UPDATED: Corrected to note that, like Heritage, Gingrich too no longer favors the individual mandate.——The individual mandate is an idea from the Heritage Foundation. Unfortunately, the person who came up with the individual mandate never lost his job and Heritage as the brain child has given cover to both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich for their support of it.But the individual mandate is not conservative despite its Heritage Foundation origins and gives to the congress more power than is allotted it in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution.Consider, though, that MItt Romney stills cling to the individual mandate as a good idea. The Heritage Foundation itself has long since apologized and repudiated the individual mandate. Back in 2010, Robert Moffitt of the Heritage Foundation wrote, “Our research in the ensuing two decades has led us to realize our initial idea was operationally ineffective and legally defective.”Unfortunately, its creator is still around no doubt coming up with other bad ideas using the Heritage label to defend. But fortunately, the Heritage Foundation and Newt Gingrich, unlike Romney, is willing to admit when it makes a mistake.