by RICHARD STONE
Guest Column
Republicans and Tea Partiers are real good at sticking with the Big Lie, especially where it concerns anything that has to do with our president and ObamaCare.
You’ve heard the lies and misdirection: from the concept of “death panels” to claiming that ObamaCare is little more than a government take-over of health care, Republicans and Tea Partiers have been absolutely apoplectic about affordable health insurance … probably because it will actually help people.
Now, mix in the fact that the Chief Justice, a darling of the far right, worked hard to figure a way to uphold the Act and, according to many of the louder voices on the Right, you’ve got the makings for an armed insurrection. Or relocation to Canada.
Roberts held that the individual mandate (the “personal responsibility” clause) is constitutional because it is, for all intents and purposes, a tax. Congress’ power to tax has never been successfully challenged, but Tea Partiers have never seen a tax they like. And, the only health care mandate the current crop of Republicans can embrace is transvaginal ultrasound probes for women.
So, the individual mandate is constitutional, and legally interpreted as a tax, rather than a fine or penalty. Fine. Semantics. Most people have employer-sponsored health insurance or government-sponsored health insurance. So, if it’s a tax, it’s a tax on people who refuse to be responsible for their own healthcare, their own actions. Call it a Freeloader’s Tax because the only people who will be affected by it are those who can afford to buy insurance – even subsidized health insurance – but refuse to.
(Oh, and shouldn’t the party that purports to support the idea of personal responsibility be in favor of policies that promote personal responsibility?)
But here’s where the lies come in. Tea Party Republicans are calling ObamaCare “possibly the biggest tax increase on middle class Americans in history,” and we cannot let them get away with it. That statement goes far beyond misleading, it’s a flat-out lie – as in “liar, liar, pants on fire!”
Even their assertion that Obama-Care will add trillions to the deficit, is at best, a misrepresentation of the facts.
ObamaCare does not represent creeping socialism. If so, it would take private insurance companies out of the picture. What it does represent is a reform of the way insurance companies do business so that profit isn’t their only goal.
More to come. In the mean time, spread the word.
