Responding to a question from The Daily Caller, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi shied away from siding with Chief Justice John Roberts in labeling the health care law’s individual mandate constitutional as a tax, telling TheDC that “what you’re talking about here is Washington talk.”
“The court has upheld the legislation. I think and I have to see the specific language that they identified with how we wrote the bill in the House as part of the decision, their documentation for the decision. Call it what you will, it’s a step forward for America’s families and you know what? Take yes for an answer,” Pelosi, who was Speaker of the House when the health care law was signed into law, said at the Capitol Thursday.
“This is a very good thing for the American people. What you’re talking about here is Washington talk. … Technical terms, that’s for us here but means something to the American people is what it does to them.”
In the past, President Obama and the White House budget director have said the fine imposed by the health care law if an individual decides not to purchase health care insurance is not a tax.