Jay Carney Quotes Mitt Romney Saying Individual Health Insurance Mandate ‘A Conservative Idea’

(By Tommy Christopher, Mediaite) - Just when things were going so well for Mitt Romney, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has to come along and throw a wrench into the works. Romney overtook former frontrunner Rick Perry in a Fox News poll, but a favorable quote from President Obama‘s spokesman isn’t likely to be helpful. Carney was asked about the pending lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act, and buttressed his response by quoting Romney as saying that the individual mandate was “a conservative idea.”

Romney defended his state’s individual mandate at length on Sean Hannity’s radio show Wednesday, and Carney was apparently listening. Asked if the President is disappointed that his health care reform law is going to the Supreme Court, and could “potentially be a divisive issue, he reiterated the administration’s confidence that the law will be upheld, spoke about the benefits that Americans are already seeing from the Act, and then he went to work on Romney.