Obamacare: How Many of the President’s Promises Have Been Broken?

Yesterday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) almost called Obamacare’s individual mandate a tax, stopping mid-word to call it a “penalty”. White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew and other spokespersons echoed this talking point. This is in spite of last week’s Supreme Court ruling that deemed the mandate unconstitutional under both the Commerce Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause, but ruled that it could stand as part of Congress’s authority to “lay and collect taxes.”

Dubbing the individual mandate a tax saved the President’s health care law, but it’s a concept that President Obama himself has strongly denied. In a 2009 interview, President Obama argued that his individual mandate was not a tax increase, stating, “I absolutely reject that notion.”

But after last week, President Obama must now admit it’s a tax or admit the mandate is unconstitutional. It’s can only be one or the other.

The mandate is in fact a tax, and it’s just one of many new taxes that hit the middle class in Obamacare. Lo and behold, another broken promise. President Obama claims that the mandate is holding people responsible, keeping with that spirit, here’s a reminder of the other promises the President and his health care law are responsible for breaking:

Promise #1: “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.”

Reality: The individual mandate is far from alone on Heritage’s lengthy list of Obamacare’s new taxes and penalties, many of which will heavily impact the middle class. Altogether, Obamacare’s taxes and penalties will accumulate an additional $500 billion in new revenue over a 10-year period. Yesterday, a senior economist for The Wall Street Journal revealed that 75 percent of Obamacare’s new taxes will be paid for by American families making under $120,000 a year. Among the taxes that will hit the middle class are the individual mandate, a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices, a 10 percent excise tax on indoor tanning, and an increase of the floor on medical deductions from 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income to 10 percent.

Promise #2: “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period.”

Reality: Research continues to show that as many as 30 percent of employers will dump their employees from their existing health care coverage. The Administration itself has admitted that “as a practical matter, a majority of group health plans will lose their grandfather status by 2013.”

Promise #3: “I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits—either now or in the future.”

Reality: As Heritage analysts explain, “A close examination of what [the Congressional Budget Office] said, as well as other evidence, makes it clear that the deficit reduction associated with [Obamacare] is based on budget gimmicks, sleights of hand, accounting tricks, and completely implausible assumptions. A more honest accounting reveals the new law as a trillion-dollar budget buster.”

Promise #4: “I will protect Medicare.”

Reality: A Heritage Factsheet shows the various ways Obamacare ends Medicare as we know it, including severe physician reimbursement cuts that threaten seniors’ access to care and putting an unelected board of bureaucrats in charge of meeting Medicare’s new spending cap.

CONTINUED:  http://www.askheritage.org/obamacare-how-many-of-the-presidents-promises-have-been-broken-t3?utm_content=2012-07-06&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=AH_Weekly&utm_campaign=2012_Brand&mboxSession=1341614914343-598254

Letter to the Editor: Take Another Look by CCTA Member Lou Call

July 2, 2012


The Sun Journal, Letter to the Editor

Take another look….

Like most people I was initially disappointed over the ruling of Chief Justice Roberts regarding Obamacare; I felt betrayed. After a cooling down period I delved into the Courts decision and began to realize that the Chief Justice is nothing short of genius. Let’s look at the decision itself.

The Chief Justice emphatically stated that Obamacare is unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause saying you cannot make people buy stuff. He then stated that it is unconstitutional under the “necessary and proper” clause which only applies to “enumerated powers” in the US Constitution.

This is huge because this means that the Court ruled 9-0 that Obamacare was unconstitutional under the Commerce clause which was Obama’s whole defense of the bill.

Obama has stated many times that the provisions in Obamacare requiring Americans to purchase health care insurance is not a tax. Obama assiduously avoided using the term “tax” and now he has to admit this law is a tax and it is on everyone even the poor. Virtually everyone agrees that the Federal government has the power to do this as it does with the mortgage deduction for federal income taxes.

All is not lost. The November election will be about the economy and Obamacare. The Supreme Court decision will help Romney and those Republicans seeking election in the Senate. More importantly is the fact that this makes this a budgetary issue that can be voted on in the Senate by a mere majority instead of 60 votes needed to stop a filibuster. This means that if the Republicans can gain a majority in the Senate, it can vote to repeal Obamacare in total.

There is no question that the Congress will vote to repeal with the shadow of the outcome of the 2010 elections still looming over them. When one considers that more than 60% of the voters going to the polls are in favor of repeal we have within our grasp the opportunity to rid Washington of our socialist president and his minions that surround him; his ‘czars’.

The future of this great Country rests in all our hands. I implore you to write, email and FAX our elected representatives demanding they repeal Obamacare. The vote of Chief Justice Roberts has put the ball back in our court. It is up to all of us to move that ball forward. Remember, ‘evil triumphs when good men (and women) do nothing’!


Louis Call
New Bern, NC

A Government “For” the People ?

July 3, 2012

What a sad day when the Supreme Court loses sight of what the Constitution’s purpose is – to protect the rights of individuals, and not to take them away. Historically, we’ve come to expect this from Congress and the President, but not the Supreme Court.

In our Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote: “All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..” With those words, he defined the character of our new nation. He then cited several “injuries and usurpations” by King George against the colonies which justified our secession from England, including “taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Government….”

Today, not only does the federal government NOT secure our rights but it is doing the very same thing King George was guilty of… “altering fundamentally our form of government.” All three branches are guilty.

Jefferson never trusted the Supreme Court. He saw it as part of the problem. For one, it was itself a branch of the federal government and thus not an impartial arbiter. He warned: “If the federal government has the exclusive right to judge the extent of its own powers, it will continue to grow – regardless of elections, the separation of powers, and other limits on government power.”

