since the supreme court's decision last week, the right seems to have picked up on the fact that justice roberts voted to uphold the individual mandate under congress' tax power, and are attacking the health reform plan as a tax increase.
to the extent you can characterize the individual mandate (or more specifically, the penalties for not complying with the mandate) as a tax, it's a pretty unusual tax. it would be a tax that only applies to people who do not have health insurance, and who can afford to buy it, but choose not to. in a sense, the outrage over the "tax" is on behalf of this group of uninsured people. which means this might be the first time that the outraged ever gave a shit about the uninsured.
to the extent you can characterize the individual mandate (or more specifically, the penalties for not complying with the mandate) as a tax, it's a pretty unusual tax. it would be a tax that only applies to people who do not have health insurance, and who can afford to buy it, but choose not to. in a sense, the outrage over the "tax" is on behalf of this group of uninsured people. which means this might be the first time that the outraged ever gave a shit about the uninsured.
