Those who have even cursory familiarity with the Constitution are aware that the province of raising taxes belongs to Congress. As such, the area of politics where most antitax work gets done is the arena of Congressional races, rather than in the Presidential race – that is, unless you have a case of rank betrayal, as was the case when George H. W. Bush went back on his “Read my lips, no new taxes” pledge.
Fortunately for Mitt Romney, he isn’t running for Congress. He tried that already. Now he’s the GOP nominee for President, and in the event that he wins, his only province over taxes will be the veto power, which he has already pledged to employ.
Specifically, he signed this.
However, in the event that Romney becomes President, there is a much bigger question he will have to tackle – namely, the appointment of Supreme Court Justices when and if there is a vacancy on the Court. And given that the deciding vote in perhaps the most controversial case of the last decade – the Obamacare case – was cast by a Republican appointee, this duty is a potential minefield, especially considering that the Court‘s ruling declaring Obamacare a tax offers Romney’s party a potent political weapon.
So what’s Romney to do? Jump on the easy “It’s a tax” line of attack, thus signaling that he agrees with the ruling by the Court, in order to score cheap political points, or repudiate the decision in its entirety, thus signaling that as President, he would only appoint ideologically reliable judges? In other words, will Romney take a position based on politics, or based on principle?
Well, in a choice that may surprise some people, Romney is going with principle, at least if the words of his surrogate Eric Fernstrohm are any guide. Fernstrohm recently spoke to MSNBC’s Chuck Todd and said straight out that not only does his boss (Romney) not believe that the individual mandate is a tax, but he believes the Court got it wrong and Obamacare is still unconstitutional. Watch below:
The system is what it is, and disagreeing with the supreme court is like shoveling sand against the tide. If mittens wants to win he’ll call it what it is, what it’s always been; a socialist attack on the free enterprise foundations of our nation and the world’s biggest tax increase on the middle class. Where was his principled stand while governor on socialist healthcare or anti-second amendment state laws? (hint: the wrong side).
A rose by any name.
I would think that a program made up in a state is like black and white compared to the
OBAMA HEALTH CARE FOR ALL THE PEOPLE, NOT EVEN TO BE CHALLENGED BECAUSE THE FEDERAL PROGRAM JUMP OVER THE STATE, ANY STATE WHO HAS CREATE A PROGRAM TO BALANCE THE HEALTH CARE BETWEEN THE HAVE AND HAVE NOT,
IT IS EVEN BETTER THAN THE FEDERAL IMPOSING THE AND ANY PROGRAM, SPECIALLY THIS GOVERNMENT OF COMMUNIST AGENDA, FILL WITH AGENCIES AND SUB AGENCIES AND SUB SUB WHATEVER PAID RICHLY BY THE PEOPLE FROM ALL THE STATES.
AT LEAST THE STATES MAKING A HEALTHCARE PROGRAM ARE FITTING IT TO THEIR OWN PEOPLE NOT TO THE OTHER STATES, AND THAT’S WHAT MITT ROMNEY DID, IN HIS OWN STATE,
BUT THE IDIOTS IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT STOLE PART OF IT, AND ADDED THOUSANDS OF REGULATIONS TO FIT WHAT THEY SEE AS A ROBOT POPULATION, AS OPPOSE TO EACH STATES DOING IT WAS TO FIT THE MANY DIFFERENT CASES INVOLVED IN THEIR PROGRAM LOOKING AT INDIVIDUALS LIVES, NOT ROBOTS ALL IN THE BAGS MADE UP BY OBAMA’S DEMOCRATS WHICH BY DOING THEIR HEALTHCARE PROGRAM HAVE SHOWN THEY THINK EVERYONE IS SAME AS THE OTHER, THERE FOR THEY HAVE INSULTED THE PRIDE OF THE NATION LIKE THE UNITED STATES IS, HAS ALWAYS BEEN AND WON’T TOLERATE TO BE TREATED LIKE THE FOREIGN PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE EAST WHO ARE HOMOGENOUS AND ALWAYS KEPT POOR TO BE COUNTINUOSLY RULED WITH THREATS OF HORRIBLE BEATING OR BUTCHERY DEATH, THEY ARE LED BY FEAR,
AND OBAMA IS TRYING THE CONTROL OF MASSES WHICH IF HE IS LEFT THERE IN POWER COULD BE JUST A LEAP CLOSER TO THE ULTIMATE CONTROL, AS WE SEE HIM WORKING HARD AT IT, AND NOW EASYER TO READ THAT HIS AGENDA IS NEFARIOUS FOR AMERICA,
WHICH WILL ALWAYS REPEL BY AMERICANS, WHO HAVE THE UNIQUE LEGACY OF HAVING
SPEND LIVES TO PROTECT HUMANITY UNDER THOSE OPPRESSORS, THEY CAN SMELL THE RAT HERE
SHOWING HIS NOSE FASTER THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRIES, BECAUSE THEY HAVE FOUGHT AND STILL BRAVELY FIGHT AND GUARDING AROUND THE WORLD TO PREVENT IT OR EXPOSE IT.
