STEPHANOPOULOS: I -- I don't think I'm making it up. Merriam Webster's Dictionary: Tax -- "a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes."
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.
Even the AP is actually calling this a tax increase. Now why would they do that? Because the actual language of the both the House and Senate bill call it a tax. Imagine that!
Memo to President Barack Obama: It's a tax. Obama insisted this weekend on national television that requiring people to carry health insurance — and fining them if they don't — isn't the same thing as a tax increase. But the language of Democratic bills to revamp the nation's health care system doesn't quibble. Both the House bill and the Senate Finance Committee proposal clearly state that the fines would be a tax.
Yes. Not only is it a tax, but the tax increase is massive. Massive!
Obama has pledged only to increase taxes on the rich. But his program essentially taxes the core of the middle class (those making $30,000 to $80,000). It will make them overpay in order to pick up the slack for others who need the extra coverage.
And here is more from the Washington Post:
The Baucus plan de-emphasizes the employer mandate in favor of the individual mandate. Importantly, this mandate comes with an affordability exemption: If the lowest cost premium available exceeds 10 percent of a person’s income, they're exempt from the mandate. Beyond that, the fee for people who are not eligible for subsidies is $950 per year, up to $3,800 for a family. Compared to the cost of insurance, that's not a ton of money. But then the intent isn't to make not having insurance unaffordable: It's primarily to create a hard deadline so people don't simply put off the purchase of insurance, and secondarily to make sure free riders are paying something into the system.
Almost a $1000 tax increase for a single person, $4000 for a family. Tell me that is not a tax increase!
Mr. President, you are only fooling yourself with your false thinking that this is not a tax increase.
As you told us to do when people were making things up...
I AM CALLING YOU OUT!
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