In this interview with CBS News, Mitt Romney describes the ObamaCare individual mandate as a tax.
Romney: Well, the Supreme Court has the final word. And their final word is that Obamacare is a tax. So it’s a tax. They decided it was constitutional. So it is a tax and it’s constitutional. That’s the final word. That’s what it is.
Crawford: Have you changed your views on this? Do you now believe that it is a tax at the federal level, that the Supreme Court has said it’s a tax? So it is a tax?
Romney: Well, I said that I agreed with the dissent, and the dissent made it very clear that they felt it was unconstitutional. But the dissent lost. It’s in the minority. And so now the Supreme Court has spoken.
What’s so disheartening about this is that it’s so obvious and easy. The mandate itself is an unconstitutional command to buy a private product. The enforcement mechanism that the Democrats built into their law to enforce the command is a tax. Roberts should have stuck to his original vote that the mandate is unconstitutional, a vote that would have protected the American people from ObamaTax.
Why is this so hard for the Romney team to figure out?
Romney should also not have said that the Supreme Court gets the “final say.” Saying that dents a major argument he has been making for his own candidacy. A better way to frame it would be to say that the Supreme Court has now had its say, but that the American people get the final say on November 6.
But again, why is this so hard?
Foot. Rake. Face. Repeat.
It’s the Republican motto these days, I’m sorry to say.
A tax is a penalty – always. Want people to smoke less? Tax cigarettes until they are unaffordable. Want people to work less, confiscate a third of their incremental income. Want business to incorporate abroad? Tax corporations at the highest rate in the world. Want to keep me out of New York City – charge me $12 to cross the GW Bridge.
The only novel part of this tax / penalty is that is on inactivity.
Thankfully, come November, the right’s insane nitpicking of Romney’s response to this (as exemplified here) will be all but forgotten.
Last week, we believed the mandate was NOT a tax. This week, we’re supposed to believe it IS a tax. Anyone who disagrees must be hung out to dry, even if it’s our own damn nominee. Consistency be damned.
Either way, we can repeal this thing through reconciliation.
And, by the way, people on our side criticizing Romney for this are doing more damage to our ability to defeat Obama than Romney is. And they’re doing the MSM’s bidding, as well. Thanks a lot, guys.
If we had shut up and not criticized, the Romney campaign would probably have stayed the course and given away one of its most potent arguments against Obama: That he lied and raised taxes when he promised he wouldn’t. Is that what you want?
– to tax is the power to destroy.
I have to disagree. I think that Prof. Jacobson got it right.
Romney had to run a simple campaign. Accept the Supreme Court’s ruling and work with it. (I believe Krauthammer said something similar last week. He did. And he’s happy with Romney’s response.)