Yes, It Really Is a Tax!

Chief Justice John Roberts joined with the court’s four liberals to uphold the constitutionality of Obamacare: “No one would doubt that this law imposed a tax, and was within Congress’s power to tax,” he wrote. “That conclusion should not change simply because Congress used the word ‘penalty’ to describe the pay­ment.”

Republican Senator Mike Lee was not a member of Congress when the Democrats’ health care bill was passed but he says he wouldn’t have called it a tax: “I have been telling my constituents, I’ve been telling everyone since then, that it now is regarded as a tax. That’s the only way it can survive legally now is to call it a tax.”

A spokesman for Lee said the senator considers the financial penalty to be a fine, but calling it a tax puts the president in a “pickle.”

“If it’s a tax, then he’s raising taxes on people. If it’s not a tax, then it’s unconstitutional,” said Lee’s spokesman. “The president was unequivocal dozens of times that he would not raise taxes on people making less than $250,000 and this bill, according to [the Congressional Budget Office], will raise taxes on people making less than $250,000.”

In a 2008 campaign speech in Springfield, Mo., then-Sen. Barack Obama said, “If you are a family making less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes go up. Not your capital gains tax, not your payroll tax, not your income tax, no taxes. Your taxes will not go up.”

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