But it’s been the people who’ve allowed the power grab to continue because they like the freebies. They like being taken care of. A people who would trade freedom for comfort are a people who are in need of a master and deserve one.


I hope you’ll think twice about voting to re-elect King George in November.

Diane Rufino, Greenville, NC

TEA PARTY PATRIOTS NC: Supreme Court Falters in Defense

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                
CONTACT: Rev Russ Fincham
 russ580@yahoo.com
 910-334-3087/910-730-5931

June 30, 2012

Supreme Court Falters in Defense of Constitution

Tea Party Patriots Will Not Rest until Obamacare is Fully Repealed

North Carolina– Tea Party Patriots, the nation’s largest tea party organization, today criticized the decision by the Supreme Court to find President Obama’s healthcare bill constitutional.

“Today, the highest court in the land failed to defend liberty and the Constitution, becoming an accomplice to the President and his allies who have forced this unconstitutional and unwanted law down the throats of freedom-loving Americans,” said Rev Russ Fincham North Carolina State Coordinator of Tea Party Patriots. “For more than two years, Tea Party Patriots have consistently rejected the law’s premise—that Americans can be forced to buy anything—by holding rallies large and small, demanding answers at congressional district hearings, organizing health care-driven issue debates and policy forums, and challenging the constitutionally of Obamacare at every step. Healthcare needs to be reformed, not assaulted along with the Constitution by a power-hungry President and Congress. Today’s ruling stands against American families who want the freedom to choose the best health care options – without government telling them what to do.


“We must and will go back to Congress now and demand repeal, holding every member accountable to the majority of the American people. The President, Congress and now the Supreme Court have shown that they do not have the best interests of the American people at heart. This unconstitutional and grievous violation of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited  government and free markets demands that the entire legislation be repealed, and we will work tirelessly until it is.


“Tea Party Patriots believe the only meaningful solutions to the nation’s health care problems are innovative market-based reforms created within the 50 states, not this one-size-doesn’t-fit-all big-government disaster cooked up by Washington politicians, lobbyists and bureaucrats.

“You can't fix unconstitutional. We must repeal the entire law and turn this back over to the states where it market-based solutions can be implemented. We can't trust this President or Congress to fix health care.

“If Congress fails to repeal, they will face the same stark consequences they did in 2010.”

Visit Tea Party Patriots online at www.TeaPartyPatriots.org.

AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY: What's Next?

The Supreme Court ruled to uphold the President’s disastrous health care law yesterday, but this issue is far from over. AFP is more committed than ever to defeating President Obama's unaffordable, irresponsible and unaccountable law that burdens the American people with a painful new tax.


Many of you have asked what AFP's next move would be. Our next move is to continue the battle and call on Congress to repeal President Obama's health care law that is a trillion-dollar government takeover. Equally disturbing, the law strips authority over health care decisions away from patients and doctors, and gives it to Washington bureaucrats.


In 2009, President Obama promised that his heath care law was “absolutely not a tax, and would not raise the deficit.” Yet President Obama’s health care law is one of the largest tax increases in history, and we’re making sure that fact is very well known.

Click here to watch Americans for Prosperity’s 'NOT A TAX' ad calling for the full repeal of this damaging law.Obama’s health care law not only gives the federal government the power to penalize Americans for not buying something they may not want, but it is completely unaffordable. According to a study by a Trustee on the Medicare Board, this big-government legislation will add $530 billion to federal deficits and increase Washington spending by $1.76 trillion over the next decade.

http://americansforprosperity.org/handsoffmyhealthcare/petition1/

Five Reasons Why the Obamacare Decision Might Not Be As Bad As You Think

Ever since the shocking ruling by the Supreme Court today that labeled Obamacare’s highly controversial individual mandate a “tax” was handed down, conservatives have been reacting with a mixture of depression and cold fury, especially toward the man who made it possible, Chief Justice John Roberts. Branded a “coward” in some corners, and a traitor by many, Roberts has been relentlessly criticized for a decision which many see as eroding the last obstacle to an overpowered government, and which certainly has the potential to do just that if the political philosophy that has so dominated the current administration continues unabated.

However, sympathetic though we are to these admittedly weighty fears of increased state power, we think one fact may have been a bit obscured by this response – this is still a decision by John Roberts. And John Roberts is still a Bush appointee, with a judicial philosophy that makes hardcore judicial liberals cringe, albeit a little less now. As such, since the decision was released, a steady drumbeat of commentary has gone up from everyone from Reason Magazine to Charles Krauthammer to Erick Erickson to George Will to even Ken Cuccinelli, one of the people who lost in the case, claiming the decision might be a sleeper victory. With a list of people like that believing they’ve secretly won, we figure we owe it to them to at least try to sum up the case for the Obamacare case being a success. Here are the top five reasons we can see why the Obamacare case might come back to haunt the Left and make the Right cheer:

CONTINUED:  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/five-reasons-why-the-obamacare-decision-might-not-be-as-bad-as-you-think/

American Thinker: The Chief Justice Done Good

Chief Justice John Roberts has handed a remarkable victory to American conservatives by threading the judicial needle with perfect precision. The initial disappointment collectively felt by Americans who had hoped for a Supreme Court ruling that would overturn Obamacare soon will be replaced, upon further reflection, by the excitement that will come with a fuller appreciation of what the Chief Justice has wrought. First, almost completely unnoticed, the Chief Justice voted with his four conservative colleagues in drawing an unprecedented red line against Washington wielding the Constitution's Commerce Clause in the future to justify federal intrusion into the personal lives of Americans. This decision will restrict American Presidents and future Congresses for a generation and more.


CONTINUED:  http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/06/the_chief_justice_done_good.html