HEALTHCARE HEADLINE: Obama Imposes Huge Tax On American Middle Class.
Romney’s likely take: Obama said it wasn’t a tax. The Supreme Court says he lied.
UPDATE: McConnell: Supreme Court Ruling Shows Healthcare Law Was Sold On A Deception.
Obama “promised up and down that this bill was not a tax,” McConnell said. “Well, the Supreme Court has spoken.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the Supreme Court’s ruling on the 2010 healthcare law reveals that the individual mandate is constitutionally acceptable when seen as a tax, even though Democrats tried to argue that it wasn’t a tax to help get it passed.
“The President of the United States himself promised up and down that this bill was not a tax,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “This was one of the Democrats’ top selling points, because they knew it would never have passed if they said it was a tax.”
That’s true. More thoughts from J. Christian Adams.
Also Ira Stoll, who opens with this: “Though the decision will widely be portrayed as a victory for President Obama — his signature legislative accomplishment was ratified as constitutional by a Supreme Court majority that included George W. Bush-appointed chief justice John Roberts — it isn’t necessarily clear that it will be a victory. By calling the mandate a tax, the court made an official ruling that President Obama had violated his 2008 campaign promise not to raise taxes on anyone earning less than $250,000 a year. And the ruling also keeps ObamaCare alive as a political issue. A ruling that struck down the law might have energized Obama supporters. This ruling may make the law’s opponents even more determined to elect a Republican president and Congress so that they can repeal the law or, failing that, defund it.”
Yeah, expect to see this video a lot:
Related: Issa to Obama: What Happened To ObamaCare Not Being A Tax? “In selling Obamacare, Congressional Democrats and President Obama assured the American people that it was not a tax. Today, the Supreme Court ruled it was, in fact, a tax. This tax was imposed on the American people amidst an extended recession and is one of the many reasons our economy remains stagnant under President Obama’s leadership.”