OPINION by Tina Grazier
The administration argued that the healthcare mandate was a tax before the Supreme Court:
In order to protect the new national health care law from legal challenges, the Obama administration has been forced to argue that the individual mandate represents a tax — even though Obama himself argued the exact opposite while campaigning to pass the legislation.
Late last night, the Obama Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss the Florida-based lawsuit against the health care law, arguing that the court lacks jurisdiction and that the State of Florida and fellow plaintiffs haven’t presented a claim for which the court can grant relief. To bolster its case, the DOJ cited the Anti-Injunction Act, which restricts courts from interfering with the government’s ability to collect taxes.
But did President Obama agree it was a tax as the Spectator article indicates? Let’s see what the President had to say to George Stephanopolis in an ABC interviewbefore the law was passed:
The duplicitous nature of our government in passing this law is troubling. The posturing of this administration regarding its signature legislation is very troubling. The people are well aware of the deceitful way the legislation was passed by Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. The legislation was decided behind closed doors and certain legislators were brought on board through bribery to get the necessary votes needed to pass the legislation.
This all begs the question…have the American people been deceived?
It may well be that the decision by the Supreme Court will serve to further reveal the very nature of Democrat leaders who will go to any means and any extreme to establish the big government socialist utopian final solution. If this law stands the unsustainable socialist model will have won big in America.
While the socialists amongst us are cheering it would be wise to revisit the realities that this law brings rather than the utopian promises that were made to sell it.
This ruling means that average middle class Americans, no matter how much they make, will be taxed, breaking one of Obama’s promises to tax only people making over $250 thousand dollars ($200 K for singles). It means that other taxes will be imposed on Americans in the future. See comprehensive list at the Americans for Tax Reform site. It also means the jobs outlook remains dire.
We can avoid this oppressive indentured future in November by dismissing the socialists in Congress and replacing the occupant in the White House with Mitt Romney who intends repeal of Obamacare and reasonable reforms that will address health care problems in a workable manner.
Out friend Libby has been honest from the beginning. She has maintained that universal healthcare is the true goal behind the creation of this law and the liar in the White House agrees when speaking to his union buddies:
I maintain the American people have been deliberately deceived. And you?
Why does it matter if it is a tax or not? It is there and we have to buy health insurance or pay the consequence. And here is a nice video of Mitt Romney admitting that he proposed the individual mandate in the first place
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Lmihmlb1LBY
From the 2006 video “With regards to the mandate, the individual responsibility program which I proposed, I was very pleased to see that the compromise from the two houses includes the personal responsibility principle, that is essential for bringing health care costs down for everyone, and for getting everybody the health insurance they deserve and need. So I was very pleased with that development.”
What does he say about that now? Why, why, why, why, why is this man the best we can do as Republicans?
According to the House Ways and Means Committee:
Obamacare contains 21 tax increases that will cost more than $675 billion over the next 10 years.
Those 21 tax increases include:
12 tax hikes affect families earning less than $250,000 per year.
A “Cadillac tax” on high-cost insurance plans.
A tax on insurance providers.
An excise tax on medical device manufacturers.
(My fave is the “excise tax”. Excise means tax, so in political-speak gobbledygook, it is a “tax tax”.)
Liar-In-Chief back in 2008.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzs3aoRnl0E&feature=youtu.be
What has happened is that–once again–the President has outmaneuvered the Republicans while still transferring trillions of dollars to the unnecessary insurance industry. Watch next, how he will “pool” the coverage and his biggest contributors will get the most customers.
Evil people who favor corporate wealth need only invest in insurance companies which will reap huge rewards, once they realize the windfall Obama has given them.
You realize that the Affordable Health Care Act “Obamacare” is what the Republicans proposed in response to President Clinton’s health care plan. It’s also much the same as “Romneycare”
OTOH-Q
Outmaneuvered? That’s pretty funny. He fooled the American people with LIES. They voted him and a SUPER MAJORITY DEMOCRAT CONGRESS into power and they wrote the bill behind closed doors and passed it by intimidating, coercing and bribing legislators to secure their for votes. The legislation passed with the help of only ONE Republican Senator. All the remaining Republicans in the House and Senate voted NO!
Obama outmaneuvered no one. He is a poser, a lia and a cheat and with his help from his utopian minions used dirty tricks and underhanded tactics to secure what he believes is the precurso to single payer (government) healthcare.
Were the American People Deceived, eh?
Well Tina, how can you tell when politicians lie?
