Despite Ruling, Jack Lew Refuses to Call Health Care Mandate a Tax
George Stephanopoulos
ABC NEWS
July 1 2012
White House chief of staff Jack Lew refused to call the individual mandate for health care a tax, continually referring to it as a “penalty” or “charge,” despite the Supreme Court’s ruling that it should be considered a tax.
“The Supreme Court looked at what the structure of the law was and they saw that one percent of the people would be paying this charge if they chose not to avail themselves of health insurance,” Lew told me this morning on “This Week.” “For that one percent who have chosen not to buy health insurance, and just to pass the burden on to others, there’s this penalty.”
On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that the cornerstone of President Obama’s health care legislation, the individual mandate, was indeed constitutional on the grounds that it acts as a tax.
Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the Supreme Court’s four liberal members in the majority opinion, writing that “The Affordable Care Act’s requirement that certain individuals pay a financial penalty for not obtaining health insurance may reasonably characterized as a tax. Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid it, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness.”
But in my interview this morning on “This Week,” Lew refused to acknowledge that it was a tax, saying, “The law set it up as a penalty for the people who make that choice. The court found it constitutional. Frankly what you call it is not the issue.”
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