[molaunterbizone]

Says Obamacare is not a tax, agrees with Scalia that it is unconstitutional.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...are-not-a-tax/

“The governor has consistently described the mandate in Massachusetts as a penalty,” Eric Fehrnstrom, Mr. ’s strategist, said on MSNBC. “The governor disagreed with the ruling of the court; he agreed with the dissent that was written by Justice Scalia, which clearly states the mandate was not a tax.”

During the congressional debate Mr. Obama and his allies repeatedly said the punishment levied against those who fail to obtain health insurance was a penalty, not a tax. During the court battle, however, his legal team switched and said it was, in fact, a tax — and a majority of the court agreed, saying that made it constitutional. And now a bunch of people are pissed off because they would rather argue about the tax.

http://www.redstate.com/aglanon/2012...are-not-a-tax/

This is upsetting to say the least. The moment that the ruling came down last Thursday the hounds of hell were released by conservatives on twitter and in the blogosphere and videos galore of Obama saying the mandate was not a tax contrasted with news reports that the Supreme Court of the United States disagreed. In fact, not just disagreed but indicated that it was required for it to be a tax in order to pass the constitutional test.

Many articles were written with conservatives rubbing their hands together in gleeful anticipation of the next several months of Barack Obama trying to explain how he didn’t break his promise on taxes while simultaneously claiming that the Supreme Court found his bill constitutional. It seemed obvious that these two things were in direct contradiction with one another given the decision, and assaulting the Democrats on this point was going to be easy. These guys can't win for losing. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

This should make some of you happy, even if it's a little bit late. It's unconstitutional. That's the attack vector they will use. I'm sure other republicans will attack the tax aspect, but it looks like is going to go from the other angle. Does he have a choice? If it's a tax, he raised taxes on MA residents.

Thanks for making it political, Roberts. That really helped, you clever fuck.