Their mouths are moving.
This is not a tax increase. Most of the federal spending in the ACA is tax cuts for middle class wage earners so they can afford insurance. BUT, those cuts are not going to make insurance affordable because it is outrageously expensive. This plan was written by people who have full government health coverage and get paid an excellent wage to do nothing. Of course they think a pittance of a tax benefit will make insurance that costs $1,000 a month for a family and had a copay of $50 for office visits and a $3000 deductible affordable.
The first thing that should have happened is Congress can start paying for their own health insurance then they won’t be so eager to mandate that we pay for ours.
Slow work day …
I went to your Americans for Tax Reform site and copied the list. And mind, this is some ideologues interpretation of the Health Care Act, but, just for fun …
Individual Mandate Excise Tax(Jan 2014): Starting in 2014, anyone not buying qualifying health insurance must pay an income surtax according to the higher of the following.
Ok, this is the pay to play. You object, youre no conservative.
Exemptions for religious objectors, undocumented immigrants, prisoners, those earning less than the poverty line, members of Indian tribes, and hardship cases (determined by HHS).
I dont think much of this. Its political pandering, and those Christian Scientists have been known to abandon their principles when the cancer appears.
Employer Mandate Tax(Jan 2014): If an employer does not offer health coverage, and at least one employee qualifies for a health tax credit, the employer must pay an additional non-deductible tax of $2000 for all full-time employees. This provision applies to all employers with 50 or more employees. If any employee actually receives coverage through the exchange, the penalty on the employer for that employee rises to $3000. If the employer requires a waiting period to enroll in coverage of 30-60 days, there is a $400 tax per employee ($600 if the period is 60 days or longer).
It does sound scary, but you know what? I think employers of 50 or more will be able to find the money. Cause they always say they cant … loudly … and then they do. I always remember those winery owners, back in the 90s, when a big tax went into effect. (Its an area of long-standing interest to me, wine.) They all said: youll never see a four dollar bottle again. Two-Buck Chuck, anybody?
Surtax on Investment Income ($123 billion/Jan. 2013): This increase involves the creation of a new, 3.8 percent surtax on investment income earned in households making at least $250,000 ($200,000 single). This would result in the following top tax rates on investment income.
Ahhhhhh, the affluent … can just suck it up.
Excise Tax on Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans($32 bil/Jan 2018): Starting in 2018, new 40 percent excise tax on Cadillac health insurance plans ($10,200 single/$27,500 family). For early retirees and high-risk professions exists a higher threshold ($11,500 single/$29,450 family). CPI +1 percentage point indexed.
See previous comment.
Hike in Medicare Payroll Tax($86.8 bil/Jan 2013): Current law and changes: First $200,000 – no change …Thereafter, top rate from 1.45 to 2.35, self-employed from 2.9 to 3.9.
Again, I have to say, if you are just squeaking by on $250K plus … you can just remember Somalia and pay up. Rich people live FOREVER. If theyre gonna do 30 years on Medicare, theyre gonna pitch lots into the pot!
Medicine Cabinet Tax($5 bil/Jan 2011): Americans no longer able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).
I dont think this should ever have been allowed.
HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike($1.4 bil/Jan 2011): Increases additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.
I wouldnt be at all surprised to find that, again, the disgustingly affluent have been sheltering their income in these accounts. Cheesy, thats what that is. Nail em.
Flexible Spending Account Cap akaSpecial Needs Kids Tax($13 bil/Jan 2013): Imposes cap of $2500 (Indexed to inflation after 2013) on FSAs (now unlimited). . There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education.
You know, a private school is a private school. Public schools offer special needs education, after a fashion, and poor people with special needs children have to make do. Why should families with the money for private school education get a tax break? That dont sound right to me at all.
Tax on Medical Device Manufacturers($20 bil/Jan 2013): Medical device manufacturers employ 360,000 people in 6000 plants across the country. This law imposes a new 2.3% excise tax. Exemptions include items retailing for less than $100.
See, what were doing here … is getting some of our R&D back. Except, these manufacturers are just gonna tack the tax onto the cost of your new hip joint … so … eat your greens and get some exercise, and maybe you wont have to pay it.
Raise “Haircut” for Medical Itemized Deduction from 7.5% to 10% of AGI($15.2 bil/Jan 2013): Currently, those facing high medical expenses are allowed a deduction for medical expenses to the extent that those expenses exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI). The new provision imposes a threshold of 10 percent of AGI; it is waived for 65+ taxpayers in 2013-2016 only.
