...or penalty. The left seems to have gotten their panties twisted being accused of the largest tax increase in history. I had a short but spirited debate with Austin Frakt here.
Austin referenced Kevin Drum who referenced Josh Marshall who just made the claim with no reference to who he is arguing with, moment of silence for the poor straw-men, they are the real victims in all this. I linked to Forbes which clearly included the cost of premium:
"And if both the premium and the penalty are considered a tax, the
mandate becomes the largest tax increase in U.S. history. And that
doesn’t include all of the other taxes imposed by the legislation."
When Frakt/Drum/Marshall dismiss this claim they leave out the part which specifically includes premiums. When challenged on this Frakt says to look it up, so I did, third from the top was Rush; one of the early and widely heard places so lets see what they say:
"OBAMA: No, no. B-b-but George y-y-y-you can't just make up that language and
decide that that's called a tax increase.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I don't think I'm making it up. Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
"Tax: A charge, usually of money, imposed by authority --
OBAMA: (snickering)
STEPHANOPOULOS: -- on persons or property for public purposes.
OBAMA: George, the fact that you looked up Miriam's dictionary (sic), the
definition of tax increase indicates to me that you're stretching a little bit
right now. Otherwise you wouldn'ta gone to the dictionary to check on the
definition! I mean --"
Maybe the rest of us non-ivy educated normal folks need to look words up now and then but we know if it cost us like a tax, is forced on us by government like a tax, and the IRS is making sure we pay it, then its a tax.
Everyone needs to pay close attention to the level of distortion coming from the White House and those that support this mess. If the bill is so bad you need to lie this blatantly to cover for it we have problems.
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