From the Boston Globe: Headline: “Mitt Romney says health care penalty is a tax” – speaks to Romney’s assessment of the Supreme Court’s Decision to Uphold the Affordable Health Care Act as a “Tax” in a recent CBS interview as somewhat contradictory. That due to the fact that Romney’s aid (some news outlets use the term “chief advisor”), Eric Ferhnstrom, made a comment on MSNBC suggesting he agreed with the Obama administration on the mandate which he did and which was quickly termed a “Mr. Potato Head” moment by the MSNBC crew. (See Video Below)
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It remains to be seen how much longer Mr. Ferhnstrom will be with the Romney Campaign. That notion aside, Romney gave an interview to CBS News while on vacation with his family in New Hampshire and left no doubt as to how he stands on the ruling - and that is not good news for the Obama administration, try as hard as they might to make it into an issue for Romney – the Tax is going to land in the President’s lap – thanks to Supreme Court Justice Roberts. While in the same way, Roberts took the ‘mandate problem” away from Romney. The transcript which follows is from that interview. CBS News’s, Jan Crawford with Mitt Romney, GOP Presumptive Presidential Nominee:
Romney: Well, the Supreme Court has the final word. And their final word is that Obamacare is a tax. So it's a tax. They decided it was constitutional. So it is a tax and it's constitutional. That's the final word. That's what it is.
Crawford: Have you changed your views on this? Do you now believe that it is a tax at the federal level, that the Supreme Court has said it's a tax? So it is a tax?
Romney: Well, I said that I agreed with the dissent, and the dissent made it very clear that they felt it was unconstitutional. But the dissent lost. It's in the minority. And so now the Supreme Court has spoken.
There's now way around that. You can try and say you wished they would have decided in a different way, but they didn't. 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. 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.
Crawford: But does that mean the mandate in the state of Massachusetts under your health care law also is a tax, and that you raised taxes as governor?
Romney: Actually the chief justice, in his opinion, made it very clear that at the state level, states have the power to put in place mandates. They don't need to require them to be called taxes in order for them to be constitutional. And as a result, Massachusetts' mandate was a mandate, was a penalty, was described that way by the legislature and by me. And so it stays as it was.
Crawford: So at the state level, you're saying the Supreme Court says that's different? That the federal government--
Romney: They made it very clear.
Crawford : -- the powers are different between the states and the federal government? Does that make sense to you?
Romney: Well, just take a read of the opinion. The chief justice said that states have what's known as police power. And states can implement penalties and mandates and so forth under their constitutions, which is what Massachusetts did. But the federal government does not have those powers. And therefore, for the Supreme Court to reach the conclusion it did, that the law was constitutional, they had to find it was a tax and they did. And therefore, Obamacare's a tax. Like it or not, it's a tax.
The full video is below.
Therefore, the Roberts ruling was crafted in such a way as to avoid the mandate’s constitutionality entirely, instead, making a clear distinction that the Act is a Tax by Congress, which would allow the Court to uphold “Obamacare, however, Roberts also noted that States which imposed similar mandates have that power under a “police action” – therefore, those states are entitled to enforce a mandate – not a tax. This falls under the 10th amendment of the Constitution and State’s rights.
Romney ran with it brilliantly. Meanwhile the Obama Campaign is digging up every old news clip it can find in order to call Romney a hypocrite, however, in light of the Robert’s Ruling, that’s a difficult if not entirely false assessment. Romney is merely noting the decision as it was written, and it was written as a tax (similar to the manner in which Social Security, originally not a popular program with the American public, was put into place – as a “Tax”, rather than as a mandate – and therefore, Roberts and the Liberal Justices with which he sided, used that precedence for the ruling on “Obamacare” in order for the liberal members of the Court to stay true to their ideology, and for Roberts to hand it back to the Obama Campaign, as promise broken to the American Public – no new taxes on the middle class. In addition, Roberts covered Romney’s behind by adding the snippet about the states and the ability for states, under their constitutions, to enforce penalties as part of a “police action”.
Partial Quoting Eric Erickson from RedState: Robert’s was playing chess.
Checkmate.
How is this all working out for Mitt Romney on the battlefront known as the Presidential Campaign? – Quite well, if one is to look at early polling for indicators, a Recent CNN/ORC Poll, shows Romney Leading Obama by 51 percent to 43 percent in the following states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Gallup Daily Tracking has seen both Obama and Romney run neck and neck for the past few months, within points of each other nationally, however, as any pundit or political junkie knows, when it comes to close Presidential races, 1000 votes in Ohio can sway an election and those states noted in the CNN/ORC poll are crucial. However, one has to look at the broader polling picture to see Romney’s true advantages. Gallup’s series of Obama’s job approval ranking in all 50 states, for a three year period, conclude that his approval is over 50% in merely ten states, and not one of them a battleground state mentioned in the CNN poll.
Therefore, it is no wonder that the Obama Campaign with MSNBC and the rest of the crew, are looking for any opportunity to try and pin anything on Romney – yet they keep coming up short - this will be a non-story for Romney and a huge story for the Obama administration in the coming months leading to the election especially with lower and middle income voters who are aware that the “penalty” is for them, call it what one will but “tax” or “penalty” is a non-starter politically, for Obama, especially when one considers the stagnant economy and the continued high unemployment rate.
From this opinion, Romney walks away with this, especially with lower to middle income voters, while Obama is left to explain why he broke his promise on no taxes. It may not be fair, and the President’s intentions may have been as noble as Mitt Romney’s when he put the mandate into place in Massachusetts, but, the Robert’s Court became a major force in this election with that particular ruling. As a resident of the Great Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and a Conservative in a land apparently surrounded by progressives, it must be noted, that Romney, as Governor, made decisions that were not necessarily in simpatico with this resident who sees any fee or tax or penalty as a “tax”. That said, the original intent was sound, but lacked one key component, opening the borders to other health insurance companies. This may have been in the back of Romney’s mind (who’s big on free enterprise) but would find resistance in the Democrat controlled legislature and the heavy presence of the insurance lobby in the Commonwealth who revels in their monopoly. Overall, Romney managed to get a great deal accomplished by working both sides of the aisle, some programs we can agree with, others we do not – as an independent, that makes Romney extremely appealing, as a partisan on either side, well, not so much, depending on which side one’s on – which brings us to the general. The percentage of voters who are “unenrolled, independent, or what have you” has risen in the past four years, and those voters will determine who will be the next president. Since Romney is more appealing to those independent voters (see constant polls from any source), the odds are on Romney – Regardless of what an aid may or may not have said on MSNBC
The CBS News – Romney Interview
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