Alas, who is it that figures their taxes via an AGI? Call me a resentful member of the proletariat if you will, but this … follow closely now … REDUCES … the DEDUCTION … of the amount of money that a rich person SHOULD BE PAYING IN TAXES IN THE FIRST PLACE! I will get exercised.
Tax on Indoor Tanning Services($2.7 billion/July 1, 2010): New 10 percent excise tax on Americans using indoor tanning salons.
Oh, please. These places are skin cancer factories, pandering to people who are 1) vain and 2) stupid. We have lots of stupid taxes … and should have lots more.
Elimination of tax deduction for employer-provided retirement Rx drug coverage in coordination with Medicare Part D($4.5 bil/Jan 2013).
Its a bummer, but we never could afford it, and its gonna have to go. And that was some of the Shrubs pandering, enacting that Part D coverage without allocating one damned dime to pay for it.
Blue Cross/Blue Shield Tax Hike($0.4 bil/Jan 2010): The special tax deduction in current law for Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies would only be allowed if 85 percent or more of premium revenues are spent on clinical services.
Heh, heh, heh. No more corporate retreats for you … weasels … you.
Excise Tax on Charitable Hospitals(Min$/immediate): $50,000 per hospital if they fail to meet new “community health assessment needs,” “financial assistance,” and “billing and collection” rules set by HHS.
This, Ill have to look into. It sounds like more of the brouhah over womens health coverage, and I am of two minds about it. Private hospitals cant take government reimbursements and then pick and choose services. If theyre gonna do that, they can find their operational income elsewhere, and then they can discriminate all they like … unless the institution is the only healthcare provider in town … and then it gets really messy.
Tax on Innovator Drug Companies($22.2 bil/Jan 2010): $2.3 billion annual tax on the industry imposed relative to share of sales made that year.
This is more recouping R&D, which wont work, for reasons we all, already, know. But theres got to be a way!
Tax on Health Insurers($60.1 bil/Jan 2014): Annual tax on the industry imposed relative to health insurance premiums collected that year. The stipulation phases in gradually until 2018, and is fully-imposed on firms with $50 million in profits.
Cutting into those dividends … its such a shame! (That was facetious, if youre wondering.)
$500,000 Annual Executive Compensation Limit for Health Insurance Executives($0.6 bil/Jan 2013).
In my opinion, a for-profit health care provider is a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron, and morally insupportable. Megalithic insurance entities service themselves, not us. Particularly, they service themselves with humongous pay scales, and its wrong, and its coming to an end … slowly.
Employer Reporting of Insurance on W-2(Min$/Jan 2011): Preamble to taxing health benefits on individual tax returns.
This is, I admit it, a skewer to those of you who have, for your entire working lives, had health care coverage supplied by your employer with never a thought for what it costs. Now, not only will you realize what it costs, you will realize that it is part of your pay … and pay taxes on it.
A bitter pill … and it will probably cost Obama his job in November. But he will go down in history for a valiant effort to get you spoiled and oblivious dweebs to pull your fat heads out of the ground.
Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting($17.1 bil/Jan 2012): Requires businesses to send 1099-MISC information tax forms to corporations (currently limited to individuals), a huge compliance burden for small employers.
Yeah, yeah, yeah ….
Black liquor tax hike(Tax hike of $23.6 billion). This is a tax increase on a type of bio-fuel.
In the Health Care Act? Whatever. We gotta find the money for this somewhere.
Codification of the economic substance doctrine(Tax hike of $4.5 billion). This provision allows the IRS to disallow completely-legal tax deductions and other legal tax-minimizing plans just because the IRS deems that the action lacks substance and is merely intended to reduce taxes owed.
What is this gobbledy-gook? Sounds like somebody (and I doubt were talking wage slaves) is losing tax deductions they shouldnt have had in the first place. (That completely legal was a dead giveaway … thats Republican tax code for venal, socially irresponsible and downright immoral.) Me heart bleeds.
All right … we confess. Were bleeding off billions into an insurance exchange that will pay medical expenses for the uninsured. But it also looks like the bulk of the billions will come from 1) the uninsured and 2) the revoltingly affluent. I can live with that.
Lying is a part of politics. Yes, Obama lied–most DEFINITELY!.
“He is a poser, a lia (sic) and a cheat and with his help from his utopian minions used dirty tricks and underhanded tactics to secure what he believes is the precurso (sic) to single payer (government) healthcare.”
