It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
The only legal peg on which Chief Justice Roberts was able to hang his hat in ruling Obamacare constitutional was a broad reading of the Taxing Clause. In order to do so, he had to deliberately misread the Obamacare law; had he not done so, the law would have been struck down as a violation of the Commerce Clause.
The latest Obama spokesperson to deny Roberts’ logic and essentially admit that Obamacare is unconstitutional is Jack Lew, the White House Chief of Staff. This morning, he appeared on CNN to explain:
First of all, the law is clear, it’s called a penalty. Second of all, what the Supreme Court ruled is that the law is constitutional. Actually, they didn’t call it a tax. They said it was using the power under the constitution that permits it. It was not labeled.
This is, simply put, a lie. Lew’s first two sentences are in direct conflict with one another. The law is clear – it’s called a penalty. But if the administration is going to stand by its original construction of the statute, they can’t then claim that the Supreme Court ruled it constitutional on their basis. The notion that the Supreme Court ruled the statute constitutional without any specific basis is simply false. Lew continued:
This is a penalty. It’s something that only 1 percent of people who can afford insurance and choose not to get it will pay. Everyone who has insurance, everyone who chooses to buy insurance will not pay it. What they’re going to get is security — they’re going to get lower premiums and better health care. That’s a good thing for the American people.
It’s also a lie that a tiny percentage of the population will pay the penalty. The fact is that under the new Obamacare regime, millions will opt for the penalty, simply because there’s no purpose to paying $1,500 per year for health insurance when you can pay a $750 penalty, wait to get sick, then jump on a federally-mandated health plan. And it’s also a lie that we’re all going to get lower premiums and better health care. Who’s going to pay for that?
Originally posted by kozmo
The whole thing is Bullocks and the lie unfolding quickly. First of all, the "Penalty" only applies to 1% and rates will go down. Sooooooooooo... 1% are going to cover the insurance cost for the 30 million newly insured??? But rates will go down. Something is wrong here...
spokesman for Mitt Romney said the former Massachusetts governor agrees with President Obama that the individual mandate upheld by the Supreme Court last week is a penalty or a fine, rather than a tax.
But the ruling and the conflicting statements highlights the trouble Romney has in going after the president on healthcare. As governor of Massachusetts, Romney instituted a healthcare law that includes an individual mandate, and at the time, he too portrayed it as a penalty or a fine, rather than a tax.
“The governor has consistently described the mandate in Massachusetts as a penalty,” Fehrnstrom said
Originally posted by jibeho
Welcome to the lies and denial
Yes. Can someone please answer that last question. Who's going to pay for that?
Originally posted by Indigo5
Hmmmmm.....
Romney team agrees with Obama: Individual mandate not a tax
spokesman for Mitt Romney said the former Massachusetts governor agrees with President Obama that the individual mandate upheld by the Supreme Court last week is a penalty or a fine, rather than a tax.
But the ruling and the conflicting statements highlights the trouble Romney has in going after the president on healthcare. As governor of Massachusetts, Romney instituted a healthcare law that includes an individual mandate, and at the time, he too portrayed it as a penalty or a fine, rather than a tax.
“The governor has consistently described the mandate in Massachusetts as a penalty,” Fehrnstrom said
thehill.com...
Here is the only honest part of your OP...
Originally posted by jibeho
Welcome to the lies and denial
edit on 2-7-2012 by Indigo5 because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by lokdog
Is it a tax, is it a penalty? Who cares they both cost you money. What a waste of a thread.
First of all, the "Penalty" only applies to 1% and rates will go down