Look, we can have a legitimate debate about whether or not we're going to have an individual mandate or not, but… My critics say that I'm taking over every sector of the economy. OBAMA: My critics say everything is a tax increase. But your critics say it is a tax increase. STEPHANOPOULOS: I wanted to check for myself. Otherwise, you wouldn't have gone to the dictionary to check on the definition. OBAMA: George, the fact that you looked up Merriam's Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you're stretching a little bit right now. Merriam Webster's Dictionary: Tax - "a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes." STEPHANOPOULOS: I - I don't think I'm making it up. OBAMA: What - what - if I - if I say that right now your premiums are going to be going up by 5 or 8 or 10 percent next year and you say well, that's not a tax increase but, on the other hand, if I say that I don't want to have to pay for you not carrying coverage even after I give you tax credits that make it affordable, then… OBAMA: No, but - but, George, you - you can't just make up that language and decide that that's called a tax increase. STEPHANOPOULOS: But it may be fair, it may be good public policy… People say to themselves, that is a fair way to make sure that if you hit my car, that I'm not covering all the costs. What it's saying is, is that we're not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you anymore than the fact that right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance. The - for us to say that you've got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase. STEPHANOPOULOS: That may be, but it's still a tax increase. And then you get hit by a bus and you and I have to pay for the emergency room care, that's… If, on the other hand, we're giving tax credits, we've set up an exchange, you are now part of a big pool, we've driven down the costs, we've done everything we can and you actually can afford health insurance, but you've just decided, you know what, I want to take my chances. Now what I've said is that if you can't afford health insurance, you certainly shouldn't be punished for that. You and I are both paying $900, on average - our families - in higher premiums because of uncompensated care. Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don't. The law stands, only because Congress has the authority to tax-something Obama maintained it wasn't trying to do. Luckily for Obama, the Supreme Court held that he was wrong. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 today that President Obama's health-care law, his top domestic policy achievement, is constitutional because the "individual mandate"-the penalty individuals must pay for not buying health insurance-can be considered a tax.Īs Congress crafted the law, there was some dispute over whether or not to consider the mandate a "tax" or a "penalty." In this September 2009 exchange with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, President Obama maintained that the mandate is not a tax. Pete Souza/Official White House Photo, Sept.
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