Yes, he did! Again, most DEFINITELY!
And,
Yup!, that is exactly HOW Obama outmaneuvered the Republicans–again!
We call that “politics,” and you know what?
It’s “the only game in town!”
“Ahhhhhh, the affluent … can just suck it up.”
That’s right Libby…they will pay…go ahead and chuckle…but once they get hit hard enough, and they will, they won’t PLAY anymore (they will find a tax free investment instead) and opportunity and innovation and revenue to government will dry up. Then your socialist idiot pals in Congress will determine they need to raise taxes on YOU and every other American making a thin dime.
God you are so dense when it comes to human nature and wealth creation. Greece! The old USSR! Cuba! Only the elite few running the system will make out the rest of us will be standing in bread lines and doctoring with cold compresses, baking soda, and witch hazel.
Heartland Institute evaluates and gives us the realities of Obamacare:
http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/understanding-health-care-law-obamacare-disaster
Obamacare creator and cheerleader Jonathan Gruber admits he was wrong about the costs:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/aroy/2012/03/22/how-obamacare-dramatically-increases-the-cost-of-insurance-for-young-workers/
EVERYBODY IS GOING TO BE “SUCKING IT UP” under this terrible law.
Republicans were outmaneuvered by not voting for this legislation when none of their votes were needed to pass the law? Interesting theory.
The electorate was fooled that’s for sure! They gave these Democrat bozo’s a super majority. Once they did there was no stopping the evil trio: Obama, Pelosi, & Reid.
It’s laughable that their ideas were so objectionable and repugnant that they had to hide the contents and twist arms to get it passed. That may suggest political victory to you but it is NOT a victory for America. It is most certainly not what a lot of us want. It may be politics but it sure as hell won’t get this country on the right track or put people back to work.
“‘It’s “the only game in town!'”
Yes, I have said that. It is “the only game in town”.
And as long as the people remain unaware and duped these tactics will often prevail. But I can still speak/write and as long as I can I will continue to shame them and I will continue to do what I can to inform and persuade voters.
You, meanwhile, are free to continue to celebrate the tactics of the underhanded liars and cheats.
Since hearing of the Supreme Courts decision today Ive had this nagging thought about Roberts decision just not making since when compared to his past decisions. Also, Obamas insulting remarks during his State of the Union speech to which Roberts responded.
Anyway, this just didnt line up with who I thought Roberts was and what I expected until I realized he just may have given us Obama on a silver platter. He with the other justice ruled the commerce clause is out. Cant use it now or in the future to force us to buy something. But, Roberts saw all the times Obama swore the tax wasnt a tax and he just may have wanted him to eat his words.
Roberts also knew about Holders contempt charges pending before Congress for lying after hed just heard Obamas attorneys swearing that the tax that Obama said wasnt a tax really was a tax. Get the picture?
So, was Mr. Roberts a sly fox that just gave us an opportunity to do as he recommended in his telling statement, “It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.”
Just another possibility that makes more sense to me right now.
Here is someone else who also thinks the same.
http://www.ijreview.com/2012/06/9398-why-chief-justice-roberts-made-the-right-long-term-decision-with-obamacare/
Why Chief Justice Roberts Made the Right Long-Term Decision With ObamaCare:
Before you look to do harm to Chief Justice Roberts or his family, its important that you think carefully about the meaning the true nature of his ruling on Obama-care. The Left will shout that they won, that Obama-care was upheld and all the rest. Let them.
It will be a short-lived celebration.
Heres what really occurred payback. Yes, payback for Obamas numerous, ill-advised and childish insults directed toward SCOTUS.
Chief Justice Roberts actually ruled the mandate, relative to the commerce clause, was unconstitutional. Thats how the Democrats got Obama-care going in the first place. This is critical. His ruling means Congress cant compel American citizens to purchase anything. Ever. The notion is now officially and forever, unconstitutional. As it should be.
“Before you look to do harm to Chief Justice Roberts or his family, ….”
Good Lord! Who, exactly, is looking to do that? The way your minds turn (in the person of Bert Atkinson, Jr., anyway), I’m telling you, is truly creepy.
unaware?
duped?
you write ablog that is supposed to inform!
TRY informing people! what a great idea! You have wasted 3 years telling lies and exagerations. You don’t even attempt to give the facts. you have been pplaying the game instead of seeking solutions.
You played your game, Tina.
You–and the American people–lost!
Keep playing, Tina.
Let’s see what ELSE about this country you can destroy.
