'Tax': The dirtiest word of them all
Our favorite mother and tax expert thinks it's a tad ironic that the authors of the health care legislation worked so hard to avoid the term 鈥渢ax,鈥� yet taxing is one of the most appropriate things the government can do, and ultimately saved the act.
Our favorite mother and tax expert thinks it's a tad ironic that the authors of the health care legislation worked so hard to avoid the term 鈥渢ax,鈥� yet taxing is one of the most appropriate things the government can do, and ultimately saved the act.
I find it kind of funny that, in the end, what saved President Obama鈥檚 health care reform law was to go ahead and call a tax (the crucial cost-controlling provision previously known as a 鈥渕andate鈥�), a 鈥渢ax.鈥� From the Washington Post鈥檚 Robert Barnes (emphasis added):
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Later in the Post story, Justice Kennedy explains that the basic problem was that Congress (and implicitly the Obama Administration as well) wouldn鈥檛 call a tax a 鈥渢ax鈥� (bold added):
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It鈥檚 seems rather ironic to me that the authors of the health care legislation avoided the term 鈥渢ax鈥� to make the policy seem more acceptable to the American public鈥揳nd in the process called its constitutionality into question.听 Politicians work so hard to avoid that dirty word鈥揳s I鈥檝e noted previously in different contexts.听 Yet, taxing is one of the most appropriate things the federal government can do; it is essential in order to fund the public goods and services (such as 鈥渁ffordable [health] care鈥�) that it provides.
Who knows what other things we might be able to accomplish by embracing the federal government鈥檚 taxing authority?!