordable care act#barack obama#conservatives#health care#heritage foundation#house of representatives#individual mandate#newt gingrich#obamacare#politics#republicans#white house