“God you are so dense when it comes to human nature ….”
I’m just being “the glass is half full” about this. What we’re aiming for with the Affordable Care Act is already embodied, and working reasonably well, in the forms of Kaiser and Medicare, Kaiser for seventy years and Medicare for fifty, and the world hasn’t come to an end yet.
I really don’t understand what there is about this that horrifies you so.
Libby: “What we’re aiming for with the Affordable Care Act is already embodied, and working reasonably well, in the forms of Kaiser and Medicare, Kaiser for seventy years and Medicare for fifty, and the world hasn’t come to an end yet.”
This is just plain ignorant. What you have in Medicare is a scheme that has been the cause of higher prices and higher taxes. It doesn’t deliver better healthcare for everyone…it punishes the poor that can’t afford the higher prices…add Medicaid as a solution and you exacerbate the inflation and cost for bureaucracy. Severe rationing has happened as well. This result oppresses the working citizen by taking more of his paycheck to pay for the high priced bureaucracy and care.
If this is your utopian dream you can have it…and it will get MUCH WORSE now that we’ve expanded the bureaucracy, increased the numbers we must pay for and decided that certain products and services for women are free.
You think yo will get the money for this from the rich and some of it will come from the rish. But MOST of it will comne from every working man and woman in America and prices for insurance and care will go UP. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
The rich get rich because they don’t do stupid stuff like this. Stupid stuff like this will fail and there will be a lot of downside that you refuse to acknowledge in yiour uphoria.
The Kaisers model can exist in the free market and do very well UNTIL it becomes associated with and chained to government mandate. Your idiot need to have government involved KILLED Kaiser as it was initially created. Now it is just another arm of central planning…costs are up and will continue to go up for Kaiser. (They will create a pretense of “keeping costs down” by denying services and medicines.
This will not result in a better system or a less expensive system of quality care which is what we should be shooting to achieve.
You solve the problem of healthcare for the poor by educating and training the poor to WORK so they can afford to pay for healthcare themselves instead of keeping them on the government plantation.
And you ave done exactly what?
I have kept my self-respect.
And my honesty.
AND my integrity!
John Roberts: “Sir, I just called to tell you we have passed your health care reform bill!”
Mitt Rmoney: “Who is this, please?”
“It doesn’t deliver better healthcare for everyone…it punishes the poor that can’t afford the higher prices…add Medicaid ….”
Tina, you’re not making any sense. Kaiser, Medicare, they are closed systems. They take in their own money, pay their own costs. Their effect on the private market, if any, would be to bring down prices.
Why do you think old Wellpoint, et al., went into lobbying overdrive over the prospect, briefly tantalizing as is was, of lowering the age threshhold for Medicare to 55?
“The Kaisers model can exist in the free market and do very well UNTIL it becomes associated with and chained to government mandate. Your idiot need to have government involved KILLED Kaiser as it was initially created.”
How? Exactly?
In other words you never put your butt on the line. You play it safe personally, criticize others, and make claims you cannot back up and or will not defend. There’s a word for that…
Libby I will not address Kaiser. Kaiser and Medicare are not the same in any case.
I will suggest you consider this from the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons about Medicare:
http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/00497
Myth 24. Medicare is the model of efficiency and fairness.
Please don’t put words in my mouth. Just because you cannot keep up with the arguments made, m’am, there is no need to get juvenile.
If you need a translation–if you need to know “in other words” what I am saying, please feel free to ask.
Adding unnecessary rancor does what for you, exactly?
Your problem is that because you have lost, you think I have won. You think this is some kind of competition. No, ma’am, we have BOTH lost in this mess. America has lost and it is because of the division you foster! You need to expand your narrow, childish views on the world. There is more than two sides to politics and the person you make angry may not be against you–just against your snotty, childish attitude. You can accomplish far more in this world if you act like an adult.
Let me know when you are able to emotionally process–in a mature manner–me calling you out on your BS!
Thank you for sharing TS. I’ll take it under advisement.
“Libby I will not address Kaiser. Kaiser and Medicare are not the same in any case.”
There only one difference. Kaiser is still, more-or-less, run by the doctors, and they are, more-or-less, bright boys and/or girls.
And I admit it. We are having a lot of trouble getting bright boys (or girls) into either the legislature or the administration of Medicare … but who’s fault is that?
Libby I would answer but you would just hate it. I think you know anyway. It’s the same things that are oppressing and discouraging vitality in our entire country.