Health Care Mandate That's "Not A Tax" Defended As A Tax
Regardless of where you stand on the debate over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), affectionately known to some as "ObamaCare," there is certainly no denying the debate over health care reform in the United States has been a polarizing one to say the least. For those not necessarily in the know, or for those that don't care, the PPACA includes items such as the elimination of health coverage or claim denials because of pre-existing condition exclusions, incentives for business owners to offer health insurance to their employees, and the expansion of Medicaid eligibility.
Critics of the law, enacted with the president's signature on March 23rd, argue that it will simply result in higher taxes on the country's wealthy and middle class and that it will force Americans to purchase a service even if they don't want it and that penalties will be imposed on anyone that doesn't purchase health coverage. So if I understand this correctly, even if I don't want it, the federal government is telling me I have to buy it? Am I the only one who finds this more ludicrous than giving, say, Chevy Chase or Magic Johnson a late night talk show? I'm just saying, because those were (cough) fantastic ideas.
To be honest, what I find most laughable about ObamaCare isn't even being forced to purchase health insurance or even the notion that pretty much every member of Congress who voted for it didn't read the legislation. Most laughable to me is the Obama administration's defense of this mandate as a tax even though it wasn't a tax last year.
Let's go back to last September, shall we? In an ABC News interview, George Stephanopoulos very pointedly asked the president how forcing Americans to purchase a particular service and imposing penalties if they don't is not a tax. To Obama's credit, he did a bang up job trying to get around the question, even going as far as accusing Stephanopoulos of "making up" language that brands the health care mandate as a tax, even after the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of "tax" was provided to him. The president fired back by stating, "My critics say everything is a tax increase," and when once again asked if he rejected the notion that the mandate was a tax increase, he said, "I absolutely reject that notion."
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