Republicans claim that individual mandates are unconstitutional, but the first president to embrace the concept was a Republican: Richard Nixon. In 1989 President George H W Bush assembled a plan that would require individuals to buy insurance. Romney relied on the same model to create what he calls "the ultimate conservative plan" in Massachusetts, the plan that would, in turn, go on to serve as the basis for Obamacare. Now, all of a sudden the Republicans claim the bill is unconstitutional!