The only legal peg on which Chief Justice Roberts was able to hang his hat in ruling Obamacare constitutional was a broad reading of the Taxing Clause. In order to do so, he had to deliberately misread the Obamacare law; had he not done so, the law would have been struck down as a violation of the Commerce Clause.
Nonetheless, the Obama administration insists that Obamacare isn’t a tax.
The latest Obama spokesperson to deny Roberts’ logic and essentially admit that Obamacare is unconstitutional is Jack Lew, the White House Chief of Staff. This morning, he appeared on CNN to explain:
First of all, the law is clear, it’s called a penalty. Second of all, what the Supreme Court ruled is that the law is constitutional. Actually, they didn’t call it a tax. They said it was using the power under the constitution that permits it. It was not labeled.
This is, simply put, a lie. Lew’s first two sentences are in direct conflict with one another. The law is clear – it’s called a penalty. But if the administration is going to stand by its original construction of the statute, they can’t then claim that the Supreme Court ruled it constitutional on their basis. The notion that the Supreme Court ruled the statute constitutional without any specific basis is simply false. Lew continued:
This is a penalty. It’s something that only 1 percent of people who can afford insurance and choose not to get it will pay. Everyone who has insurance, everyone who chooses to buy insurance will not pay it. What they’re going to get is security — they’re going to get lower premiums and better health care. That’s a good thing for the American people.
It’s also a lie that a tiny percentage of the population will pay the penalty.
Anyone who believes it is not a tax, is just plain stupid. In fact there are over 22 (twenty-two) taxes and if I am not mistaken 12 will affect us. Some of the taxes have nothing to do with health care – like the taxes you are going to pay when you sell your house. Who in the hell did you think was going to fund this? the tooth fairy? – and the people that will be footing most of the bill? those making 30K to 250K. A family making 30K a year, after deductions will pay $2200 more taxes each year. Don’t believe me? just wait and see for yourselves.
Romney better be paying attention and paying attention hard. Most of the people in the United States do NOT want this.
Disenchanted@#1 – What??? You never heard about the “Obama Stash”?!?! – The ‘magical stash’ that appears out of nowhere or grown on that tree in the back of the WH???….and ‘we don’t care’ cause that’s the reason why ‘we voted for him’!!! Obaaama! Obaaama! Obaaama! Yep! That about says it all…
I Pray for America and my fellow Patriots…
It doesn’t matter what talking heads of the Obama Administration say, it’s has been officially declared a tax for all legal purposes. Their own representative lawyers argued in the courts that it was a tax (under the blessing of the Obama administration,) and they did not withdraw that claim. The Supreme Court’s decision declared it (on the case presented by the Administration’s lawyers,) to legally be considered a tax, that makes it a TAX. Period, end of discussion. Unless they would like Roberts to reverse his decision and declare it “not a tax” (in which case the law would be unconstitutional, as that was the only reason it was found by the SCOTUS to be “Constitutional under the Congress’ powers of taxation”). They can not have it both ways: They either lied to the SCOTUS, or they are lying to us now.