How Out of Touch are House Democrats? Just Ask Their Senate Colleagues

House Democrats recently doubled-down on the individual mandate when only three House Democrats voted with 242 House Republicans to repeal ObamaCare: 

FINAL VOTE ON OBAMACARE REPEAL: 245-189, with only 3 Democrats joining GOP. (House Vote #14, 1/19/2011)

However, Senate Democrats up for re-election in red states in 2012 are choosing a different path. They’re running scared, so scared in fact that they are finally waking up to the onerous job-destroying effects of ObamaCare and its “highly contentious” individual mandate.

“A handful of moderate Senate Democrats are looking for ways to roll back the highly contentious individual mandate — the pillar of President Barack Obama’s health care law — a sign that red-state senators are prepared to assert their independence ahead of the 2012 elections.

“They haven’t decided whether to propose legislation, but any effort by moderate Democrats that takes aim at the individual mandate could embarrass Obama and embolden Republicans who are still maneuvering to take down the health care law.” (Manu Raju, “A New Dem Threat to Health Care Law,” Politico, 2/07/2011)  

This sudden conversion by some Senate Democrats is actually in line with what Obama himself said on the campaign trail in 2008. Will the Obama of 2011 and his House Democrat allies keep defending the individual mandate now that Senate Democrats have joined Republicans in agreeing with the Obama of 2008?

“‘I note that in 2008, then-Senator Obama supported a health care reform proposal that did not include an individual mandate because he was at that time strongly opposed to the idea, stating that, ‘If a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house,’ Judge Vinson wrote in a footnote toward the end of his 78-page ruling Monday.” (Stephen Dinan, “Judge Rules Against Health Law, Cites Obama’s Words,” The Washington Times, 1/31/2011)