Posted on 07/01/2012 9:15:07 AM PDT by Kaslin
One of the key parts of Thursday's Supreme Court ruling regarding the President's healthcare bill was that the fine for not complying with the individual mandate must be considered a tax in order for it to be constitutional.
On CNN's State of the Union Sunday, host Candy Crowley didn't think this was a very important distinction (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):
CNN's Candy Crowley Doesn't Think It Matters If the Individual Mandate Is a Tax or a Penalty
In the middle of a discussion about the ruling, Crowley said, "Another tactic that Republicans used coming out of the Supreme Court decision, this is Minority Leader, Republican leader Mitch McConnell on the floor right after the vote."
A video clip was aired of McConnell discussing the fact that the Court ruled the penalty under the individual mandate was a tax, and that this went completely against what the President promised when it was proposed as well as how it was sold to the Congress and the American people.
“This was one of the Democrats’ top selling points because they knew it never would have passed if they said it was a tax…The bill was sold to the American people on a deception,” McConnell told Senators.
After the clip, Crowley asked guest CNN White House correspondent Dan Lothian, “Is there any resonance to this? I just, fine, penalty. I love Nancy Pelosi’s reaction, ‘Call it an aardvark, it’s constitutional.’ You know, essentially what she said. Is there resonance here?”
“I think we’ll have to wait and see,” Lothian answered. “The President clearly said, I mean, there was an interview I think was it ABC News where he said that it was not a tax, but immediately after the Court ruled, Republicans jumped all over this, and I think they’re going to continue pushing it.”
Lothian was correctly referring to a September 2009 interview Obama gave to George Stephanopoulos when he "absolutely" rejected the penalty being a tax.
Crowley didn't seem to care.
“It fits into the storyline that Republicans want to push which is he’s going to raise taxes on the middle class,” Crowley said. “But it just seems like we’re dancing on the head of a pin here. It’s a tax, it’s a penalty, it’s a fine.”
Really? So how a piece of legislation was sold to Congress and the American people is "dancing on the head of a pin?"
Even if the bill wouldn't have passed if it had been properly conveyed by the President?
Do you think Crowley would have the same opinion if a Republican president got an unpopular bill enacted under false pretenses?
Quite the contrary, she and virtually all of her colleagues would be screaming from the rooftops about the deception.
But when a Democratic president does it, not so much.
Witness her other guest USA Today’s Washington bureau chief Susan Page who completely agreed with Crowley saying, “It’s not what people hate about the healthcare law. They hate that it’s such big government, and they hate that it’s a, it’s a mandate, it’s the federal government telling them what they have to do. So it seems to me that’s not the big issue and the reason that people don’t like the healthcare law.”
No, a president lying to the American people to get a bill passed isn't "a big issue" even if it breaks his campaign promise of not raising taxes on folks earning less than $250,000.
You see, everything's acceptable no matter how deceitful as long as that president is a Democrat.
The reply to these fools must always be something like
“The Supreme Court, the law that governs you, says it is a tax. The IRS which can jail you and strip you of your posessions, is legally bound to enforce this tax. For you to stand there and say it is not a tax carries no more weight in the face of law than saying trees drive cars. Both are figments of a delusional imagination and play no part in the reality we live in. If you want to look like an uneducated fool, that is your choice.”
Just hammer them with the fact they look ignorant to their friends and they will quickly change their tune or shut up. Because appearance is everything to these idiots. Substance matters not a whit.
If a tax, it’s easier to sh*tcan the whole mess—IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED—instead of that (spit) SCOTUS.
John Candy Crowley is the absolute ugliest, maggot-iest, mannish thing given a platform that I have ever seen.
Its name should be ‘Pat’.
I’m surprised Ms Candy is focused on anything but her next plate of chow.
“it only takes 51 votes in the senate to overturn a tax, because it is not subject to filibuster.”
That is correct, plus the fact that the administration argud before the USSC that it was a tax.
Can’t have it both ways.
The Democrats love taxes and always will. Unfortunately for them, voters do not love taxes and are loath to approve them. The Left must resort to stealth (lies), to offers of more free stuff, and to exemptions for their voters to sell the notion. That’s what they did in this case and they are going to be called on it. The press will do their best to confuse the issue, we must do our best to make them pay a political price.
Candy Crowley doesn’t care whether it’s a tax or not. She doens’t care because liberal journalists don’t really care about the legal reasoning in this case. They only care that “Obama won” and that the conservatives were defeated.
I must say, I am shocked at the reasoning in this case. And concerned because the legal reasoning can be used in future cases, unrelated to healthcare. This legal precedent means that the federal government can compel us to buy any product or service, or compel us to do anything, just by putting a tax on something, and then calling it a tax, not a penalty or a fee.
But all of this is lost on the Candy Crowleys of the world. All they care about is that “Obama won”.
Either way, the SCOTUS has ruled that it is permissable to force commerce activity. That is new. That is nothing resembling freedom. That is the hallmark of a Command Economy, something the Soviet Union has a lot of experience with -- but even THEY did not go as far as demanding their citizens buy something. Not even HITLER went THAT far, demanding Germans buy "Mein Kampf".
Of course she doesn’t care; she’s all in for Obamacare.
It is the Democrats dancing on the head of a pin. The SC said (my read) that the bill is constitutional if one considers it to be a tax. So let the Dems defend the tax.
Oh ... now they don’t want to consider it a tax ... OK. Then it is unconstitutional. which is it? and who is dancing on the head of a pin?
She has always disgusted me. I make no apologies for how I feel and are even more entrenched in my opinion in that her ugliness is to the bone.
Come the time when there are 5 liberals sitting on the bench the legal semantics of calling it a tax or upholding it under the commerce provision falls by the wayside. No one ever doubted that the 4 Dems on that court would uphold every provision of Obamacare as they do with ALL marquee Dem legislation. That is why this whole theoretical concept that Roberts by upholding it under the taxation rather than commerce provision is really restricting the overreach of the Court in the future is silly.When that 5th liberal is appointed, the mindless harping of the media looking for an interesting angle to report will be just that- mindless.
Unless the voter is part of the bottom rung leeches who pay almost none or zero taxes. Then they vote for it to stick it to the rest of us. King Barry's class warfare ploy dividing the populace.
Even when the Bush Tax Cuts go, the largest single group of taxpayers that will be impacted the most are the ones currently in the 10% bracket, their tax will increase 50% to 15%...these people are the ones making about $8K to $10k..... Never fear though, liberals have already worked it out. They don't pay any damned taxes anyway. Their EITC more that makes up for it - they may just get less, but I somehow doubt Obama is priming the pump to give more exemptions for lowlife incomers. Remember I did say "it appears on the surface."
About 48% of the people in this country don't pay taxes, or their bite is very minimal - and yet they still bitch and talk about 'fair share'.
This will end one of two ways: Obama is thrown out and some sense of controllable normalcy will come back, OR he will be re-elected and all of you Baby Boomers, Gen EXERs, Milleniums and whatever infighting, fragmented, diversionist crap pastime people are carping about get ALL of their 401Ks, IRAs, Roths, Stocks/Bonds, piggy banks get taken outright to give to these leeches. You might get a 'chit' for an extra $50/month from SS if you're lucky.
Candy is not dandy.
It's not fair for some people to have better health care than others, so Obama will punish people who have premium plans.
So, this is a tax on something that you either buy too little of, or buy too much of. Obama will decide how much is good enough for you.
-PJ
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