We Don’t Know Where Christie Vilsack Stood on the Mandate, But Will We Get an Answer on the Mandate Tax?

Vilsack said ObamaCare decision took “important steps.” Those steps include a massive mandate tax, trillions in government spending and billions in Medicare cuts.

The King for Congress campaign today called on Christie Vilsack to answer the questions regarding ObamaCare she has been ducking for over a year. Vilsack has repeatedly ducked questions on the central component of government-run healthcare, the individual mandate, saying on “Iowa Press,” “it might be the mandate, it might not be the mandate” and “I'm not for it or against it.” Now, with the mandate becoming a tax, will Christie Vilsack support it?

In a statement late yesterday, Christie Vilsack said the ObamaCare decision took “important steps.”

“Christie Vilsack’s ‘important steps’ of raising taxes on Iowans, cutting Medicare by $532 billion and more out-of-control spending shows just how out-of-touch she is with Iowans,” said King for Congress Campaign Manager Jake Ketzner. “We don’t know if Christie Vilsack supports the mandate tax, but after over a year of campaigning with no plan on healthcare, Vilsack amazingly concocted a plan to react less than four hours after the ObamaCare decision.”

The following disastrous results of the ObamaCare decision are, what Christie Vilsack calls, “important steps”:  

A FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND “MANDATE TAX” ON AMERICANS  

$532 BILLION IN MEDICARE CUTS.  

$12,753 COST PER TAXPAYER OVER THE NEXT 10 YEARS. The latest CBO cost projection for ObamaCare has the law’s price tag at $1.76 Trillion over the next ten years. That averages out to about for $12,753 every American taxpayer (about 138 million taxpayers in America with positive adjusted gross income). (Phillip Klein, “CBO: ObamaCare to Cost $1.76 Trillion Over 10 Years,” The Washington Examiner, 3/13/2012; David S. Logan, “Summary of Latest Federal Individual Income Tax Data,” The Tax Foundation, 10/24/2011)  

$525 BILLION IN NEW TAXES, FEES AND PENALTIES ON FAMILIES AND SMALL BUSINESSES. (Douglas W. Elmendorf, “Letter to Nancy Pelosi,” Congressional Budget Office, 3/20/2010)  

30 PERCENT OF EMPLOYERS “DEFINITELY” PLAN TO DROP COVERAGE IN 2014. (John Tozzi, “Health Reform Won’t Dismantle Employer Coverage, Report Says,” Bloomberg Businessweek, 10/21/2011)

20 MILLION AMERICANS COULD LOSE EMPLOYER-SPONSORED HEALTHCARE, EVEN ACCORDING TO CBO. (J. Lester Feder, “CBO: ACA Could Jeopardize Workplace Coverage,” Politico, 3/15/2012)

MEDICARE-GUTTING BOARD OF UNELECTED BUREAUCRATS: “WOULD LEAD TO A REDUCTION IN ACCESS TO CARE”: “The Independent Payment Advisory Board, created under the health care law to help control Medicare costs, lacks flexibility to do much more than cut provider payments that would lead to a reduction in access to care, witnesses told a House Ways and Means panel March 6.” (Ralph Lindeman, “IPAB Would Reduce Access to Care, Witnesses Tell Ways and Means Panel,” Bloomberg, 3/7/2012)

Background:

Christie Vilsack supported government-run healthcare and a mandate in 2007

The Iowa City Press Citizen reported on September 21, 2007 that “Clinton’s ‘American Health Choices Plan’ for universal health care coverage includes an ‘individual mandate,’ which requires everyone to have health insurance.” Christie Vilsack was stumping for Hillary’s plan and the mandate on that day in Iowa City. (Lee Hermiston, “Making the rounds,” Iowa City Press-Citizen, Sept. 21, 2007)

Christie Vilsack ducks questions and refused to give answers on ObamaCare

From Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press”

The Des Moines Register’s Kathie Obradovich: “If the Supreme Court does happen to uphold the law, do you think that is the end of the story?  Or are there things that you would seek to change in that health care law?”

Christie Vilsack: “Well, I think it’s always better to have a bill than no bill and we have a bill and we don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few weeks. But there are a lot of great things in that bill and there are things we need to change, obviously.”

Obradovich: “Like what?”

Vilsack: “But the good things – I think we need to focus on what we would want to keep regardless of what happens…”

Obradovich: “I’ll ask you one more time – is there anything in particular that you would change?  Anything you have in mind that you would want to change no matter what happens with the Supreme Court?”

Vilsack: “Well, I think there are probably a lot of small things.”

Obradovich: “But no one big –“

Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson: So you support the mandate?

Vilsack: “No, I think there are a lot of – I think there are a lot of different ways that we can go about this creatively…”

Obradovich: “Are you saying you don’t support the mandate then?”

Vilsack: “I think that we’re going to see a lot of different ways that we can make sure that everybody has access.  So, it might be the mandate, it might not be the mandate.”

Vilsack won’t give a straight answer on the mandate tax

Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson: “We’re journalists, though, we like black and white.  Are you for the mandate or are you against it?”

Vilsack: “I don’t – I’m not for it or against it.”

Christie Vilsack said, “So if you want somebody who knows the answers, I’m probably not the person you want…”

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Paid for by King for Congress