Health Care Reform Penalty Isn't Tax Until Obama Needs That Argument in Court

When is a health care penalty not a tax? It isn't a tax when President Obama is trying to sell the bill to the American people. When is it a tax? It's a tax when you need that argument to win a court case against health care reform.

The NYT reported:

When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.”

And that power, they say, is even more sweeping than the federal power to regulate interstate commerce.

Administration officials say the tax argument is a linchpin of their legal case in defense of the health care overhaul and its individual mandate, now being challenged in court by more than 20 states and several private organizations.

Watch Obama lie.