STEPHANOPOULOS: Under this mandate, the government is forcing
people to spend money, fining you if you don’t. How is that not a
tax?
OBAMA: Well, hold on a second, George. Here — here’s what’s
happening. You and I are both paying $900, on average — our
families — in higher premiums because of uncompensated care. Now
what I’ve said is that if you can’t afford health insurance, you
certainly shouldn’t be punished for that. That’s just piling on.
If, on the other hand, we’re giving tax credits, we’ve set up an
exchange, you are now part of a big pool, we’ve driven down the
costs, we’ve done everything we can and you actually can afford
health insurance, but you’ve just decided, you know what, I want to
take my chances. And then you get hit by a bus and you and I have
to pay for the emergency room care, that’s…
STEPHANOPOULOS: That may be, but it’s still a tax increase.
OBAMA: No. That’s not true, George. The — for us to say that
you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is
absolutely not a tax increase. What it’s saying is, is that we’re
not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you
anymore than the fact that right now everybody in America, just
about, has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax
increase. People say to themselves, that is a fair way to make sure
that if you hit my car, that I’m not covering all the costs.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But it may be fair, it may be good public
policy…
OBAMA: No, but — but, George, you — you can’t just
make up that language and decide that that’s called a tax increase.
Any…
STEPHANOPOULOS: Here’s the…
OBAMA: What — what — if I — if I say that right now your
premiums are going to be going up by 5 or 8 or 10 percent next year
and you say well, that’s not a tax increase; but, on the other
hand, if I say that I don’t want to have to pay for you not
carrying coverage even after I give you tax credits that make it
affordable, then…
STEPHANOPOULOS: I — I don’t think I’m making it up. Merriam
Webster’s Dictionary: Tax — “a charge, usually of money, imposed
by authority on persons or property for public purposes.”
OBAMA: George, the fact that you looked up Merriam’s
Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that
you’re stretching a little bit right now. Otherwise, you
wouldn’t have gone to the dictionary to check on the definition. I
mean what…
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, no, but…
OBAMA: …what you’re saying is…
STEPHANOPOULOS: I wanted to check for myself. But your critics
say it is a tax increase.
OBAMA: My critics say everything is a tax
increase. My critics say that I’m taking over every sector
of the economy. You know that. Look, we can have a legitimate
debate about whether or not we’re going to have an individual
mandate or not, but…
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you reject that it’s a tax increase?
OBAMA: I absolutely reject that notion.
Doesn’t everyone look things up in the dictionary when they are
planning to misuse words? In any event, the individual mandate is a
tax when the question is constitutionality and not a tax when the
question is whether the president honored his pledge not to raise
taxes on middle-class Americans.