THEREFOR THEY WILL ABSOLUTELY DEFEAT ANYONE IN POWER TRYING TO DESTROY WHAT THEY HAVE SPEND SO MUCH PRECIOUS BLOOD AND LIMBS TO PRESERVE IT FROM HAPPENING.
Whatever the means of financing, it was begun and was finalized in the Congress as part of bill. Whether the Supreme Court wants to call it a tax or a penalty makes little difference.
It should also be pointed out that Romney is, in fact, agreeing with Obama/Pelosi/Reid that it is a penalty and not a tax… and that’s okay as long as it’s at the State level. If that’s what Romney wants to peddle, he still won’t consummate a sale with me. Bad policy is bad policy, despite the level of Government where it’s implemented.
It also has to be noted that Romney’s State “penalty” translated to a national tax increase because of the significantly higher trend of adding to the Medicaid rolls, which is funded by the federal government and every tax payer in states outside of MA. This is a plus?
He has no moral high ground here, and he should be dodging the health care discussion at all levels. He loses on all counts. If he believes states should follow the MA model by choice, he’s still engineering massive federal tax increases… which he still apparently thinks is just dandy.
Romney is Correct here…. the MANDATE, was NOT a TAX, Obama SAID SO! LOL!!
IT was WRITTEN in the LAW as a FINE!!
the SCOTUS declared it otherwise… Showing Obama MISLEAD everyone….
But AS WRITTEN, Romney is being HONEST.
Unfortunately, using that approach, it also means Obama/Pelosi/Reid are also “honest”, Hankster. Either they are all liars, or all “honest, as written”. Romney doesn’t get a pass either.
Liberal1… so YOU support allowing the SCOTUS, to WRITE/RE-WRITE laws passed by Congress AT WILL???
I.E. LEGISLATE from the BENCH?? Then why Bother electing and PAYING Congress??
Here’s the take away I found in the comments to the article:
Now that the RNC is beating up obamacare as a tax, the dems will defend it as a penalty
It’s chess. So long as the RNC continues to push obamatax as a tax and Romney attacks the DNC’s defense of calling it a mandate as unconstitutional, I’m onboard. Team Romney and the RNC have invalidated both narratives. If it is a tax, it sucks and if it is a mandate, it’s not Constitutional.
MOSSOMO
HI’ I don’t think we can sink MITT ROMNEY, he is far from being a fool we are getting use to have in the leadership
he has won the high respect of many leaders of the STATES AND CONSERVATIVES , that is much telling
of what they found has satisfied their judgement , that he deserve the position he is working to win,
they came close to him enough to like what they found, and they are in a position to tell their mind to the public at large without fear of any negative comment. they are the one who finish the vetting of MITT ROMNEY,and at this time we might gain CONFIDENCE that he will do a far better effort to lead with WISDOM and unite the people most of the smart one to vote for him, as we see now already.because of his superiority in many issues and ability to help this nation,
because his love for AMERICA as a number one requirement plus other needed ability he has on his background very necessary to be a good PRESIDENT.
they on the other side, try to trash him because they are scare of his superiority but
by now everybody know of OBAMA is a constant liar,
so they made their bed by lying to the people, who are for many suspicious by now of his ability to lead, and lost any confidence that OBAMA will get the jobs for the PEOPLE he had time to show his ability, and noting came out now he is rushing to have jobs, starting , only to be re-elected, that might be shaky jobs unreliable which might not hold after the election ,
bye
@mossomo, Romney is not calling it a mandate, he’s calling it a “penalty”… meaning he is echoing the same as Obama, Pelosi and Reid. Nice of him to chime in and agree, which the Dems are more than happy to point out at their liberal blogs.
The only difference between Romney and Obama – each dutifully denying they implemented tax increases for nanny government reasons – is he believes the mandate/penalty is cooler than snot at the State level, and way uncool at the federal level.
If you want to get an earful of what Mitt’s main problem is, and why he should just keep his trap shut on the decision, here’s his presentation of RomneyTax to the Heritage Foundation in 2006. Warning.. have some antacids on hand.
Note that the MA premiums were supposed to become “affordable”… nope. That didn’t happen.
