Romney: Individual mandate "is a tax"

(CBS News) Two days after his top adviser insisted otherwise, Mitt Romney on Wednesday told CBS News chief political correspondent Jan Crawford that President Obama's individual mandate - upheld last week by the Supreme Court - is "a tax."

"The Supreme Court has spoken, and while I agreed with the dissent, that's taken over by the fact that the majority of the court said it's a tax, and therefore it is a tax. They have spoken. There's no way around that," the presumptive GOP presidential nominee told Crawford in an exclusive interview, referring to the court's 5-4 ruling that largely upheld the president's signature health care law, with the individual mandate as a tax.

"I said that I agreed with the dissent, and the dissent made it very clear that they felt it was unconstitutional," Romney continued. "But the dissent lost - it's in the minority."

The individual mandate is uniquely problematic for Romney, whose health care legislation as Massachusetts governor also included a mandate. But as an anti-tax increase candidate, Romney has relied on the argument that at the state level, governors can tax on mandate under "police powers" - a fact that Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts noted in his opinion.

Still, Romney's remarks contradict a backpedaling maneuver Monday by his senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom. After the campaign had initially hopped aboard with critics saying the court's ruling indicated the health care law is a massive tax increase on Americans, Fehrnstrom - no doubt eyeing potential backlash relating to Romney's own past mandate - told MSNBC that Romney "agreed with the dissent written by Justice Scalia which very clearly stated that the mandate was not a tax."

Pressed by Crawford on whether he had flip-flopped on calling the mandate a tax, Romney turned the table, arguing that the president is the one who's gone back on his word.

"You can try and say you wish [the court] had decided a different way, but they didn't," Romney said. "They concluded it was a tax; that's what it is. And the American people know that President Obama has broken the pledge he made. He said he wouldn't raise taxes on middle-income Americans, and not only did he raise the $500 billion that was already in the bill, it's now clear that his mandate, as described by the Supreme Court, is a tax."

Watch more of Jan Crawford's interview with Mitt Romney Wednesday night on the "CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley" (6:30 p.m. EST) and Thursday on "CBS This Morning" (7 a.m. EST).

[LEAVA12]

Perhaps Mr. Romney should read this transcript : (a) The Affordable Care Act describes the "[s]hared responsibilitypayment" as a "penalty," not a "tax." ....

[raptor-022]

BenJordon July 6, 2012 5:12 AM EDT
"Why do republicans lie so much?"


It's either the right-wing propaganda from the usual sources, or moreso today, forwarded e-mails and viral messages from morons!


Premium Nonsense On Medicare

http://www.factcheck.org/2011/04/premium-nonsense-on-medicare/

[raptor-022]

Bad_Ranger July 5, 2012 4:41 AM EDT
"MEDICARE -- Look clearly at the 2014 rate....$247.00 in 2014"



Looks like we busted another troll posting forwarded e-mail propaganda, just to incite the far-right GOP base with more LIES!

"Although the annual premium rates aren't officially set until they are announced each fall, Medicare administrators track trends and anticipated changes and use them to formulate projections of Medicare premiums for the next several years. According to the most recent report of the system's trustees, issued in May 2011, those projected premiums (as listed on page 218) are:

2013: $110.50
2014: $115.80
2015: $120.80
2016: $126.00

http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/medicare.asp

***************

Premium Nonsense On Medicare

Q: Will the new health care law raise Medicare's basic monthly premium to $247 in 2014, as a viral message claims?

A: No, Medicare officials project the basic premium will be less than half that. But the law will eventually cause 14 percent of seniors with incomes over $85,000 a year ($170,000 for couples) to pay higher "income-related" premiums, up from 5 percent currently.

http://www.factcheck.org/2011/04/premium-nonsense-on-medicare/

[raptor-022]

Now that we caught the bad guys LYING again, maybe they will slink away to post their lies and deceptions elsewhere!

[raptor-022]

This is just semantics for what is actually personal responsibility, and all we get from the godfather of romneycare -- the precursor of the PPACA -- is "repeal" and "replace it with common sense health care".

