The brouhaha started when Drudge tweeted, “Just paid the Obamacare penalty for not 'getting covered'... I'M CALLING IT A LIBERTY TAX.”All they had to do was check with a CPA or whatever. Why didn't they do that? and instead risk a humiliating exposing, at the hands of an internets mega force - Matt Drudge. I love it.
Jesse Lee, the Director of Progressive Media at Barack Obama's White House, responded that that was a “Flat lie, no fee for previous year,” adding, “Scary how much influence he once had.”
Lee’s response to Drudge set off a firestorm in the liberal media, with many mainstream media and left-wing reporters countering him on Twitter and in their own articles to claim he does not have to pay Obamacare’s Individual Mandate tax until next year. The individual mandate went into effect Jan. 1 of this year, and most people paying their taxes right now are paying taxes for 2013.
“Dude, there's no penalty until next yr,” Sahil Kapur of the leftwing Talking Points Memo tweeted.
Kapur’s colleague at TPM Dylan Scott wrote a full story with a headline alleging Drudge was “probably lying.”
“Americans don't pay a penalty for not having health insurance until they file their 2014 taxes -- in 2015,” Scott wrote. “So either Drudge is lying or he paid a huge penalty a year earlier than he needed to.”
“Penalty isn't collected until 2015,” Sam Baker of National Journal tweeted at Drudge.
The Huffington Post’s Jeffrey Young wrote a full article in which he described Drudge’s tweet as “weird” and a “little head-scratching” because the Obamacare tax does not kick in until the 2014 tax year.
Drudge indicated in his followup tweets that since he is self-employed as the proprietor of The Drudge Report, he files as a small business. According to the IRS’s website for self-employed individuals, they are required to pay taxes quarterly.
“As a self-employed individual, generally you are required to file an annual return and pay estimated tax quarterly,” the IRS website reads.
So, when they file and pay those 2014 first quarter taxes, such individuals have to pay the Obamacare Individual Mandate tax if they opted to not have health insurance—like Drudge just did. read more
Do you think Drudge set out to bait them?
21 comments:
The Obama administration has pushed back the mandates, sign-up deadlines and various other negative impacts to help lessen the impact in the voting booth -- but the one big ACA line item does exist. The new taxes.
How is Drudge a liar?
I don't think Drudge had thought of them being that ignorant and stupid enough not to check before they leaped.
Apparently the White House relies on a "communications" guy who - guess what? - doesn't know what's on ObamaCare years after they passed it.
It's hilarious.
On the other hand, Obama has changed the dam thing so many times, maybe I shouldn't be too harsh on this guy.
And I do not think he would take it kindly that they would think he was stupid enough to pay taxes he was not required to pay, so no. I don't think it was a set-up.
Hidden taxes in Affordable Care Act could cost small businesses
No, they are just uninformed, inexperienced, smug, arrogant little dweeb libs. They, like Obama, Biden, etc have no real world work experience.
The highest ambition of the press squirrels is to feed out of Obama's hand.
The highest ambition of the press squirrels is to feed out of Obama's hand.
That belongs on a masthead somewhere.
Hey Haz, thanks. I know I go off the deep end from time to time and I know you have to rein yourself in from cuffing me verbally but...but...you put up with me. Such control. Now go over to that other place and give Troop a hug. ;^)
ricpic - yeah - that's a good one.
All he had to do was tell the truth.
True poets can work magic with words.
"Jesse Lee, the Director of Progressive Media at Barack Obama's White House..."
I always thought this was the necessary step. The law written by Congress provides a mandate after Dec 2013, which is now. Obama can refuse to collect or claim he has a pen and rewrote the law, but since he is no longer a legislature; I think the law is still written as Congress put it. But to question that claim, some one has to suffer a penalty to gain standing.
Perhaps I'm wrong about this, but its what I thought since Obama first claimed he could slip the date.
Like Hagar @ 6:40.
Don't think it occurred to him that they did not know that some people have to pay-as-they-go wrt taxes. (And it's often guess-as-you-go for people whose business fluxuates fro year to year.)
You should see the stupido comments over on the yahoo homepage link to the Drudge story. Honest to pete it is hard for me to fathom what universe these folk live in.
It is clear none of them are self employed.
I guess they don't call it "yahoo" for nothing.
The bizarre thing about it is, Drudge's point is he must pay a tax and the fierce argument back (that is wrong apparently) is, "Liar! you don't have to pay now.
But he still has to pay a tax. He still has to pay a tax, Blanch. Because of Obama he still has to pay a TAX. That's T. A. X. *pushes wheelchair down steps.*
I honestly don't know if Drudge set a trap deliberately, but what a trap!
Millions of Americans pay their taxes this way. The candid moment in which lots of so-called smart people are caught utterly clueless is priceless.
Treefall in the forest in the forest and no one there to hear because it will not be reported, much less corrected, in the liberal press, thosee lazy, stupid, entitled, arrogant asshats.
We've had multiple Tunguska events and no one even knows unless they care to look out their windows.
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