WWLTV.com
Email: webteam@wwltv.com | Twitter: @WWLTV
WASHINGTON -- Gov. Bobby Jindal faced off in a health care debate on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.
Jindal refused to comment on being chosen as a vice presidential candidate, saying nobody's going to the voting booth and voting based on who is vice president – a departure from his standard "I have the job I want" position he’s held over the years.
"We're not speculating," Jindal said. "We're not talking about that."
In the debate he and former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean both said they dislike the individual mandate, but have very different points of view on the Supreme Court's decision to uphold it.
“Look, the founding fathers intended for each state to be a laboratory of experimentation,” Jindal said. “I come from one of the most distinct cultural states in the entire country. Mardi Gras is great for Louisiana. May not work as well in Vermont or other states. The reality is what works in Massachusetts may not be appropriate to another state.”
“I don't like the individual mandate either, and I don't think it was necessary, but it's there,” Dean said. “The Supreme Court has spoken. The Congress has spoken. The president has spoken. Mitt Romney has shown this can work because it did work in Massachusetts with 98 percent of people covered. I don't want to live in a country where 22 percent of the kids who are American kids in Texas don't have health insurance, and I think it's our obligation as a society to make sure everybody has health insurance, and that is what this bill does.”
Jindal added that more than 96 percent of Louisiana children have healthcare coverage.
