Remember Ezra Klein's championing of Obamacare's individual mandate penalty?
As recently as two-and-a-half years ago, Klein was gushing over the ACA's individual mandate penalty feature, claiming that after all is said and done, it really wouldn't hurt anyone -- and was great deal, to boot:
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/06/26/the-irony-of-the-individual-mandate/
There are many ironies in the furor around the individual mandate. The fact that it was originally a Republican idea tends to get the most attention. But here's another: There is no better deal in the legislation -- and there has perhaps never been a better deal in the individual health-care market -- than to go without insurance and pay the mandate's penalty.
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The fact of the matter is that $695 a year or 2.5 percent of your annual income is likely to be a lot less than a decent insurance policy will cost you. In a way, paying the mandate is like buying an option to purchase insurance at some future date, when you need it more, for a price that you could never have gotten before the mandate.
But let's say you try to eke out an even better deal than that: Let's say you don't buy insurance and you simply refuse to pay the mandate. What can the government do to make you pay?
Well, unlike if you refuse to pay your taxes, it can't throw you in jail or put a lien on your home or other property (page 336 of the legislation). It can potentially reduce your tax refund, but that's really it. If you're not getting a tax refund, you're free and clear.
A year later, Klein, a bit more nervous, realized his mistake, and admitted that the penalty was higher than anyone had previously realized (and higher than he himself had first let on), though, at that point, he was still defending the mandate.
Today, with millions of struggling Americans now facing the reality of mandate tax penalties (which will keep increasing every single year -- to about $1,100 starting in 2016), and Democrats scrambling to undo the political damage that passing what was always a Republican think tank and insurance industry-originated plan was guaranteed to cause, Ezra Klein has pretty much shut his mouth and vanished on the entire issue.
This is what happens when a someone only a few years out of high school gets elevated to the status of "wunderkind policy expert" and thrust upon the undeserving public by the Washington Post (where he is no longer employed).
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