Also note that if they weren’t affordable, he stated they would be subsidized. That did happen with the massive increase of MA citizens on the Medicaid rolls… all paid for by debt service on the backs of citizens of every state in the union.
Also note that Mitt had in mind not only garnishing of wages for any unpaid “penalty/mandate”, but also suggested linking the mandate to having to show proof of *health* insurance before they could get a drivers license. Not just car insurance, but health insurance as well.
This for my POTUS? Hell no. Swapping one loser for another isn’t an improvement. Just shows me that the next four years are really going to be a bumpy downhill coaster ride for the nation, no matter which loser wins. What a joke. No… make that a surreal nightmare.
MATA
DO YOU HAVE ANOTHER CHOICE? IS THERE ANOTHER SOLUTION NOW?
LOOK AT ALL THE PRESIDENTS SINCE THE BEGINNING, DID ANY ONE WAS PERFECT?
WITHOUT ANY SINS?
BUT FOR SURE THEY LOVED AMERICA, AND MITT ROMNEY DOES,
AND ALL THE MORMONS DOES, YOU JUST HAVE TO HEAR THEM SING THE SONGS ON AMERICA,
THERE ARE NO DOUBT ABOUT THEIR PATRIOTISM,
BYE
There are no choices this election season, Bees. Just the hope and a prayer that some resemblance of the nation as founded can survive either of these two, and that the next election gives us a better choice. We’ve lived thru bad choices, and no choices before.
Historically, the nation always survives the one in the Oval Office… albeit the clean up may be intense. It’s Congress we really have to worry about this year. The WH is a wash.
@MataHarley:
So tell us all, Mata, who are you going to vote for as President? Or are you just not going to vote and forfeit the right to bitch about what the winner does?
It is people like you that Obama is counting on.
My my. I’m sure it would be a revelation to the 41-51% of registered or (eligible to register) voters who haven’t turned out in presidential elections over the past four decades to learn they’ve lost their 1st Amendment rights, according to the learned advocate of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, retire05. That figure gets even worse for the all important midterms. Do you think they’ve all realized they never had 1st Amendment rights in retire’s world?
geez… talk about rewriting the Constitution. What would we do without such scholars, dribbling such euphemistic pearls of Constitutional wisdom, gracing our midst.
How I choose to handle my privilege of voting is none of your business, retire, and is still a respected privacy right last I looked. Neither Obama nor Mitt will be getting my vote. But whether I choose to vote 3rd party, write in a candidate – including a possible none of the above – makes no difference to the EC or to Obama. Not only is this my only direct chance to speak my mind politically and electorally – which I value tremendously – my state is already secure in Obama’s back pocket.
So unless you are desirous of further demonstrating your utter disregard for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights by advocating a popular vote, I’d say that Obama’s not the fool you prove yourself to be, believing he must be “counting” on my vote in a state that is not even close to being a swing state.
MATA
yes, we’ll take the CONGRESS ALL TO THE CONSERVATIVES ALSO,
WE WILL PUT THE JUDGE NAPOLITANO IN THE HIGHEST COURT,
HE WILL NOT CHEAT US
I see MITT ROMNEY AS NOT A DESTRUCTOR LIKE OBAMA,
HE IS A BUILDER HE WILL BRING THE JOB CREATOR BACK LIKE A MAGNET,
DON’T BE SO DEPRESS, LOOK AHEAD, THERE IS HOPE , WE’RE IN JULY,
AUGUST COMING, SEPTEMBER WOW THAT WILL BE ALL
EFFERVESCENCE AROUND,
OCTOBER, OUF ELECTRICITY SPARKlING ON THE GREAT AMERICANS, THEY ARE AWAKE
AND AWARE, ACTION IS FAST AND PRECISE, WE ARE GETTING READY AND BREEDING HARD,
WE MUST GET BUSY, NOW TIME HAVE SLOWED ON AMERICA, WE MUST GET READY FOR THE PARTY,
THE BIG BANG PARTY ALL AROUND THE GLOBE, EVERY BODY FOCUS IN ONE THING THE VOTE FOR MITT ROMNEY, MATA WE’LL HAVE YOUR COMMENT, YOU MUST START FIGURING YOUR NOVEMBER POST, YOU CANNOT MISS THE MOST IMPORTANT POST OF YOUR LIFE,
MATA, IT WILL BE ONE TO NEVER FORGET, AND THE NATION WILL BREED FINALLY THE FRESH AIR
OF NOVEMBER,
AMERICA WILL SHINE ON THE HILL FOR ALL TO ADMIRE,
AND THE PEOPLE THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE WILL CRY AND SMILE AT THE SAME TIME, WHILE THE CHILDREN SING WITH THEIR ELDER, AND THE YOUTH OF THE NATION DANCE IN THE STREET ALL NIGHT, UNITED ONE PEOPLE THANKING THE MASTER OF ALL LIFE, FOR GIVING THEM ANOTHER CHANCE.
