RUSH: To the audio sound bites, George Stephanopoulos got under Obama’s skin on tax increases. Stephy hit Obama here on what’s not even in question, the health care plan is a massive tax increase. Here’s the question: ‘Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money and fining you if you don’t. How is that not a tax increase?’
OBAMA: No, that’s not true, George. The — For us to say that you’ve gotta take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase. What it’s saying is that we’re not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you any more than the fact that right now everybody in America just about has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase. People say to themselves that is a fair way to make sure that if you hit my car, that I’m not covering all the costs.
RUSH: It doesn’t work this way. You buy automobile insurance to protect yourself from being sued when you run into somebody. If that analogy worked you’d go out and buy health insurance to insure somebody else getting AIDS from you or getting the swine flu from you, and they sue you for spreading the disease. But if you don’t have a car, you don’t have to have auto insurance. Some states you have to have a driver’s license, and then you have to have insurance. It’s a scam. But he can’t get his arms around the fact — and it’s not a tax increase to him because, folks, it’s not your money, it’s his. He gets to direct all spending, all money is his, other than what he graciously allows you to end up with. So Stephanopoulos says, ‘It may be fair, may be good public policy but…’
OBAMA: No, but, George, you can’t just make up that language and decide that that’s called a tax increase.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I don’t think I’m making it up. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, tax —
RUSH: Stop the tape. Stop the tape and recue it. Now how enterprising is this? A journalist actually gets a dictionary and takes it on the set with him and reads to the president what a tax is. Here it is again from the top.
OBAMA: No, but, George, you can’t just make up that language and decide that that’s called a tax increase.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I don’t think I’m making it up. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, tax: a charge, usually of money imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.
OBAMA: George, the fact that you looked up Merriam’s dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now, otherwise you wouldn’t have gone to the dictionary to check on the definition.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, no.
OBAMA: I mean if what you’re saying is —
STEPHANOPOULOS: I wanted to check for myself. Your critics say it is a tax increase.
OBAMA: My critics say everything is a tax increase.
RUSH: And they’re right!
OBAMA: My critics say that I’m taking over every sector of the economy.
RUSH: They’re right!
OBAMA: You know that. Look, we can have a legitimate debate about whether or not we’re going to have an individual mandate or not. But —
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you reject that it’s a tax increase.
OBAMA: I absolutely reject that notion.
RUSH: So you go on and get the dictionary and if you get the dictionary you’re discrediting yourself unless you get the Obama dictionary. So let’s go to Slay the Nation with Bob Schieffer, and Bob Schieffer said, ‘The Chamber of Commerce starting a big ad campaign right now. They say you’re going to put these taxes on the insurance companies on people that make things like X-rays and lab tests and all that and they’re just going to turn right around and pass it on the to the consumer.’
OBAMA: They’re making huge profits on it. Look, bringing about change in this town is always hard. When you’ve got special interests that are making billions of dollars, absolutely they’re going to want to keep as much of that — the profits that they’re making as possible. And, by the way, those insurance companies, even during these down years, have been making terrific profits. We don’t mind them making profits. We just want them to be accountable to their customers.
RUSH: Now, why in the world, folks, would he say, ‘We don’t mind them making profits.’ Can you imagine, we have a president of the United States, ‘We don’t mind them making profits,’ when he clearly does. In his joint he specifically mentioned that the profits are too much. Pelosi has said the same thing, that the profits are just too great. So this is what we’re dealing with. The only thing I can explain, I can maybe explain it, why did Stephanopoulos decide to challenge him on this? (interruption) Uh, well, I don’t think Stephanopoulos really cared he was making things up and being a liar. I mean I think it’s all part of the game, the State-Controlled Media gotta put forth the illusion, I don’t think Stephanopoulos cared about that and Bob Schieffer talking about what he’s talking about. I think what caused Stephanopoulos to take this tack and Schieffer is that they know they’ve got the same guest on Sunday, they gotta do something besides ask the standard rigmarole. So that’s all it is. They weren’t really trying to embarrass the Bamster. They’re just trying to differentiate their shows from the other four that Obama went on.