“Changing Tune”? No, Changing Semantics
By Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy on July 19, 2010 at 6:00 PM in Bamboozling, Congress (House & Senate), Current Affairs, Economy, Health Care, Hoodwinking, MSM, Media Bias, Media, Blogs
The NY Times had an article recently entitled, “Changing Stance, Administration Now Defends Insurance Mandate as a Tax.” Why the hell is this news? Had they or any other water-carriers in the MSM actually done their jobs when this bill, now a law, came out, they would have KNOWN this already. Those of us who had our eyes and ears open sure knew it (not that we weren’t assailed by the Obamanation for claiming such a thing).
Is this really the level of press we have now in this country? No wonder we are in such dire straits.
Let me just share with you the beginning of this article:
When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.”And that power, they say, is even more sweeping than the federal power to regulate interstate commerce.
Administration officials say the tax argument is a linchpin of their legal case in defense of the health care overhaul and its individual mandate, now being challenged in court by more than 20 states and several private organizations.Under the legislation signed by President Obama in March, most Americans will have to maintain “minimum essential coverage” starting in 2014. Many people will be eligible for federal subsidies to help them pay premiums.
In a brief defending the law, the Justice Department says the requirement for people to carry insurance or pay the penalty is “a valid exercise” of Congress’s power to impose taxes.
Congress can use its taxing power “even for purposes that would exceed its powers under other provisions” of the Constitution, the department said. For more than a century, it added, the Supreme Court has held that Congress can tax activities that it could not reach by using its power to regulate commerce.
While Congress was working on the health care legislation, Mr. Obama refused to accept the argument that a mandate to buy insurance, enforced by financial penalties, was equivalent to a tax.
Ah, yes. Obama’s refusal that this was a tax. As the article points out, Obama flat out lied, um, I mean, denied that was the case in his discussion with George Stephanopoulos. I am sure you remember this little video highlight:
So, apparently, Stephanopoulos was right, and Obama lied to his, and our, face.
We also know, now (well, those who denied it then know now), that this law WILL add a ton to our deficit. Another bigass lie from Obama, thanks so much. Pretty much every claim made by Obama, in that clip and while campaigning for this law, has turned out to be a lie.
I blame him, but mainly, I blame a Congress that didn’t bother to read the damn thing before voting on it, not unlike the recent “Financial Reform Bill,” and a media that failed to do their duty in accurately reporting the discrepancies between what Obama said, and what the law said. And I fault all three for ridiculing those of us who were asking reasonable questions about how this bill would affect our personal health care, how much it would cost, and how it would be paid, even, as always, using the race card against us. The attacks were constant and unrelenting.
Surprise, surprise – we were right all along. And one other thing about which we were right, which the article also mentions: those 16,000 new IRS agents, the funding of which was not set apart in the bill. Yes, we will have to note on our Income Tax returns whether or not we have health insurance. The IRS, despite its claims that it is not set up for this, and is not trained for this, will be policing us and our small businesses to make sure we are compliant.
Oh, and one last thing about the ObamaCare Law:
Can we finally agree that Obama is a massive liar, who uses condescension and derision to dismiss and discount reasonable questions about his plans? If not now, when? How much more are we going to be screwed before Congress stops doing Obama’s bidding?
I shudder to think.
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, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
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