Would you like to see the Supreme Court strike down the individual mandate?

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34. but the "mandate" *is* an income tax because there's a poverty exemption.

if you don't make enough income, you don't have to pay the penalty. that makes it an income tax, even if they call it a mandate, even if they call it a penalty. no matter the name, it IS a tax on income, coupled with a credit for qualifying health insurance.

in substance, it is virtually identical to many, many income tax provisions over the years. income is being taxed at a higher rate than it otherwise would be in order to allow deductions and credits for a boatload of various things the government wants to encourage us to do.

for political reasons, i suppose, they've decided not to call it an income tax, but that's exactly what it is.


if there weren't a poverty exemption, i would agree that it's not an income tax. but there is, so it is.