Oh, NOW the individual mandate is a tax

“For us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase.” – Barack Obama, September 2009

It can’t be a tax increase, see.  Barack Obama repeatedly promised that there would be no tax increases on the middle class during his presidency.  So it may be the federal government requiring you to make a business transaction and charging you money if you don’t, but “tax increase”?  Pish-tosh.  That’s just responsible government.  That’s Our Betters looking out for us.  That’s hope.  That’s change.

Here’s George Stephanopoulos asking a bristling President Obama about it (in the interview from which the above quote comes):

You know, though, gee whiz, turns out it’s a tax after all.  Quoting a July 16 New York Times article:

When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.”

And that power, they say, is even more sweeping than the federal power to regulate interstate commerce.

Administration officials say the tax argument is a linchpin of their legal case in defense of the health care overhaul and its individual mandate, now being challenged in court by more than 20 states and several private organizations.

If this surprises you, then you’re an awfully slow study.

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7 thoughts on “Oh, NOW the individual mandate is a tax”

  1. Am I allowed a few ibuprofen under this tax? Or am I taxed on the ones I already have? Or do I plunk a few coins in the box when I take them?

    I wish someone would tell me because this is giving me an awful headache.

    Which I’ll probably be taxed for.

    Reply
  2. The consequences of this rotten law are proving to be jaw-dropping. I’m more certain than I’ve ever been that we’ll get it turned back.

    Reply
  3. This ride was never fun. I’ve often not agreed with presidential decisions but this is the first that utterly disgusts me on every possible level. And, this administration manages to do it consistently.

    Over the past several years I would have had some mildly intelligent insight regarding why “X, Y or Z” was bad idea. I’m now just disgusted.

    (And, by “X, Y or Z”, I mean Obama’s Election, Health Care, Cash for Clunkers, Unemployment etc…etc)

    Reply
  4. Matt, I understand. The Obama presidency has done more to polarize my views, and find “debate,” etc. not quite so fun, than anything else in my life. Anymore I’m liable to feel like “ok, you’re an adult who’s walking around believing fairy tales, so we don’t have anything to talk about.”

    That speaks to how partisan and unyielding this administration is at least as much as it does any polemic shortcoming on my part.

    Reply

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