.
July 2nd, 2012
11:00 PM ET

Debating health care: Tax vs. penalty

Jeffrey Toobin, Bill Burton and Ari Fleischer discuss the politics of calling the health care law a tax.

 Post by:
Filed under: Health Care • Raw Politics • Supreme Court
soundoff (5 Responses)
  1. Bridget

    I think this debate is a waste of time. In the end whether the healthcare penalty is called a penalty, a tax, or a mandate doesn't matter. Individuals will still have to pay the same amount. I would much rather see the candidates talking about the economy and how they plan to address the job and housing problems in America. Each party has spent this entire week talking about the semantics of what to call this penalty and less time telling us how they plan to get this economy moving. I'm frustrated and outraged by Congress (both parties). When will our politicians understand what is really important to the American people?

    July 5, 2012 at 8:29 pm |
  2. Barb

    Re; Bill Burton's statement aired on 7/2/12 – "this new Health Care Bill will penalize free loaders" does this include all the illegal's who go to our hospital emergency rooms? How are they going to penalize them if they are not documented? Will they be able to qualify for our health give -a-way programs? Who are the "free loaders" anyway? Are they our mentally ill citizens, our drug pushers, our out of work and out of unemployment citizens?

    July 3, 2012 at 12:03 pm |
  3. Joel

    In some state fines that go unpaid after due date is deducted from your state taxes. At this point, does the fine you were penalized become a tax? I don't think it does, so how can anyone whose cranium contains even a single brain cell call the Obama care penalty a tax?

    July 3, 2012 at 1:18 am |
  4. bigsky1970

    The Supreme Court called it a tax.

    July 3, 2012 at 12:25 am |
    • Joel

      Just curious...If the supreme court were to say that you were a rabbit, would that make it so? How can you type with such small furry paws? Sorry, there are 9 justices on the supreme court bench making them outnumbered by any group there is out there. I, unlike people who bow to whatever they say to be fact, have my own brain and am capable of my own thought process and decision making. I, unlike the crooked people in government (yes, no government job or position/title is impossible to have an ignorant or easily swayed person fill that spot) base my decisions on what to classify things on logic. Logically, unpaid state fines are NOT a tax. Logically if these are deducted from your tax return as is the health care PENALTY for not having insurance, it falls into the same category as unpaid state fines. Therefore, if A=B and B=C then A must be equal to C. I don't expect most Americans to get that, especially since our rank in education is barely above that of most third-world countries. Sorry for spilling facts, but I feel everyone deserves to see the truth, no matter if they accept it or not.

      July 5, 2012 at 8:33 pm |
« Back to main

Team AC360°