Joel B. Pollak
Breitbart.com
Big Journalism
2 Jul 2012
The Obama campaign has seized on remarks made by Romney adviser Eric “Etch-A-Sketch” Fehrnstrom this morning on MSNBC, to the effect that the individual mandate in Obamacare (and Romneycare) is not a tax. Fehrnstrom allowed Chuck Todd to push him off message–and re-ignited the fears that conservatives have long had about Romney’s will and ability to fight. In response, conservatives–who had just coalesced around opposition to what many now call “Obamatax”–exhort: Mitt, start fighting, or give up and let someone else do it.
Fehrnstrom’s point–in defense of Romneycare–was that the Supreme Court was wrong to uphold Obamacare under the taxing power. The individual mandate was never intended to be a tax, Congress never called it a tax, and it wasn’t a tax in Massachusetts, either. Fine–but now that Obama’s lawyers went to court and called it a tax, and Chief Justice John Roberts called it a tax (and spare us the non-distinction between “tax” and the “taxing power”) Obamacare is, undeniably, a massive tax on the middle class. Obama lied. It’s that simple.
The GOP primary is over, and this is not a mistake that Fehrnstrom can merely shake away. It’s going to be used–and already is being used–by the Obama campaign to save itself from the tax argument, and to label Romney as a liar (when that label belongs squarely on Obama, who campaigned against Hillary Clinton’s individual mandate in 2008). Perhaps this is why Rupert Murdoch has been calling openly for Romney to “drop…old friends from [his] team and hire…some real pros,” as he did on Twitter yesterday.
The Tea Party has been ready to rally to Romney’s side over the Obamacare decision, overlooking his past in order to use him as the vehicle for repealing Obamacare and toppling Obama. But if Romney won’t fight for conservative principles, the Tea Party is going to start looking elsewhere–fast. No one wants to live through the frustration of October 2008 all over again. No one wants to watch another conservative capitulate to Obama.
This ain’t Etch-A-Sketch, Mitt. Go hard or go home.
Watch the video at Big Journalism.
Also from Breitbart:
Update: Throwing the truth in their faces
Republican congressional candidates and outside groups have seized upon the opportunity to brand Democrats as tax hikers in the wake of Thursday’s Obamacare ruling…
…A Quinnipiac University poll found that 51 percent of Ohio residents wanted the Supreme Court to overturn the bill compared to 37 percent supporting it. Last year, the state’s voters approved an amendment to the Ohio Constitution banning the mandate that all Americans must purchase health insurance, a measure that won majorities in all 88 counties, including Democratic strongholds in Cleveland…
Also, DNC Chair: It’s easiest for the IRS to administer the health care mandate, but it’s not a tax. Or something.
From Forbes, Is ObamaCare The Largest Tax Increase In U.S. History?
…The median U.S. family income is about $50,000. Family health coverage can easily run $20,000 a year — and rising quickly. In that scenario, the coverage mandate is essentially a 40 percent tax on that family, which is now required by law to ensure that every family member has qualifying coverage.
And because the cost of the coverage will be similar even though incomes vary significantly, the lower the income the higher the effective tax rate — in essence, the most regressive tax in U.S. history, too.
Now, President Obama and his enablers may deny the health insurance premium is a tax. But the bill’s defenders — including Budget Director Peter Orszag, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and the president himself, not to mention Democrats in Congress — also denied the mandate was a tax.
But when it became useful for the law’s supporters to consider the mandate a tax, they made the mental switcheroo easily. That’s because consistency and truth were not the goal; getting five Supreme Court votes was the only thing that mattered…
Update 2: Painful, but watch it anyway… Video: Hilariously Brilliant Protestors Have Unbelievable Reasons For Supporting ObamaCare
H/T The Blacksphere
At RedState, Romney Camp: Obamacare Not a Tax
This is upsetting to say the least. The moment that the ruling came down last Thursday the hounds of hell were released by conservatives on twitter and in the blogosphere and videos galore of Obama saying the mandate was not a tax contrasted with news reports that the Supreme Court of the United States disagreed. In fact, not just disagreed but indicated that it was required for it to be a tax in order to pass the constitutional test.
Many articles were written with conservatives rubbing their hands together in gleeful anticipation of the next several months of Barack Obama trying to explain how he didn’t break his promise on taxes while simultaneously claiming that the Supreme Court found his bill constitutional. It seemed obvious that these two things were in direct contradiction with one another given the decision, and assaulting the Democrats on this point was going to be easy.
Then comes word today that there are no such plans from the Romney camp…
…I reached out to the Romney camp with a very simple subject line: “Dude,come on.” I got this response:
“The Supreme Court left President Obama with two choices: the federal individual mandate in Obamacare is either a constitutional tax or an unconstitutional penalty. Governor Romney thinks it is an unconstitutional penalty. What is President Obama’s position: is his federal mandate unconstitutional or is it a tax?”…
…Romney receives his first test on this. Obama is declared a tax, and the Romney camp seems to be cowering away…
Read the whole thing.
Romney Advisor: Romney Thinks Mandate Is a Penalty. And thus the club that Romney could have used to beat Obama is laid down
