[skeeter]

The mandate vs tax thing was a finesse intended to get the thing through the courts, and Obama through his re-election campaign.

Bottom line is the government now has a huge new source of $$$ with which to continue propping up the welfare state, which is slowly going broke, as well as a huge stick to use to beat compliance into the electorate in the future (rationing health care).

[BobL]

“Bottom line is the government now has a huge new source of $$$”

If it were even Clinton, I would agree that you don’t want to give the government a new revenue stream. But this bunch simply DOES NOT CARE about whether revenue comes in. You can tell that because they keep agreeing to extend our low tax rates, even with deficits that will make Greece look fiscally responsible.