ND House Majority Leader Al Carlson Flip-Flops On Obamacare Exchanges: “Maybe We Should Set It Up Ourselves”

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Written By:
Rob Port

Jul 18, 2012
8:33pm

House Majority Leader Al Carlson, who just days ago was saying passing the health insurance exchange in North Dakota would require a metaphorical gun to the legislature’s head, was on Valley News Live’s Hot Box tonight with Chris Berg and Joel Heitkamp (whose sister should hide him behind a rock this election cycle for all the good his far-left ranting is doing her campaign) and totally bombed.

It was embarrassing. Heitkamp, a policy lightweight who equates shouting and bluster with reason and logic, compared the exchanges to a grocery store where insurance consumers could pick and choose what they want. Which sounds all well and good until you realize that the government owns the grocery store, controls what you can and cannot buy, and that there’s a mandate you shop there.

Here’s the painful-to-watch segment:

The conservative position on the health care exchanges is clear. The exchanges are poor policy that represent the exact opposite of market competition, and Republicans nationally are sounding the alarm calling on the states to resist implementing them. Even one of the most outspoken North Dakota Republicans in favor of the exchanges during the legislature’s special session last year, Rep. Jim Kasper, has flipped on the issue (a fact Heitkamp apparently wasn’t aware of).

Being the Majority Leader in the state House, the most powerful position in the state legislature to my mind, means being a leader. I’m not sure Carlson is showing a lot of leadership on this issue. And I’m not certain that anyone who thinks a law 64% of North Dakotans wants repealed should be merely tinkered with and not, you know, repealed ought to be in a leadership position.

On a related note, I will give Heitkamp credit for one thing. Governor Jack Dalrymple has shown absolutely no leadership on this issue. Between Dalrymple’s silence, and Carlson’s mismash of comments on the issue, it’s creating a vacuum on the health care issues that Democrat operatives like Heitkamp can fill with convincing spin which could lead to some bad political decisions down the road.