2012 U.S. Presidential Election

[Dark Sage]

I, for one, am getting a big laugh at the GOP calling this "the biggest tax on the middle class in history".

Originally, the Act was going to fine people who didn't buy insurance. Now, instead, they're going to tax people who don't buy it. The tax you pay will be the same as the fine you would have paid if it hadn't been interpreted as a tax.

So what difference does it make whether it's a tax or a fine? The end result would be the same. You'd have to be a big idiot to believe that the system had actually changed by this new interpretation of it.

[Roy Karrde]

I, for one, am getting a big laugh at the GOP calling this "the biggest tax on the middle class in history".

Originally, the Act was going to fine people who didn't buy insurance. Now, instead, they're going to tax people who don't buy it. The tax you pay will be the same as the fine you would have paid if it hadn't been interpreted as a tax.

So what difference does it make whether it's a tax or a fine? The end result would be the same. You'd have to be a big idiot to believe that the system had actually changed by this new interpretation of it.

I think the difference is that there was no real legal penalty for not paying the fine, there was talk the IRS could deduct it from your return but that is it. Making it a tax, and now you can have some massive legal problems from the IRS if you do not pay it including going to jail.

Plus you know, having Obama spend a year during a terrible recession to create a tax hike while the economy and people suffered just kind of looks bad.

[Dark Sage]

There's no difference, Roy. Not paying a fine that you've been told to pay is a crime.

Not paying a tax that you're required to pay is a crime.

In both cases, you either buy insurance, or pay some sort of penalty. And the penalty is the same, whether it's a tax or a fine.

[Roy Karrde]

There's no difference, Roy. Not paying a fine that you've been told to pay is a crime.

Not paying a tax that you're required to pay is a crime.

In both cases, you either buy insurance, or pay some sort of penalty. And the penalty is the same, whether it's a tax or a fine.

Umm actually there is a difference, a fine is not enforceable as a crime outside of deduction from your tax return.

The bill imposed very strict regulations when it came to the fine, saying the IRS could not engage in "freezing bank accounts, seizing assets or pursuing criminal charges"

However those were the penalty for a fine, by changing it to a tax, I would think that it would fall under normal taxation penalty which does include those things.

[Dark Sage]

Seems like the best way to avoid it, then, would be for people to buy insurace, which is the whole point of the law!

[Roy Karrde]

Seems like the best way to avoid it, then, would be for people to buy insurace, which is the whole point of the law!

Of course, but in a down economy, and being rather healthy, it is easy for people, especially young people to forgo insurance so you can spend money elsewhere. The thing is, that the only way for Obamacare to work is if people buy insurance, with out it the system falls apart as the insurance companies do not have enough money coming in to cover the pre existing conditions.

[Dark Sage]

They have the funds to do it. They just want to make more profit.

And that's exactly why the GOP wanted to kill the Act. They sympathize with the greedy insurance companies, and all the other big corporations.