Senator Lugar Flip-flop on Healthcare Mandate: the Worst of Washington, the best of We the People

Published January 11, 2012 | By dditton

Today on The Hill’s healthcare blog, Julian Pecquet cites Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker’s disgust with Senator Lugar’s flip-flop on the healthcare mandate.

“This is the worst ofWashington,” Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker said in a statement. “Sen. Lugar co-sponsored the individual mandate, but when he finds himself in a partisan primary, he calls it unconstitutional without so much as attempting to explain his flip-flop. Hoosiers deserve better.”

This is in reference to Lugar joining an amicus brief of 36 Republican Senators, who are urging the Supreme Court to strike down the entire healthcare reform law if the individual mandate is found unconstitutional. In 1993, Lugar supported such a mandate.

I agree with Parker that it’s the worst ofWashington, that Lugar should explain why he’s changed his mind, and that Hoosiers deserve better. However, while it may be the worst of Washington, I think what we’re seeing here is the best of we the people.

While I’d love to hear Lugar’s explanation of why he flip-flopped (and even why he finds it unconstitutional), he really doesn’t need to explain it to us. We know why he changed his mind: Richard Mourdock. He knows that enough Hoosiers are fed up withWashingtonand that they’re looking for someone who is going to represent their values and protect their rights by defending the Constitution—and from what they’ve seen, Richard Lugar is not that man. And he’s scared, as well he should be.

The reality of the situation is that Lugar is most likely changing his mind to get votes this election year—and so what! You know what that tells me? That we the people are holding him accountable for once, and he’s listening! This says so much for Hoosiers, Richard Mourdock, and the Tea Party. Does that mean Lugar can be trusted? No. Does that mean that we should give him those votes? No. He’s still not proving himself to be the senator we need. In fact, he’s proving himself to be just the opposite (things like the recent NDAA vote come to mind). But at least we can see the influence that we the people are having.