REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Dictator Obama argues in court that Obamacare is a 'TAX'

POSTED BY: PIRATENEWS
UPDATED: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 03:23
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 271
PAGE 1 of 1

Tuesday, June 22, 2010 3:23 AM

PIRATENEWS

John Lee, conspiracy therapist at Hollywood award-winner History Channel-mocked SNL-spoofed PirateNew.org wooHOO!!!!!!




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.

The Act, according to a DOJ memo supporting the motion to dismiss, says that "no suit for the purpose of restraining the assessment or collection of any tax shall be maintained in any court by any person, whether or not such person is the person against whom such tax was assessed." The memo goes on to say that it makes no difference whether the disputed payment it is called a "tax" or "penalty," because either way, it's "assessed and collected in the same manner" by the Internal Revenue Service.

But this is a characterization that Democrats, and specifically Obama, angrily denounced during the health care debate. Most prominently, in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Obama argued that the mandate was "absolutely not a tax increase," and he dug into his view even after being confronted with a dictionary definition:

Quote:

OBAMA: George, the fact that you looked up Merriam's Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you're stretching a little bit right now. Otherwise, you wouldn't have gone to the dictionary to check on the definition. I mean what...

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, no, but...

OBAMA: ...what you're saying is...

STEPHANOPOULOS: I wanted to check for myself. But your critics say it is a tax increase.

OBAMA: My critics say everything is a tax increase. My critics say that I'm taking over every sector of the economy. You know that. Look, we can have a legitimate debate about whether or not we're going to have an individual mandate or not, but...

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you reject that it's a tax increase?

OBAMA: I absolutely reject that notion.



At the time Obama made that statement, the Senate Finance Committee had just released its own health care bill, which clearly referred to the mandate penalty as an "excise tax." But in later versions, the word "tax" was stripped, because it had become too much of a political liability for Democrats. The final version that Obama signed did not describe the mandate as a tax, and used the Commerce Clause -- not federal taxing power -- as the Constitutional justification for the mandate.

Quote:

""This is an about face from what is laid out in the law," said Karen Harned of the National Federation of Independent Business, which joined the Florida lawsuit against ObamaCare. "In the text of the healthcare law, the findings for passing an individual mandate specifically rely on the effects of individuals on the national economy and interstate commerce. Nowhere in the findings is the mandate referred to as a tax. The Justice Department is now calling it a tax to try and convince the court not to rule on whether or not Congress exceeded their authority under the Commerce Clause by legislating that all citizens must purchase private health insurance or face a penalty."

Put another way, the administration is now arguing in federal court that Obama signed a massive middle-class tax increase, in violation of his campaign pledge.

http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-9370-0-15-15--.html

NOTIFY: N   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

YOUR OPTIONS

NEW POSTS TODAY

USERPOST DATE

OTHER TOPICS

DISCUSSIONS
Elections; 2024
Sun, May 19, 2024 19:40 - 2495 posts
Punishing Russia With Sanctions
Sun, May 19, 2024 18:38 - 511 posts
In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2)
Sun, May 19, 2024 18:22 - 3728 posts
MTG and AOC on TMZ
Sun, May 19, 2024 15:05 - 9 posts
Western Canada on Fire
Sun, May 19, 2024 13:41 - 8 posts
human actions, global climate change, global human solutions
Sun, May 19, 2024 07:21 - 854 posts
Long hot summer ... of riots
Sun, May 19, 2024 05:50 - 429 posts
SJW's, Black Lives Matter, 3rd Wave Feminism and The Regressionist Left
Sun, May 19, 2024 05:46 - 34 posts
India
Sun, May 19, 2024 05:36 - 82 posts
Another white male Chump supporting terrorist?
Sun, May 19, 2024 05:34 - 212 posts
The End of Constitutional America
Sun, May 19, 2024 05:30 - 87 posts
White, Republican, (likely Christian) Male as our next president....
Sun, May 19, 2024 05:28 - 11 posts

FFF.NET SOCIAL