And I believe in the Tooth Fairy

The Liar-in-Chief, who keeps claiming he won’t raise our taxes by one dime, is now lying about the coming health insurance mandate. Mandate is a neutral-sounding word, but what it amounts to is a tax on everyone who now does not wish to purchase health insurance. From the AP story:

President Barack Obama says requiring people to get health insurance and fining them if they don’t would not amount to a backhanded tax increase. “I absolutely reject that notion,” the president said.

Blanketing most of the Sunday TV news shows, Obama defended his proposed health care overhaul, including a key point of the various health care bills on Capitol Hill: mandating that people get health insurance to share the cost burden fairly among all. Those who failed to get coverage would face financial penalties.

I’m pleased that he can “absolutely reject that notion.” True, the fines are not labeled as “taxes.” But that’s what they are: a tax on your liberty, your right to not carry health insurance.

Now, one may make a reasoned argument that it is everyone’s civic duty to be insured, so as not to be a burden on your fellow citizens when you need health care. But for the government to impose a fine? Any time the government requires money from you for a service that you neither requested nor desire, that’s a tax by any other name.

Want more lies from Obama? Consider this statement:

“Right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase.”

He’s so adorable when he doesn’t have a teleprompter. That “just about” is sooo folksy. But here he is ignorant or lying. Auto insurance is needed as a public safety measure. You don’t have a right to drive; it is a privilege and the state exacts fees from you to help pay for maintaining the roads.

The requirement for insurance is to protect you and your fellow citizens when you have an accident. You may hate paying it, but it doesn’t go to the government, and you do have a choice: if you don’t drive, you don’t pay. Is this a realistic choice for many of us? Not really, but it is a choice.

Further, auto insurance is not a “tax increase.” It’s not a tax, it’s a fee for insurance, and it’s not an increase as it’s been around for many years. And, we trust, not many drivers are violating the law by not carrying auto insurance.

The “mandate” for health insurance is a bad idea for a free people: it makes us that much less free. And this continues the troubling trend under Obama.