Posted on 07/15/2012 5:34:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Is the individual mandate in ObamaCare a tax? No, said Nancy Pelosi. No, said DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, even if the IRS is the only agency that can enforce it. No, said Jay Carney, or at least, "it is not a broad-based tax."
Of course, Mitt Romney called it a tax --- eventually. Yesterday, his opponent in the election weighed in on the issue, and … have we reached a consensus?
“By the way, if you’ve got health insurance, you’re not getting hit by a tax,” President Obama said. “The only thing that’s happening to you is that you now have more security because insurance companies can’t drop you when you get sick.”
That sounds so sweet, you’d never guess that the CBO estimates that the government will raise $54 billion in revenue from this tax in its eight years after the mandate takes effect, almost all of it from the middle class. (Remember, that’s exactly what the CBO projected we would save through federal tort reform in malpractice cases over a decade, which Democrats rejected as too extreme.) Revenues increase rather than decrease during that eight-year run, too. Why? Many employers will stop offering health-care coverage, throwing employees into the individual policy market. Businesses will pay less in fines than they do in insurance premiums, which means that many middle-class earners will face the same choice of paying for expensive individual plans or paying a fine tax instead.
So not only will some middle-class families get dropped by insurance companies, thanks to an opt-out by employers, they’ll be paying a tax on top of it, thanks to ObamaCare. Glad to see President Obama has made that clear.
HERE’s A REMINDER TO THOSE WHO FORGET....
http://foxnewsinsider.com/2012/06/28/read-obamas-2009-abc-news-interview-health-care-law-is-not-a-tax/
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Sep 20, 2009
Obama: Mandate is Not a Tax
ABC News Interview
STEPHANOPOULOS: …Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don’t. How is that not a tax?
OBAMA: Well, hold on a second, George. Here – here’s what’s happening. You and I are both paying $900, on average – our families – in higher premiums because of uncompensated care. Now what I’ve said is that if you can’t afford health insurance, you certainly shouldn’t be punished for that. That’s just piling on. If, on the other hand, we’re giving tax credits, we’ve set up an exchange, you are now part of a big pool, we’ve driven down the costs, we’ve done everything we can and you actually can afford health insurance, but you’ve just decided, you know what, I want to take my chances. And then you get hit by a bus and you and I have to pay for the emergency room care, that’s…
STEPHANOPOULOS: That may be, but it’s still a tax increase.
OBAMA: No. That’s not true, George. The – for us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase. What it’s saying is, is that we’re not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you anymore than the fact that right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase. People say to themselves, that is a fair way to make sure that if you hit my car, that I’m not covering all the costs.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But it may be fair, it may be good public policy.
OBAMA: No, but – but, George, you – you can’t just make up that language and decide that that’s called a tax increase.
OBAMA: What – what – if I – if I say that right now your premiums are going to be going up by 5 or 8 or 10 percent next year and you say well, that’s not a tax increase; but, on the other hand, if I say that I don’t want to have to pay for you not carrying coverage even after I give you tax credits that make it affordable…
STEPHANOPOULOS: I – I don’t think I’m making it up. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary: Tax – “a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.”
OBAMA: George, the fact that you looked up Merriam’s Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gone to the dictionary to check on the definition. I mean,…
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, no, but…
OBAMA: What you’re saying is…
STEPHANOPOULOS: I wanted to check for myself. But your critics say it is a tax increase.
OBAMA: My critics say everything is a tax increase. My critics say that I’m taking over every sector of the economy. You know that. Look, we can have a legitimate debate about whether or not we’re going to have an individual mandate or not, but…
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you reject that it’s a tax increase?
OBAMA: I absolutely reject that notion.
Right, just comply or face the consequences. This is the marxist idea of liberty.
And Obama sincerely believes the above.
Folks, if you have health insurance paid for in part or totally by an employer now, wait till they include that as part of your compensation package for tax purposes. Think that is unimaginable? Well, when you look at your W-2 or 1099s this year, note the little box that says “paid up health insurance”. It is now being reported “for informational purposes”. A little slip of the pen and that box gets added to total compensation in the not to distant future.
Exactly. The Dems like to say only 1% will pay the tax/penalty. The reality is that many more than that will be forced to pay for health insurance plans they don’t want or need. It is worth remembering that Obamacare dictates what must be included in what it deems as an acceptable plan. So not only must you buy health insurance, but you must buy what the government dictates. This is just as much a tax as the penalty.
Seeds of federal health care law were planted in Illinois Senate
Good point. I wonder if there is any hope at all of being able to find a high deductible, catastrophic coverage individual plan.
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