Last week’s frustrating Supreme Court decision upholding President Obama’s individual mandate at least confirmed what we knew all along — that President Obama’s health care plan is indeed one of the biggest tax increases in modern history. This tax will be paid primarily by middle class Americans who are already struggling to get by in the Obama economy.
While this news is hardly cause for celebration, it serves as a reminder of where true power lies — with the American people. Rather than wishing the Supreme Court had overturned the punitive new Obama Tax, free-market advocates should look to the American people as the only force that can ensure the law will be repealed.
While the Supreme Court decision was a setback, ultimately the American people will be victorious. A recent poll showed 67% of Americans disapproved of the individual mandate when it was being labeled a penalty. Now that the Supreme Court has confirmed it is a tax, we can expect the law’s popularity to fall even further.
Americans for Prosperity went live with a new TV ad less than 24 hours after the SCOTUS ruling, hitting the president for the massive new tax brought on by his health care law. At the same time, AFP began holding grassroots rallies to deliver our message, “Hands off My Health Care.” On the very night of the ruling, over 400 grassroots activists rallied in Waukesha, Wisconsin and hundreds more in places like Omaha, Nebraska and Reno, Nevada.
At an AFP event in Woodbridge, Virginia, a lady came up to me with her two young children and her elderly mother. With passion in her eyes she told me, “Tim, I’ve got three generations of our family here because no issue is bigger and no issue is more personal to us.” She then went on to tell me of her youngest child’s fight with a blood disorder and her mom’s heart issues.
In his response to the court decision, the president telegraphed his understanding of the public’s deep opposition to his new health care bureaucracy when he tried to change the subject by saying it was “time to move on.” With all respect to the president, Americans for Prosperity intends to remind every American of just how disastrous this health care legislation is because we are fully committed to seeing it repealed next year.
As we celebrate the 236th anniversary of our nation’s founding tomorrow, I think our Founders would be proud to see us fighting to repeal this assault on freedom and prosperity. Despite the Supreme Court ruling, this is still a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
I’m more convinced than ever that the only way out from under the painful tax hike and government overreach of Obama’s health care plan is through sustained grassroots pressure on our elected officials.
This is the most important mission this year. That’s why AFP has spent so much time, talent and treasure to stop Obamacare over the last three years. And now, at this crucial moment just four months before November, we’re not backing down.
The left clearly knows what is at stake. This health care law promises the largest expansion of government power and spending in over a generation. Fully one-sixth of the economy is up for grabs and they intend to seize it. Last week, the Democratic Party sent out a panicked email to their biggest financial supporters, asking for help in burying our ads and stopping our momentum. Their spokespeople are desperate to declare that the Obama Tax is “not really a tax,” despite the Supreme Court’s crystal clear ruling.
Two years ago we lost by a narrow margin in Congress as President Obama, then-Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid pulled out every parliamentary trick to pass this legislation. But, we won and we won decisively with the American people as they agreed with us that Washington D.C. health care is a bad idea.
Last week we lost a narrow 5-4 decision in the Supreme Court as Chief Justice Roberts sided with the liberals on the court. But the last few days have confirmed once again that we are winning with the American people. That’s why I am confident that this health care legislation will be repealed if we keep up the fight.
But it’s up to all of us to do our part for freedom and prosperity. There’s no better July 4th celebration!
Tim Phillips is the president of Americans for Prosperity, the nation’s pre-eminent free market grassroots organization.
