From the diaries

Call Chief Justice John Roberts what you will. Whether you believe he’s a yellow-belly turncoat or simply the unfortunate victim of presidential bullying, there is one thing that cannot be denied. In upholding the individual mandate as a tax, Justice Roberts may succeed in doing what those in the conservative movement would have considered utterly impossible: Justice Roberts may make an honest man out of President Obama yet.

Unintentional or not, it is a weighty undertaking and certainly one that is making Justice Roberts quite unpopular at the moment. However, it may just yield Republicans a political advantage looking toward the November elections. After many months spent denying every accusation that ObamaCare would simply be a new tax on the American people, it seems that Mr. Obama must now own up to the truth that those of us on the right figured out long ago: ObamaCare is most certainly a tax, and a hefty one at that.

Not only is the individual mandate component a personal tax on each American citizen, but the ObamaCare legislation itself actually contains significant tax increases; something that has been glossed over time and time again by the Administration and the media. While many of these taxes have already gone into effect ($40 billion, to be exact), that is a mere fraction of the total $500 billion in tax hikes ensconced within the ObamaCare legislation – a bill so famously large and convoluted that Nancy Pelosi informed us that they (Congress) would “have to pass the bill so you (the American public) can find out what is in it.” President Obama certainly knew what was in the bill, and yet he still wasted time that would have been better spent fixing our ailing economy, on shamelessly promoting a bill that he had to lie through his teeth about to pass.

But not anymore. It’s time to call a spade a spade, Mr. President. Your massive bill has at its very core a new and unprecedented tax on the American people. And while those of us in the conservative movement may still be reeling from Justice Roberts’ decision, it is important to realize that at least it has started to lift the veil of pretence that ObamaCare has been hidden under for far too long now. It remains to be seen how this decision will pan out in the November election, but as the American people become better informed about the blatant lies of ObamaCare, we can only hope that that will translate into votes cast in the right direction come Election Day. We will probably never know Justice Roberts’ true intent in casting this decisive vote, but I remain hopeful for now that we may still see a benefit in it yet.