“Well, this clearly violates the President’s repeated promises that no one, no one making less than $250,000 a year would see a tax increase.”

During his presidential campaign, then Senator Obama promised the American people:

“If you’re a family making less than $250,000 a year, my plan won’t raise your taxes one penny – not your income taxes, not your payroll taxes, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

Now the American people are learning the rest of the story.   This week, the Administration confirmed that the President’s new health care law does raise taxes on hardworking, middle class families. 

As the New York Times recently reported  “Changing Stance, Administration Now Defends Insurance Mandate as a Tax.”

Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) spoke about this issue on the Senate floor.  Excerpts of his remarks are below:

“So I come to the floor having just taken a look at the Sunday New York Times, an article by Robert Pear, ‘Changing Stance: The Administration Now Defends Insurance Mandate as a Tax.’

“I stood on this floor week after week hearing people on the other side of the aisle saying ‘oh, no, this isn’t a tax, this isn’t a tax.’  Now all of a sudden the Administration says differently.

“But then who can forget Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, who said you don’t get to find out what’s in the bill until the bill is passed?

“There have been so many broken promises made by this Administration and this President to the American people that it is no surprise that a majority of the American people continue to want to have this law repealed and replaced.

“And now the one where the President said ‘I can make a firm pledge under my plan.  No family’, he said, ‘making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.’  He went on, to be specific, he said ‘not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.’  That’s what the President happened to say.

“Well, that wasn’t just a candidate speaking that way. Even as President, in September, 2009, a speech before Congress, President Obama again promised the American people the middle class will realize greater security, not higher taxes.

“Well, what a difference a year makes. The President’s new health care law does contain tax hikes, lots of them.

“In fact, there are at least 18 new taxes in the health care law, and it raises approximately $500 billion over a ten-year period.

“Here are a couple of examples, Madam President: New taxes on medical devices and supplies, new taxes on brand name prescription drugs, new taxes on health insurance providers and increased Medicare payroll taxes on employers.

“But the most egregious is the individual mandate tax. That’s the one that the American people are so concerned about right now.

“The new health care law requires all Americans to buy Washington-approved health insurance, and they have to do it by the year 2014, and if they don’t, they have to pay.

“Some called it a penalty. Others called it a fine. For the first time in our nation’s history, the federal government is ordering the American people to use their own hard-earned money to buy a specific good or service.

“Now, most people that I talked to who see through all of the games and the wording say this is a tax.  Even ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos clearly pointed this out during a September, 2009, interview with President Obama.

“In that interview, Mr. Stephanopoulos pressed President Obama, pressed him to admit that the individual mandate is a tax. He asked President Obama, he said, ‘So you reject that it’s a tax increase?’  And the President responded – ‘I absolutely reject that notion.’

“Well, Mr. President, apparently your own Administration disagrees with you and clearly your Justice Department disagrees with you.

“The Justice Department believes the individual mandate penalty is a tax precisely because it generates money. $4 billion a year through 2017 and that’s according to the Congressional Budget Office.

“So you have the President promising the American people one thing and directing his Justice Department to say exactly the opposite.

“You might say is this partisan? No, we’re talking about the New York Times article and the New York Times goes on to quote Jack Balkin, a professor of law at the New York University Law School.

“This is somebody who actually supports the health care law.  And what does he say about President Obama? He said ‘he has not been honest with the American people about the nature of this bill.’ He says, ‘this bill is a tax.’

“Well, this clearly violates the President’s repeated promises that no one, no one making less than $250,000 a year would see a tax increase.

“Once again, we see and hear the President of the United States promising the American people one thing and delivering something entirely different.

“The President went on national TV, said his individual mandate was not a tax.  Now the President’s Administration says that it is.”

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