A Tax Is a Tax Is a Tax

Weekly Standard ^ | Tuesday July 3, 2012

[Bigtigermike]

One of the few bright spots in last week’s Supreme Court ruling on President Obama’s health care overhaul was a political one: The opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts argues that Obamacare is constitutional under the taxing powers of Congress. The Obama administration’s advocate before the Court, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, made this case during oral arguments, and Roberts bought it. The decision, in a sense, formalized what many conservatives had long argued: The Obamacare tax is a tax.

[....]

Fehrnstrom explained: “The governor disagreed with the ruling of the Court. He agreed with the dissent written by Justice Scalia, which very clearly stated that the mandate is not a tax.” Later, Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg confirmed that Romney doesn’t consider the mandate a tax, telling ABC News: “Governor Romney thinks it is an unconstitutional penalty.”

[....]

The Obama campaign, understanding the gift it’d been given, pounced quickly, tweeting: “Romney campaign: The individual mandate is a penalty on free riders, not a tax,” and sending out the video of Fehrnstrom on MSNBC. It’s not every day that a Democratic campaign turns to the spokesman for their rival to settle a semantic debate.

Congressional Republicans are reluctant to speak on the record, not wanting to take shots at their nominee, but it’s clear that many of them are not happy. "Romney is quickly proving himself to be what some of us expected, very reactionary without a clear alternative to Obamacare," said one Republican congressman. "The American people want and need the truth from him. Romneycare was both legal and a failure at the state level. Romney should just come clean."

[Paladin2]

The tax is a cucumber.

[Monitor]

It’s a snow cone maker. That’s what it is.

[Jack Hydrazine]

[Salim Abu Aziz reveals a nuclear weapon]
Salim Abu Aziz: Do you know what this is?
Harry: I know what this is...
[Salim smiles]
Harry: This is an espresso machine.
[Salim frowns]
Harry: No, no wait. It’s a snow cone maker.
[Salim approaches Harry]
Harry: Is it a water heater?
-True Lies (1994)

[Tublecane]

“without a clear alternative to Obamacare”

I reject the notion that we need a clear alternative to scrap Obamacare. It’s not like Obama was clear on what he wanted, anyway, aside from that whatever it was more people should have insurance and the whole shebang should cost less. There was the general Fabian goal of eventually socializing the industry, but the exact setup kept changing based on what was possible to pass. No one knows what the hell it all means at this point, even the very few who have bothered reading snippets of the bill, much less those who think now healthcare is free.

Romney’s plan is clear enough for a politican, but that shouldn’t matter. Only minds poisoned by the Do Something bias think keeping Obamacare is better than nothing. No, very often nothing is better than something. The system as it was ante-Obamacare had its evils, but Obamacare is evil through and through. Less evil is better than more. Therefore, Republicans ought not need an alternative.

[Harley]

Any money collected to establish, operate and/or sustain a government run program is a TAX.

[DrC]

“the exact setup kept changing based on what was possible to pass”

So true. I followed the bill(s) closely as they lurched through Congress. By the end it was clear that the Dems “needed” to pass ANYTHING that could be labeled “health reform” to save face for the president. Everyone recognized that because he’d gone all-in after the Scott Brown election (rather than follow the more sensible advice of Rahm Emanuel to dial back and accept a much more limited bipartisan compromise), he would have been crippled by a defeat on this issue. They made it sound as if he wouldn’t be able to accomplish a single other thing while in office if he were undercut in this fashion.

It was a very risky gamble that unfortunately for American voters paid off in March 2010 (and then exploded in the Dems’ face once November rolled around: but Obama and Pelosi didn’t care. They were quite willing to accept the political collateral damage that ensued since all they were focused on was the history books).