Republicans have unearthed a curious comment with which to hit Colorado Democrat Mark Udall as he struggles to defend his seat in the Senate.
In a 2008 debate, Udall claimed he was against a “government-sponsored” solution in the health care area and sounded more like a conservative Republican at the time.
“I’m not for a government-sponsored solution,” Udall said. “I’m for enhancing and improving the employer-based system that we have.”
Whatever his rationalizations today, clearly the Mark Udall of 2008 was talking a much different game, than his ObamaCare vote just two years later in 2010.
In the first U.S. Senate debate in 2008, the candidates were asked their plan for health-care reform. Here’s what Udall, a Democratic congressman, said:
We want to have Coloradans healthy so they can all pull on an oar and make a contribution.
I’m not for a government-sponsored solution. I’m for enhancing and improving the employer-based system that we have.
Let me give you some ideas on how we can do that.
We ought to expand the children’s health insurance program. For the life of me, I don’t understand why President Bush opposed that expansion. …
We ought to put more of an investment in electronic medical record keeping so we better practice medicine. We can create insurance pools for small business who, after all, carry some of this burden. And we can put in place tax credits for those in families who are struggling to meet those needs that the premiums present to them.
And we ought to make sure insurance companies can’t discriminate against .us, our family members who have pre-existing conditions.
Those are some of the ways in which we can strengthen our health care system.
Again, there a lot of great ideas out there. Republicans have some great ideas. Democrats have a lot of great ideas. We ought to come together and work on this, starting next year to find a way to cover more Americans.