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Political Promises Never Last

As the push for national healthcare continues, it is good to look at how public healthcare option promises have played out in other states:

So we are sticking with our plan and paying the tax. But what bothers me most is that a similar health-care mandate is being proposed in Washington, and some of the same promises that were made here are being made again—such as that the mandate will never hit middle-class folks with a new tax. When asked about the mandate, Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe said recently, according to the New York Times, “It surprises me that we would have these high-level penalties on average Americans.”

Well, I don’t find it surprising. The mandate in Massachusetts was sold as something that wouldn’t penalize people like my husband and me. But those political promises were only good for as long as it took to get the mandate enacted into law.

Isn’t that always the case?