Romney camp sides with Obama that health insurance mandate is not tax

washingtonpost.com ^

[tsowellfan]

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign on Monday rejected a Republican attack on the Affordable Care Act, repudiating a contention made in last week’s Supreme Court decision that the law’s requirement that individuals carry medical coverage amounts to a tax.

The Romney team’s refusal to invoke the word “tax” with regard to the individual mandate puts the candidate at odds with others in his party at a moment when Republicans are attempting to capi­tal­ize on the Supreme Court’s decision, which deemed President Obama’s health-care law constitutional. Some Republican-led states are trying to thwart the legislation’s effort to cover the poor.

In an interview Monday on MSNBC, Romney campaign senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said the former Massachusetts governor “disagrees with the court’s ruling that the mandate was a tax.”

Although disappointing to conservatives, the justices’ decision contained what they regard as two silver linings: the potential to fuel political opposition to the law and a path to undermine its substance.

First, in ruling that Congress has the ability under its taxation power to fine people who choose not to have health coverage, the court undercut Obama’s credibility on how to define that provision. The president had insisted repeatedly that it is not a tax....

[bestintxas]

No clearer example of why Romney was never the best choice from the GOP field.

1. Too moderate (I want to get along)
2. His record sucks
3. Foolish to even open his mouth and utter words (He should have just said “I respect the Supreme Court’s decision and will abide by it”.)
4. Out-of-touch with Americans who say “IT IS A TAX, STUPID”
45. Like McCain, trying desparately to fail.

We need new leadership. Sarah, where are you?

[txrefugee]

Charles Krauthammer looked foolish on Fox’s Special Report yesterday trying to explain away this stupid blunder by the Romney campaign. Get used to it, Charles. There will be more to follow.

[DManA]

Fehrnstrom is the idiot who made the infamous “Etch-a-sketch” comment. Judge a candidate by the advisers he keeps.

Fehrnstrom is a first class fool.

[hal ogen]

Just how pointed are the heads of Romney’s advisors?

[mmichaels1970]

Romney agrees with Kennedy, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito.

I do too. Obamacare is an unconstitutional mandate.

I understand that it's time to play politics and things have to be done and said to win.

However, when I think about it honestly, in my view this is more of a Roberts tax than an Obama tax. The law that Obama passed was and still is unconstitutional. Roberts created his own law.

[crosshairs]

The way I see it, it’s a penalty AND a tax.

[bgill]

Further proving he’s nothing but Obama-lite.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Keep mentioning her.

Either she’ll be VP in 2012, rallying all our side to vote.

Or she’ll be President in 2016.

Or... Both.

[skeeter]

Willard McCain?

Never mind the Romney campaign. Independent PACs will have to drag his pathetic arse across the finish line.

[Kratos]

The GOP does not intend to WIN!!! That’s the real issue here. They are not going to do anything except throw the fight! This is a totally rigged election, like the last one.

[Da Coyote]

I’ve said RINOmney is a vapid dork.

QED.

Welcome to the world of Obama lite if we elect the dork.

Which, I guess, is better than another four years of the Muslim Cretin.

[moovova]

Regardless of what “it” is...I’m feeling penalized already...and, I haven’t even refused to buy insurance yet.

[DManA]

What the hell difference does it make if it's a tax or not.

It is TYRANNY!!

[KC_Conspirator]

This is a lying bullshit article trying to say that Romney agrees with Obama on Obamacare, when he does not.

[Jim Noble]

Look, the fine or penalty passed by Congress and signed by the President is NOT a tax, no matter what Roberts said.

Is it an excise? No.
Is it a duty? No.
Is it an impost? No.
Is it apportioned among the several States? No.
Is it a tax on income? No.

Therefore, it is not a tax in the forms that the Constitution grants taxing power to Congress.

Republicans who are jumping on the "tax increase" bandwagon are idiots.

[tsowellfan]

Are you trying to help the Obama media push this talking point here and divide US and get obama elected !

I don’t trust your motives here !

Can you show me the link where Mitt Romney has come out against THIS biggest tax hike in American history called ObamaCare? You post it here in comments and I will post it on FR (if it does not already have its own thread). Send me the link where Romney calls this for what it really is.

“The president said it was not a tax,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “The Supreme Court, which has the final say, says it is a tax.”

[svcw]

To the headline: of course he does.

[tsowellfan]

The Supreme Court, which has the final say, says it is a tax.

[svcw]

Judge a candidate by the advisers he keeps.

Ok, and Romney's advisers say he will not repeal obamaCare.

[mmichaels1970]

The Supreme Court, which has the final say, says it is a tax.

And the Supreme Court also says that abortion is a basic human right.