The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court at the Supreme Court in Washington. Seated from left are Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, and Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Standing, from left are Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito Jr., and Elena Kagan. (AP)
Even card-carrying liberal George Stephanopoulos was incredulous on ABC’s "This Week" back in 2009 when he heard President Obama deny ObamaCare’s mandate constituted a tax. “It’s still a tax increase,” Stephanopoulos insisted, to which Obama countered: “No, no, that’s not true, George. For us to say that you’ve got to take responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase.”
Then Obama doubled down for emphasis and effect:
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you reject that it’s a tax increase?
OBAMA: I absolutely reject that notion.
This denial is central to what the Supreme Court did in upholding ObamaCare and why the Congress must act immediately to repeal every last word of it. Both the president and Democratic-controlled Congress shoved this 2,000-plus page monstrosity down the public’s throat by insisting it wasn’t a tax. But in court the Obama administration argued it was indeed, exactly what they told America it wasn't -- and the Court upheld it.
This has to be the greatest sleight-of-hand in history. If the public had known from the beginning ObamaCare was just one enormous tax increase (actually, some two dozen different tax increases); if Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and their foot soldiers hadn’t willfully lied, time and again to the American people, this never would have passed Congress in the first place.
No one can deny this.
Justice Roberts upheld a deception. There's no nice way to sugarcoat it.
The Supreme Court had a sacred duty to the Constitution to reject this blatant federal power grab, passed in the halls of Congress with the largest bait-and-switch ever perpetrated upon the American people. Four justices, including the so-called "swing" vote clearly saw it this way. For the majority to codify this deception is a disgrace.
The American people -- the real victims in this atrocity -- have only one recourse remaining: Congress. Now only Congress can repeal it.
The problem, of course, is Congress.
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On the left you have those who happily participated in this deception and on the right those who solemnly pledged, if elected, to put an end to this deception but then galloped off to the tall grass of indecision the moment they realized they were expected to act on said commitments.
Well, guess what, Democrats and Republicans. Everyone now knows it's a tax, and not any ol' tax. It's the single largest tax in the history of man. Put up or shut up. Be a man (or woman) and stand up for this, or be a man (or woman) and put an end to it. Stop hiding behind the skirts of obfuscation (Democrats) and cowardice (Republicans).
As is always the case, the public knows best -- certainly better than the elites in Washington. From the beginning it has considered ObamaCare a travesty. Polls have repeatedly shown strong majorities have opposed it since it was passed over two years ago. Two years after its passage, and a day after the court's affirmation of it, Team Obama is still trying to sell it. The public simply is not buying it, and is right not to buy it. How many times must it be deceived before it realizes it simply cannot trust its government?
This was the last straw.
There can be no more lip-service. There can be no more excuses. No more crass political calculations. And for God's sake, no more deceptions – not about costs, not about effectiveness, not about anything. America as an economic powerhouse has crashed and burned precisely because one camp led us into this mess with fiscal irrationality; while the other, if not going along, blissfully whistled away as we drove over the cliff.
Almost. We are perhaps only moments away from the precipice, and we could avoid calamity, but only if we are prepared to slam on the brakes of government overreach.
Now is the time for every candidate standing for office this year, regardless of party, to show he or she stands with the American people and against a leftist Washington elite that will repeatedly lie to the public to get what it wants.
As of today, there is only one issue in this election: ObamaCare. Put it to a real vote in Congress, free of the deceptions. No more pass-it-so-we-can-read-it nonsense. Put it under the full light of public scrutiny.
Then, Obama-clone liberals, vote for it. I dare you.
Brent Bozell is chairman and CEO of ForAmerica.org, the largest online conservative army in America with 2.5 million supporters.
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