BYE
MATA
I see why you are sad,, but they did not gave their votes yet, promises don’t count until the day,
where they go vote,
Bees, I’m not sad. This most certainly isn’t the first election where I’ve had no horse in the two party POTUS race that was acceptable. Yet the nation goes on.
The damage that has been done to this nation has been perpetrated by Congresses primarily. Without their legislation, the POTUS is impotent. Also a POTUS has term limits where Congress does not. Yet the midterm elections generally enjoy the lowest turnout…. or, in retire’s world, closer to 65-75% of registered or eligible voting Americans no longer have 1st Amendment rights.
Oregon will vote Republican about the same time that all members of Congress vote themselves term limits… in other words, never in the foreseeable future. They’ve not been a conservative voting state since Reagan… and Mitt’s no Reagan. The demographics of the State have shifted, and I don’t see it moving anywhere but closer to hard core progressive, with a strong spatterings of antiwar Libertarians and Indys throw in… they still lean Dem in the elections. No internal polling for this State shows enough O’defectors to deter them from casting their ballots for him again, nor reflect a respectable Romney favorability rating as an alternative.
MATA
the CANDIDATES WHERE PURE CONSERVATIVES, I think that the people voted MITT ROMNEY as a more moderate CONSERVATIVE, because the voters freaked up by the strength of the vetting,
which was open to the public and added with the viciousness of the DEMS AND THEIR MEDIAS,who label the strong CONSERVATIVES as hard right dangerous, they went on trashing them and still are doing it ,
those who lasted longer, where close to the front row with MITT, but they did not have the money to go on, look at OBAMA , he look weak just by asking for more and more money just like a beggar no pride, specially after spending over the limit of the ceiling,
and the one still follow him are ready to vote for him, which he
would continue to render the USA broke and multiply his AGENCIES to impose THE COMMUNIST AGENDA in this AMERICA which would bring a bloody REVOLUTION in this COUNTRY, where we would see a PEOPLE are broke, no work desperate without options than to fight for the return of the lost FREEDOM.
look at the OCCUPIERS run by the UNIONS, and started by the OBAMA WHITE HOUSE,and accepted as legitimate force by the WHITE HOUSE, all complacent to them of course, it’s their destructive baby ANARCHIST they continue to support, IMAGINE THIS going on 4 more years, I think, the law officers would get tired of being hurt,unable to destroy their attackers, and start defensive measures, which they cannot defend themselves forbidden by the
WHITE HOUSE and their employees and paid by
the CITIZENS being harass, it’s a chaos now overlook yet, imagine more years of that,
and it would get bigger, to have AMERICA in a turmoil exactly fitted for OBAMA to pound the COMMUNIST HAMMER, and claim that he won
and call RUSSIA to bragg himself his victory, and openly get the UN to take the COUNTRY and declare OBAMA the dictator with still open borders for all to come in and join his army, the one he mention wishing for from the start of his 4 years term,
then without GOD there would be no more AMERICA, the good PEOPLE would be killed,
to make room for the devils worshipers already at work and growing.
@MataHarley – love your insight and slant. Don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye. But we’re not very far off. Cant deny most of your points. I will counter to the whole we don’t have a choice this election. M.Friedman made the observation that to steer a politician the electorate has to make it politically unprofitable for the pol to make bad choices. For better or worse, that dynamic played out while Mitt governed Mass when he passed what the people who elected him wanted using bullshit available political tools to fund, subsidize, misdirect moneys to the boondoggle that is. A politically win = political profit. But was Mitt’s motive ideological??? That is the danger and choice this election.
mossomo, differing opinions is the beauty of our nation. Never bothers me, and it’s celebratory that dissent is not only sanctioned as the 1st Amendment, but encouraged. But to your question… was Mitt’s motive ideological?
In 1994, when Mitt was running for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat, he gave an interview that lent his support to a federal mandate. At that time, Hillary was pushing HillaryCare, and Republican RI Senator, John Chafee, proposed an alternative…. yes, with a federal mandate. There was no dearth of Constitutionally stupid across the aisle even then.
I fail to see how Romney has grown in convictions to principles since that time. Nor that he has changed his attitudes about voting for things he is not “wild with” Therefore my faith in Romney as a conservative leader, is sorely tempered by his historic past of going with the flow… which, unfortunately, tends too often to run in parallel with his Dem colleagues. Romney worked with Ted Kennedy for RomneyCare. This can only be an indicator that he felt the mandate and the Dem’s inadequate solution to force more on to the federally funded health care rolls was superior to actually addressing the problem of making health care affordable by encourating policies that would lower the price for administering health care.
