as an exercise of the tax power but the court has an obligation to construe it as an exercise of the tax power if it can be upheld on that basis. today in ohio the president steered clear of the tax versus penalty dispute and says the law s here to stay. what do we hear from governor romney about the tax vs. penalty dispute. he s been accused of going back and forth on it as well. when the court ruled a week ago today romney said he disagreed with the majority that the mandate is a constitutional tax and said at the time he sided with the dissenting minority which called it a unconstitutional penalty. aides reiterated that money and it freaked out some and some said romney was squandering a political opportunity. romney tried to explain. the supreme court has spoken and while i agreed with the
the solicitor general in front of the supreme court megyn: that s the thing. his lawyer said it was valid as a tax. he didn t just say under the taxing power. and so the supreme court, the chief justice, simon, john rockets whose vote was critical, asked him why don t you just say it was tax when you were passing it? in other words, why didn t you tell the american people it was a tax, and listen to what the president s lawyer said as a justification. sure. megyn: why didn t congress call it a tax then? well you re telling me fathered it as a tax, they defended it on the tax power. why didn t they say it was a tax? they might have thought, your honor, that calling it a penalty would make it more effective in accomplishing its objective, but it is collected by the irs on april 15th. megyn: more effective in accomplishing its objective which is to get it passed, to get the american people to approve it, simon. let s just be clear about
through the tax code. review the court transcripts, ryan, at no point did varilli or any of the government lawyers say it s a tax? well donald actually did call it a tax and even argued, quote: well, listen to this: not only is it fair to read this as an exercise of the tax power but this court has got an obligation to construe it as an exercise of the tax power if it can be upheld on that basis. romney from the outset sided with the minority dissent calling mandate unconstitutional penalty. when his aides reit s rated that earlier this week, romney s position to some republicans looked like he was going to publicity the tax cut hit on president obama. romney yesterday said the court has spoken and it s a tax regardless of what the law is called. the president today said it s here to stay, harris. harris: well, carl, there are reports tonight that governor romney may have raised $100 million last month that would be a big chunk of
this way, is there anything for which we cannot be taxed? i m sure the answer to that is, there is something but, sitting here, given the incredible breadth the chief justice put on the tax definition under the constitution, it is hard for me to conceive immediately of what that might be. along the lines of scott s comment, one of the things i might have thought was, it couldn t be an excise tax on doing nothing. they ve supplied excise taxes to work before, for instance, for social security. but, for doing nothing, the failure to do something, this is, itself, brand new and it is part of why the chief justice has expanded the taxing power to a point never imagined by the founders in his opinion here. and, it is very unfortunate, it could cause a serious problem in the future, but i will point out, the one power that congressman and senators are most afraid of voting on is the tax power.
percentage of your income and here is what the president s lawyer the solicitor general told the court in defending the mandate. not only is it fair to read this as an exercise of the tax power but this court has an obligation to construe it as an exercise of the tax power. chris: mr. lew if it looks, talks and quacks like a duck, it is a duck. one of the things about our judicial system is you can make arguments to the court on multiple grounds. that is what don was doing. he is saying there was a lot of ways to look at this. it was set up and not called a tax but there are powers that congress has and you can justify a law under multiple ways. ers it is something people choose whether or not to be subject to. most americans want health