Thanks to mitt roMONEY and the republicans, Americans would return to more of the same health care debacle of the for-profit insurance industry holding all the power and being your own "death panel".

Sorry mitt roMONEY -- but until you can give us SPECIFICS and DETAILS instead of your wishy-washy, feel-good political rhetoric, you just sound too much like sarah palin and her "common sense" ideology.

[infantryman1968]

Romney: Individual mandate "is a tax"


LOL!


The "Obamacare Tax Cut 2013"

51 Votes in the Senate, Romney will sign it.

[raptor-022]

LOL! Americans -- at least the majority of them -- are too smart to elect a cultist that has absolutely no SPECIFICS or DETAILS on anything, especially health care reform, and will never elect such a plastic man such as mannequin mitt.

He will never be able to sign anything except checks to pay for his failed campaign that will cost the koch brothers and adelson hundreds of millions -- flushed down the toilet!

[MurdochSucks]

Who the hell cares what they call it. This is ridiculous, and the middle voters are sick of it. Why does the Republicession Party hate the Middle Class so much? Face it, Obama created a constitutional bill, albeit a compromised one, and Republicessionists are trying to find anything they can grasp onto to make it look bad for the President. It's madness!

[Jilli_B]

How does Willard Romney stand upright without a spine?

[leithflood]

The same way you do Jilli-B. Your remark is dumb and very Obama like. People who live in glass houses, should not through stones. And pls., take a bath, people at work are talking.

[benunhappy]

I'm starting to wonder why Mitt thinks it's OK to imposse a tax in his state mandate but changes his mind when it comes to the federal level. It is still more government, and why is his wife putting words into peoples mouths? Is she going to tell everyone what Mitt meant to say when he goes back and forth on the issues? I'm thinking I may have to change my mind and listen to more of what our Justices say is constitutional and go with someone who majored in law not just someone who majored in shutting the doors on the american people. Listening and reading what other republicans say is making me believe the right is losing it's Humanity!!

[WHAT-IS-HE-SMOKING]

When is a tax, not a tax? When you live in Massachusetts and the governor mandate the fee as part of his "police powers". Or was that a fee, since that's how you managed to balance the state budget.

[steven_rodgers]

Because I can move out of Mass. and choose not to participate....I cannot "choose" not to take part in a fed. tax. ( that's why a LOT of people move to Florida).
-ALSO, if the govm't can Tax you in order to force you to obtain health care ( bc it's in your own best interest),..What CAN'T they impose under a tax,..you need to join a gym, ( gym tax)..you need to eat healthier ( health tax),..It's an EXTREMELY slippery slope that I would prefer not to go down. I'm an INDIVIDUAL. I don't want my government telling me how to live my life. you EDUCATE people and let them CHOOSE for themselves.
_I've always wondered why it's ok for a woman to have an elective procedure to remove a mass of cells that has the potential to become a human being, but I can't eat trans fats.....bc that's bad for me.
when did the right of dominion over one's body stop at a woman's Vagina..
It boils down to a simple question,...Do you want to decide for YOURSELF how to live your life,..or do you want the Government to make that decision for you.

[raptor-022]

"that's why a LOT of people move to Florida"



LOL! Actually, a lot of people move to FLA for the weather, but nice try with your right-wing, political rhetoric!

[nancy_naive]

Where are Mitt's allegiances? In Switzerland? The Caymans?

I cannot shelter funds in foreign currency, foreign propery, or foreign banks. Can you? Mitt does.

My fate, my wealth, and my allegiances, like those of 99% of my fellow Americans, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, hangs in the balance in this land.

It's important that our fates be so attached to keep our confidences in one another and our allegiances at home; here, IN AMERICA!

Is it too much to ask that our President's fates also be tied inseparably to our own?

Let Romney count his Swiss Francs; he'll not count my vote!

[rayward73446]

It took a week for Romney to determine what the SCOTUS proclaimed a one week ago. Wow, that's quick thinking Mitt, especially when you consider that the answer was already there. And you want to be president? Not if I can help it you wont.