{"id":7501,"date":"2012-07-04T16:44:13","date_gmt":"2012-07-04T23:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7501"},"modified":"2013-09-20T10:39:38","modified_gmt":"2013-09-20T17:39:38","slug":"gop-cant-make-up-its-mind-on-obamacare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7501","title":{"rendered":"GOP Can’t Make Up It’s Mind On ObamaCare"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney spokesman:<\/strong> “The governor believes that what we put in place in Massachusetts was a penalty and he disagrees with the court’s ruling that the mandate was a tax.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Reince Priebus, Republican Party Chairman:<\/strong> “Our position is the same as Mitt Romney’s position. It’s a tax.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is apparently some internal debate as to Mitt Romney’s position on whether the mandate in the Affordable Care Act is a tax or penalty. This debate has been raging for many months, but escalated considerably when the Supreme Court ruled that ObamaCare is constitutional. So let’s bring in someone<\/a> who would have to be regarded as an authority on Romney’s position.<\/p>\n

Mitt Romney:<\/strong> “I said that I agree with the dissent, and the dissent made it very clear that they felt it was unconstitutional. But the dissent lost. It’s in the minority. And so now the Supreme Court has spoken. And while I agreed with the dissent, that’s taken over by the fact that the majority of the court said that it’s a tax and therefore it is a tax. They have spoken. There’s no way around that.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There…that should clear it up. Except that it doesn’t. Romney seems to take both sides. He agrees with the dissenting jurists who did not hold that the mandate is a tax. But he also concedes that the majority ruled that it is a tax. So Romney seems to be saying that he acknowledges the ruling of the majority, but that he doesn’t agree with them. Therefore, he acknowledges that the Court holds that the mandate is a tax, but he still thinks it’s a penalty.<\/p>\n

That’s a convenient stance because it permits him to criticize the President for raising taxes while asserting that his own identical legislation was merely a penalty. Isn’t that special? And if he’s able to escape the hypocrisy inherent in that, then he is surely the reincarnation of Houdini.<\/p>\n

What’s more, Romney also seems to be saying that once the Court has spoken, the matter is closed. Therefore, he must be conceding that ObamaCare is constitutional and that there’s no way around it. So he, and every other right-wing blowhard who insisted that the law not only violated the Constitution, but abolished the very notion of American liberty, were desperately wrong and are terrible interpreters of constitutionality. That’s not much of a recommendation for a prospective president.<\/p>\n

Despite the disarray in the GOP, the Court was clear about the administration of the mandate. They did not say that it is a tax (no matter how much Romney and Fox News say they did). It’s not really that hard to grasp. Take it from Cletus, the Slack-Jawed Yokel:<\/p>\n

\"Cletus<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney spokesman: “The governor believes that what we put in place in Massachusetts was a penalty and he disagrees with the court’s ruling that the mandate was a tax.” Reince Priebus, Republican Party Chairman: “Our position is the same as Mitt Romney’s position. It’s a tax.” There is apparently some internal debate as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[152,1],"tags":[260,1066],"class_list":["post-7501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election","category-general","tag-mitt-romney","tag-obamacare"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-1WZ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8267,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8267","url_meta":{"origin":7501,"position":0},"title":"Debate Topic: Romney Win Would Be A Mandate For Torture Per UN Official","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/21\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Tomorrow's presidential debate will be focusing on foreign policy. Instead of wasting 90 minutes on shallow disputes over out-of-context soundbites and arguments over who gets credit\/blame for events that only tangentially reflect on the office of the presidency, the public would be better served if there was a substantive discussion\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8257,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8257","url_meta":{"origin":7501,"position":1},"title":"Romney Bashes Obama In A Mean-Spirited ‘Comedy’ Routine At The Al Smith Dinner","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/19\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Mitt Romney and President Obama both appeared at the annual Al Smith charity dinner last night (videos below) to deliver a few jokes. But if Romney hoped to soften his image as a cold-hearted, robotic, elitist who doesn't connect with ordinary folks, he failed miserably. Romney seems to have had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7920,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7920","url_meta":{"origin":7501,"position":2},"title":"The Ten (Plus) Rankest Hypocrisies Of Mitt Romney And The Republican Party","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/10\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A slightly abridged version of this article was published on AlternetThe Republican National Convention was a rare opportunity to peer into the soul of a party that has embraced an open aversion to the truth. It was a veritable festival of falsehoods, from Paul Ryan implying that a GM plant\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7762,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7762","url_meta":{"origin":7501,"position":3},"title":"If Mitt Romney Thought Paul Ryan Would Change The Subject From Taxes…","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/12\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Much of the media is heralding Mitt Romney's selection of Wisconsin representative Paul Ryan to be his running mate as a significant \"reset\" of the Romney campaign. But these people might want to think again before they shake the Etch-a-Sketch. First of all. the clamor for Romney to release more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7310,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7310","url_meta":{"origin":7501,"position":4},"title":"THE VETTING: Mitt Romney’s Brush With A Tragic Back Alley Abortion","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/13\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the best known components of Mitt Romney's Etch-a-Sketch candidacy is his epic flip-flop on the issue of abortion. In his 1994 campaign for the senate in Massachusetts, Romney was an ardent pro-choice advocate. 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