The Supreme Court is expected to drop its game changing decision about the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. ObamaCare) any day now, and with Justice Scalia now signaling his opposition to the government's past latitude in using the commerce clause to enforce legislation, it's sure not looking good for the individual mandate that the entire law hinges on -- which could in turn bring the whole thing down. Of course, the very notion of the individual mandate originated in the '90s with Republicans, who wanted a market-based, rather than government-based approach to solving the health coverage issues facing our country.

Indeed, this was something that folks on the left wildly opposed in the lead-up to ObamaCare's passage, preferring a single payer or government option plan. But you'd never know that to hear the rhetoric out there from some of the politicos and pundits decrying the law. Once President Obama and the Democrats embraced the mandate as valid mechanism to try and solve the problem, it suddenly became "Socialism this" and "Fascism that." Politics as usual. So, how exactly did the Republicans execute such a complete 180 on the individual mandate, an idea that they'd proposed and championed? Ezra Klein offers one take. Brian Beutler responds to Klein with another. Both are worth checking out.