A silver lining for conservatives in the Supreme Court’s health care decision Thursday is that the court allowed the law to stand based on the idea that the individual mandate was a tax.
That news has Republicans and conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh bringing out an old — and incorrect claim — that the health care law constitutes the largest tax increase ever.
Rep. Connie Mack, a Republican from Florida running for the U.S. Senate, called it “the largest tax on the American people in history” in a press release. Florida GOP congressional candidate state Rep. Gary Aubuchon said on Twitter that the “ruling confirms Obamacare is the largest tax increase in U.S. history.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Landry, R-Pa., put it this way: “This is the largest tax increase on the poor and the middle class in the history of this country”; and Alabama Republican Party chair Bill Armistead said that “The United States Supreme Court has essentially created the largest tax increase in American history.”
Then there’s Limbaugh, who turned up the rhetoric on radio the way only he can.
Forget the United States,”Obamacare is nothing more than the largest tax increase in the history of the world,” he declared.
This claim is wrong.
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