Have we all stepped through the looking glass?
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”
The Supreme Court upheld the Obamacare individual mandate as a permissible application of the congressional power to tax.
The Affordable Care Act’s requirement that certain individuals pay a financial penalty for not obtaining health insurance may reasonably be characterized as a tax. Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid it, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness.
But White House press secretary Humpty Dumpty Carney believes he can choose the majority opinion on Obamacare to mean, well, whatever he chooses it to mean. And he chooses it to mean that Obama didn’t break his commitment to not raise taxes on the middle class.
Let the verbal gymnastics games begin!
Though SCOTUS upheld constitutionality of healthcare mandate under tax law, WH says today the penalty for not buying insurance is not a tax.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 29, 2012
At a briefing on Air Force One, spksmn Jay Carney said "it's not a tax…it's a penalty" over which people have a choice.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 29, 2012
It’s not a tax, but collection will require thousands of new IRS agents?
Sure, the IRS is handling Obamacare, but it's not a tax. It's not like taxes are what the IRS is all about. #LeftyLogic
— Harold Stickeehans (@StickeeNotes) June 29, 2012
Sigh.
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Yo cannot have it both ways! You SAID it was NOT a tax, BUT SCOTUS says a TAX is the ONLY WAY ITS CONSTITUTIONAL!! http://t.co/OSyKsP9E
— The Supreme (@1SupremeGoddess) June 29, 2012
White House doublespeak with forked tongue.
BREAKING NEWS…Obama Campaign asks http://t.co/uPojVhoD to redefine TAX as a #SCOTUS decision but rhetorically not a TAX #tcot
— RyanRhodes (@RyanRhodes) June 29, 2012
"it's not a tax. It's absolutely not a tax" "it's a penalty"
Oh. But it's constitutional under congressional power to tax?
Lol wut?— Nick Carner (@_NicoSuave_) June 29, 2012
https://twitter.com/CuffyMeh/status/218745622117888000
https://twitter.com/kesgardner/status/218760793842393088
If Obama is going to play this game:
and then I was like, it's not a tax! *guffaws* -Obama http://t.co/BMiMmPSt
— Karen (@Brazyn) June 29, 2012
Then this looks like a fair response:
https://twitter.com/sarainitaly/status/218748048069767168
Yesterday a senior White House official told National Journal:
I’m sure they’ll nail us on taxes and I’m sure it will work.
Prescient!
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