@MataHarley:
Perhaps you would like to provide the part of the First Amendment that even discusses the vote, or the responsibility of citizens to participate in elections?
If you choose not to vote, that is your personal choice that you have to live with. But frankly, it is a slap in the face of the countless men who died to protect that very right. And as to my ability to read, and comprehend the Constitution of the United States, it includes my ability to know that the First Amendment does NOT address the right of citizens to vote. Too bad you lack that comprehension.
And after reading your labored excuses, both here at over at AJ’s, to excuse the SCOTUS ruling that we can be taxed for inactivity, I am sure you will support a law that will tax you for your inactivity in the presidential elections, right?
Perhaps you, retire05, in your infinite brilliance, would like to provide the part of the 1st Amendment that limits such freedom of speech as it relates to any particular subject, save those that infringe on another’s same right. To vote, to register, or not to vote in no way impacts that right, despite your assertion that not doing so is tantamount to (paraphrased) “forfeiting your bitching rights”. Not in my country, cookie.
As for the SCOTUS ruling in the National Federation of Independent Businesses v Sebelius, while I don’t like the ruling, I have due respect for our system. The Chief Justice fired warning shots over the bow of Congress, the WH and the nation… they are not there to protect us from our political choices. Our solution lies in taking it back to Congress, who wrote the POS legislation to begin with. That is our responsibility to keep the Republic that was founded… if we can.
So feel free to continuing whining, as that is a Constitutional right that I do not wish to seize from you… unlike you who is quick to imply seizing it from others. I’ll turn my attention to the elected bodies, as is our way.
@MataHarley:
While I agree that the First Amendment gives you the right to free speech, it also gives you the right to make a fool of yourself. And I think that most [conservative] Americans who voice their opinions through the ballot box would agree that it is hypocritical for those who don’t to complain about the government we get.
As to Roberts shooting a warning shot across the bow of Congress, there are those who actually practice Constitutional law, or teach it, that disagree with you completely. Now, considering that your vanity shines through every post you make, I am sure you think that you are much more learned, and capable of determining Chief Justice Robert’s intention, than Mark Levin, John Yoo or Greg Abbott who have, unlike you, actually argued before the Supreme Court.
You see, Mata, the point that you use to claim that Roberts fired a warning shot across the bow of Congress may, or may not, be viewed as stare decisis. It may simply be viewed as dicta.
As to protecting us against our political choices, the SCOTUS most certainly is there to protect us against the wrong headed actions of the Congress when legislation violates the very Constitution itself even though the representatives were duly elected. Or do you think that the SCOTUS was right in Roe v. Wade, Kelo and Dred Scott?
I also find it ROTFLMAO funny that anytime anyone disagrees with you, you label their disagreement as “whining.”
At last… a subject you are well versed in.
Duh again… there are
threefour Supreme robed ones who disagree as well… all of whom who have more bearing on the event than Levin, Yoo or Abbott. There are also five who agree. Thus is the nature of our judicial system, and the reality that there is always dissent amongst the top enchiladas on judicial rulings. But the SCOTUS reigns supreme, and the majority has the last word. Ugly, but reality. Try to get a grip on it.@MataHarley:
“there are
threefour Supreme robed ones who disagree as well”Yes, and at least three of them a no less a political animal than any elected representative who dons the floor of Congress.
A black robe does not convey on the wearer any greater wisdom or insight, or even more God given intellect, than the ordinary man who simply thinks in terms of rationale. But what it is supposed to do, and has once again failed to do, is adhere to the Constitution as written. That is why textualists rule in the favor of the document as written and the interpretists do not. The textualist believes that words have meaning; the interpretist believes that words can be construed to mean what they want it to mean.
What is now leaking out, but not yet proven, is that Roberts actually wrote the bulk of the dissenting opinion in April and early May, and only in late May, changed his opinion to support the abomination known as Obamacare. If this is so, the timing is suspect, as Patrick Leahy threw down the gauntlet on May 14th in an unprecedented speech on the floor of the Senate aimed directly at Chief Justice John Roberts.
And no, Mata, the SCOTUS does NOT reign supreme, as it is only one leg of a three legged stool. What the SCOTUS has thrown assunder, the Congress can change.
As to looking foolish, I have no need to do that. You have already cornered the market in that area.
Speaking of looking foolish… that’s exactly what I’ve been saying. duh
@MataHarley:
Perhaps I should repharase that: the people can change.
Not all revolutions are violent. And there is one coming.