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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.”
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Jack M. Balkin, a professor at Yale Law School who supports the new law, said, “The tax argument is the strongest argument for upholding” the individual-coverage requirement.

Mr. Obama “has not been honest with the American people about the nature of this bill,” Mr. Balkin said last month at a meeting of the American Constitution Society, a progressive legal organization. “This bill is a tax. Because it’s a tax, it’s completely constitutional.”
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Rob Iola wrote:Then why were Obama et. al. so vocal in saying that it wasn't a tax?

Rob Iola wrote:Then why were Obama et. al. so vocal in saying that it wasn't a tax?

danefan wrote:I don't really understand why this is even news. The provisions of the health care bill that deal with penalites and the like are all additions to the Tax Code.

GannonFan wrote:Clearly it was and is and always has been a tax. However, just one more example of how badly the health care reform was packaged and sold to the public (although the public never really appeared to be sold on it anyway) - when you have George Stephanapolous grilling Obama that it is a tax and Obama goes to great lengths to claim that it's not a tax only to have the administration months later defend it as a tax is just one more example of the missteps that have plagued this administration.

danefan wrote:I don't really understand why this is even news. The provisions of the health care bill that deal with penalites and the like are all additions to the Tax Code.

Pwns wrote:

danefan wrote:I don't really understand why this is even news. The provisions of the health care bill that deal with penalites and the like are all additions to the Tax Code.

The federal government calling a spade a spade is big news.

danefan wrote:

Rob Iola wrote:Then why were Obama et. al. so vocal in saying that it wasn't a tax?

No clue, but I guess that the Administration was playing politics and the Tea Party members have effectively turned Tax into a 4-letter word (fine by me). I don't see how anyone with a brain didn't realize the "Penalty" in the bill was in fact a tax-based penalty.

1. Its in the Tax Code.
2. Its administerred by the IRS.

Col Hogan wrote:

danefan wrote:
No clue, but I guess that the Administration was playing politics and the Tea Party members have effectively turned Tax into a 4-letter word (fine by me). I don't see how anyone with a brain didn't realize the "Penalty" in the bill was in fact a tax-based penalty.

1. Its in the Tax Code.
2. Its administerred by the IRS.

I've tried to find where the MSM told the people it's a tax...or any of the Democratic leadership in arguing for support called it a tax...

In fact...how would the average person know it was a tax if the legislation wasn't posted until the last minute...

Seems to be the classic example of bait and switch......but that's just my opinion...