Mandates are bad, period

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/02/19/insurers-oddly-unenthusiastic-about-cost-free-contraception/

Statists believe that mandates can be justified if only it can be shown there are no negative consequences. If statists can show benefits resulting from mandates, then it's statism express, baby. Republicans have to make the case that government intervention in the economy makes a free market impossible, and even if some theoretical long term benfits can be proclaimed from mandates, they are unconstitutional and, in the long run, when all interventions are taken into account, destructive of economic growth and liberty in general. On principle, anyone who values freedom must be against all government mandates covering all economic activity.