During Obama’s publicity tour last Sunday, President Obama refused to answer ABC’s George Stephanopoulos’s question regarding his promise not to raise taxes on anybody earning less than $250,000.00. The evasiveness of the President was so glaring George Stephanopoulos pulled out the dictionary to teach President Obama what a tax actually is. Here’s the Merriam-Webster definition of “tax”: A charge of money imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes. President Obama laughed it off, saying (not an exact quote) “the use of the dictionary reveals the problem with the question.” The basis of the question was the provision in Senator Max Baucus which would impose a penalty for not buying insurance. Max Baucus; from Montana? How’d Montana elect a liberal like Max? Shame on you, Montana. Anyway, here is a run down of the provision told through discussion in Congress:

Americans who fail to pay the penalty for not buying insurance would face legal action from the Internal Revenue Service, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

The remarks Thursday from the committee’s chief of staff, Thomas Barthold, seems to further weaken President Barack Obama’s contention last week that the individual mandate penalty, which could go as high as $1,900, is not a tax increase.

Under questioning from Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), Barthold said the IRS would “take you to court and undertake normal collection proceedings.”

Ensign pursued the line of questioning because he said a lot of Americans don’t believe the Constitution allows the government to mandate the purchase of insurance.

“We could be subjecting those very people who conscientiously, because they believe in the U.S. Constitution, we could be subjecting them to fines or the interpretation of a judge, all the way up to imprisonment,” Ensign said. “That seems to me to be a problem.”

Ensign’s argument , however, wasn’t persuasive to the committee — which rejected an amendment from Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) to eliminate the individual mandate.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) was the only Republican to vote with Democrats to preserve the mandate. (Reetzality question: Why is Olympia Snowe still in the Republican Party? Here’s a Reetzality suggestion: Kick her out, she’s an embarrassment.)

So, under the Baucus plan there is a penalty if you don’t have health insurance. Thus, under the plan, the government is ordering everybody to pay money for health insurance. Hmm, a monetary charge, imposed by authority, for public purposes? Sounds like a tax to me, because it is a tax. So, again, Obama is lying.

Yet, maybe I can save the President’s face. President Obama doesn’t have a health care plan. Probably too busy with his media tour, including David Letterman, getting his narcissism massaged. Notwithstanding President Obama’s Narcissism, he can honestly say that he does not have a plan that raises taxes, because, drum roll, he has no plan. And now that I’m on the subject, before he hunkers down and gets a plan, maybe he should focus on the troop request for Afghanistan. He said in his campaign that Afghanistan would be his focus. Uh oh, another lie. How many is that? Let me count them. Here’s my count:

1. I’ll have no lobbyists in my administration. He does.
2. I’ll read every bill, line by line, before I sign it. He didn’t read the stimulus bill.
3. I will have no earmarks. there were over eight thousand earmarks on the stimulus bill.
4. I’ll be out of Irac in sixty days. Nope.
5. I’ll close Guantanamo. Nope. (but a good nope)
6. My administration will be transparent. It’s not.
7. I’ll put an end to red-state-blue-state politics. The nation has never been more polarized. Actually it was once, in 1861. I think Lincoln was president)
8. Cap and Trade will not impose a cost on families. Obama covered up an internal report that said it would do just that.
9. My focus will be on Afghanistan. It’s not, it’s on Letterman.
10. I won’t raise taxes on anybody earning less than $250,000.00. Not true if he gets his way on cap and trade and health care.
11. Health care won’t cover illegal aliens. (It did until Wilson called him a liar. He went on to say we should make illegals legal and kill the issue.
12. I’m for a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. He betrayed our allies and reversed course.
13. Obama-care won’t include a tax. It does.
14. I didn’t even know ACORN was getting that much federal funding. Either he’s a liar or ignorant, pick.
15. If we pass the stimulus bill, unemployment will not go above 8%. It has.
16. I have no intention of running General Motors. He is.
17. . . . To be continued. You can bet on it.

That’s my Reetzality for the Day.

Thanks for the Read and fill me in on any lies I missed,

Brett Reetz

Note: Here’s a disgusting note about Max Baucus: Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has approved an investigation by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services about a “false” flier that Humana sent to its members about Medicare benefits. The pamphlet explained that the Healthcare Reform Act would adversely affect the benefits.

Baucus asked for and was granted an investigation from CMS on the basis of “false information,” saying later that “does the first amendment include lies?” Unfortunately the latest round of “lies” seems to be coming from the Democrats, and their collective anxiety to pass what they consider to be the truth is increasing. Reetzality note: Humana was telling the truth. So much for “the truth will set you free.”