It Says Tax!

Here’s President Obama telling George Stephanopoulos that the tax in the Baucus health care bill isn’t a tax. In his mind, a tax is only a tax if he calls it a tax.

(Via Breitbart)

Here’s the problem, the plan explicitly calls the penalty for not purchasing health care an excise tax.

Obama gave ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos a sterntalking-to Sunday for suggesting that the mandate to buy health insurance would amount to a tax. He even taunted the host for citing the dictionary definition of “tax” to make his point. 

“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,” Obama said. 

But the language of the health care reform plan proposed by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., explicitly labels the penalty attached to the mandate as an “excise tax.” 

Penalties for failing to obtain coverage would range from $750 to $3,800 under the plan. This is addressed in a section labeled: “Excise Tax.” 

“The excise tax would apply for any period for which the individual is not covered by a health insurance plan with the minimum required benefit,” the Baucus plan says. 

Republican strategist Brad Blakeman said Obama just got busted. 

“The president cannot orate himself out of this one. If it feels like a tax, it says it’s a tax — Mr. President, it’s a tax,” Blakeman said. 

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., said Monday at a forum in Richmond that the House treats the penalty the same way. 

“The president was on TV last night or yesterday morning saying ‘no no no, it’s not new taxes,’ whereas in this bill and in the Senate bill both, it calls what they are charging employers and individuals a tax. It’s an IRS section of our bill,” he said. 

Not only does the plan label the tax as a tax, there’s an entire section labeled “Excise Tax.” How much more explicit could it be? So, did he lie, or did he fail to even look at the bill? Two choices – he’s either a pathological liar or completely incompetent. Take your pick.

Bonus video: Obama says he didn’t even know ACORN was getting a lot of government money. Refer to my question above.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 5:44 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.