Is it a tax or is it a penalty?

[M14 Shooter]

Under Obamacare, if you do not carry health insirance by a certain date, you will have to pay a % of your income to the Federal government.

The Suprme Court and the Solicitor General call this a tax:
Health reform: New taxes, fees and penalties - Jun. 28, 2012
Solicitor General Called Mandate a Tax - By Noah Glyn - The Corner - National Review Online

The Obama's administration calls this a penalty:
Obama camp: Mandate a penalty, not a tax - Washington Times

With whom do you agree, and why?
How is the other party wrong?
Do you understand that there is a difference and why that difference matters?

 

[SniperFire]

The Supremes made the call on this difficult issue.

ObamaTax is a revenue matter, and the Congress can deal with it accordingly with simple majorities.

 

[Oddball]

It's a tax with a fluffy penalty nougat center.

 

[konradv]

Don't care. It's aimed at freeloaders that can afford insurance, but choose instead to depend on the rest of us to pay their bills. We hear all the time about how poor people are draining us dry. Why should those that aren't be getting a pass?

 

[BDBoop]

Supreme Court ruling on affordable care act threatens Mitt Romney’s no tax record in Massachusetts



Supreme Court ruling on affordable care act threatens Mitt Romney’s no tax record in Massachusetts | masslive.com

So I'm GUESSING that it's a penalty in Mass, but for the rest of the US it's a tax.

 

[The T]

What is a penality but a TAX...and what is a TAX? A portion of your earned property to run government. Legalized theft within reason.

What is a Stinkhorn fungus that is called a rose?

 

[SniperFire]

Don't care. It's aimed at freeloaders that can afford insurance, but choose instead to depend on the rest of us to pay their bills.

You manage the exceptions, not permit the exceptions to manage you.

 

[BDBoop]

What is a penality but a TAX...and what is a TAX? A portion of your earned property to run government. Legalized theft within reason.

What is a Stinkhorn fungus that is called a rose?

Unless you're Mittens, and Massachusetts is in play.

BOSTON – As governor, Mitt Romney raised hundreds of millions of dollars in new and higher fees to help Massachusetts close a looming budget gap – all the while seeking to preserve a no-new-tax record as he eyed a run for president.

Now, the Supreme Court decision that upheld President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care law is threatening to unravel Romney’s no-tax claim, even as it hands the GOP a rallying cry in the presidential contest.

At issue is whether the so-called “individual mandate” at the core of both the federal law signed by Obama and the 2006 state law signed by Romney is a penalty or a tax. The mandate requires everyone who can afford insurance to have it or face what Massachusetts officials have called a penalty.

From the link posted above.

 

[DontBeStupid]

It's a tax penalty. Similar to the ones I currently pay for not being married and not having children.

 

[Liability]

The Supremes made the call on this difficult issue.

. . . Apparently believing that Congress couldn't possibly be trusted to ue the term they felt most appropriate. And possibly believing tht Congress should not be trusted with sharp objects.

Not tht the SCOTUS is necessarily wrong in either assumption, but that still doesn't make it proper for the SCOTUS to legislate from the bench, as they did.

ObamaTax is a revenue matter, and the Congress can deal with it accordingly with simple majorities.

They can. They will. ObamaCare is dead. ObamaTax will get repealed.

I have a related question.

If ObamaTax is just a tax (whereby the put a tax on the economic choice not to buy a product or service), and the SCOTUS says it was a valid use of the government's taxing authority, then what matters of purely social/political concern can Congress not address via the tax authority?

In the olden days, wasn't the taxing authority merely another way of saying that Congress can raise revenues? At what point did that get morphed to assert that Congress may use the raising of revenues as a tool to address other political issues?

And if they can permissibly do that, then in what way is it limited? Do the precepts of our Constitutional Republic still constrain the Federal Government to its enumerated powers and limited authority?

Or is the taxing authority a new trump card that makes the reach of Congress something that cannot be limited anymore?

 

[Liability]

It's a tax with a fluffy penalty nougat center.

-- covered in coconut and a rich dark chocolate!

 

[Oddball]

Don't care. It's aimed at freeloaders that can afford insurance, but choose instead to depend on the rest of us to pay their bills. We hear all the time about how poor people are draining us dry. Why should those that aren't be getting a pass?

Right...First it was pimped to us to help the sainted poooooooooor, now it's to penalize the alleged freeloaders.

Bolshevist buttwipes can't even keep your stories straight.

 

[M14 Shooter]

So I'm GUESSING that it's a penalty in Mass, but for the rest of the US it's a tax.

Why do you refuse to address the issue directly, and instead, try to obfuscate the issue by misdirecting the conversation with your red herring?

 

[DontBeStupid]

If ObamaTax is just a tax (whereby the put a tax on the economic choice not to buy a product or service)

You know, you would think after all this time you guys would have figured out what the mandate really was by now.

Guess not.

 

[M14 Shooter]

It's a tax penalty. Similar to the ones I currently pay for not being married and not having children.

I asked:

Do you understand that there is a difference and why that difference matters?

Your answer: No, both counts.

 

[Oddball]

Hey!...You got tax all over my penalty!

No!...You got penalty all over my tax!

Now you can have to crappy things that go worse together, with Obunglercare!

 

[The T]

So I'm GUESSING that it's a penalty in Mass, but for the rest of the US it's a tax.

Why do you refuse to address the issue directly, and instead, try to obfuscate the issue by misdirecting the conversation with your red herring?

Indeed. like it or hate it? Romney Care was a State experiment...and where it should stay...within the States IF they choose to go that direction.

The FED has no business in this at all.

 

[BDBoop]

So I'm GUESSING that it's a penalty in Mass, but for the rest of the US it's a tax.

Why do you refuse to address the issue directly, and instead, try to obfuscate the issue by misdirecting the conversation with your red herring?

I did address the issue directly. What is it in Mass? Then that's what it is in the US.

 

[M14 Shooter]

So I'm GUESSING that it's a penalty in Mass, but for the rest of the US it's a tax.

Why do you refuse to address the issue directly, and instead, try to obfuscate the issue by misdirecting the conversation with your red herring?

I did address the issue directly.

You did not.

What is it in Mass? Then that's what it is in the US.

I rest my case.

 

[BDBoop]

Why do you refuse to address the issue directly, and instead, try to obfuscate the issue by misdirecting the conversation with your red herring?

I did address the issue directly.

You did not.

What is it in Mass? Then that's what it is in the US.

I rest my case.

Yes, I did.

You don't like the answer? SO not my problem.