Remember the argument between George Stephanopoulos and Obama about the Health Care Mandate !?

Obama almost jumped over the desk at George when he proposed that the Health Care Mandate was a tax.

I covered this when it happened. It was so absurd I couldn't believe it then. Now it gets even worse.

Well apparently George was right! Not only is the mandate a tax, but that's the government's argument in its defense to law suits declaring the mandate unconstitutional!

WASHINGTON — When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.”

And that power, they say, is even more sweeping than the federal power to regulate interstate commerce.

Administration officials say the tax argument is a linchpin of their legal case in defense of the health care overhaul and its individual mandate, now being challenged in court by more than 20 states and several private organizations.

Under the legislation signed by President Obama in March, most Americans will have to maintain “minimum essential coverage” starting in 2014. Many people will be eligible for federal subsidies to help them pay premiums.

In a brief defending the law, the Justice Department says the requirement for people to carry insurance or pay the penalty is “a valid exercise” of Congress’s power to impose taxes.

Congress can use its taxing power “even for purposes that would exceed its powers under other provisions” of the Constitution, the department said. For more than a century, it added, the Supreme Court has held that Congress can tax activities that it could not reach by using its power to regulate commerce.

The law describes the levy on the uninsured as a “penalty” rather than a tax. The Justice Department brushes aside the distinction, saying “the statutory label” does not matter. The constitutionality of a tax law depends on “its practical operation,” not the precise form of words used to describe it, the department says, citing a long line of Supreme Court cases.

Moreover, the department says the penalty is a tax because it will raise substantial revenue: $4 billion a year by 2017, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

In addition, the department notes, the penalty is imposed and collected under the Internal Revenue Code, and people must report it on their tax returns “as an addition to income tax liability.”

Because the penalty is a tax, the department says, no one can challenge it in court before paying it and seeking a refund.

I have a question. Does anyone in the Obama administration have any respect for the Constitution? Do they not understand that the Constitution's purpose is to stop/limit arbitrary federal action? Didn't the president swear an oath to protect the Constitution? "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States; and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend, the Constitution of the United States."

We have a president who has knowingly given inaccurate information to the American people on national TV. I won't use the word "LIE" because I don't have to. What Obama said was not just "factually inaccurate"; Obama knew he was not telling the truth at the time he told George that the mandate was not a tax.

The Justice Department, who's head was appointed by Obama (Eric Holder), says that the federal government can tax outside of its Constitutional bounds! What's next? Does this mean that the federal government can tax any activity or inactivity with no bounds --literally?

What more can this president and his administration do to show the American people that they have NO RESPECT for the citizen's of this country, or this country's founding!?

But we needed "Change" right?

Note: You DO NOT need to register to leave a comment.