Jonathan Chait over at TNR seems to think my earlier post on the individual mandate refutes itself. As usual, Chait is missing the point, and the fact that he neglects to quote the part of my post that refutes his point suggests he might even know that.

I said: “Some politicians may have spoken out of both sides of their mouth on the subject, but the free-market community has always vigorously opposed the idea.”

To spell this out so clearly that anyone could understand it: A bunch of GOP politicians have flip-flopped on the issue of the individual mandate. They were for it before they were against it. What a surprise. They’re politicians, you know.

The free-market movement, however, opposed this even when Republicans were in favor of it, on grounds that the Court has agreed with. I provided the proof of that. To pretend that I was trying to defend the congressional GOP is twisting my words. In order to prove his point, Chait has to put words into my mouth (“nonsense, Murray writes” — no I didn’t!). He doesn’t even seem to realize that I’m quoting my colleague Greg Conko, either, portraying Greg’s elegant prose as my own. If he’d followed the link to Greg’s post that I provided, he would have seen the long list of GOP establishment types Greg names and shames for promoting the mandate. That includes Don Nickles, the Heritage Foundation, and Mitt Romney. And he thinks I was trying to defend them?

At least he spelled my name right this time.