“You own it now” - a Guest Post from Barbara Martin

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When Barack Obama took office in January 2009, the democrats held almost all the levers of power in our federal government. But with only 59 senators, the democrats could not defeat a Republican filibuster – and therefore could not pass legislation at will. That all changed, however, on July 9, 2009, when comedian Al Franken was sworn in as the 60th Democrat senator. At that point (and for six more months afterward), the Democrats could pass whatever legislation that wanted – regardless of Republican opposition.

So what did the Democrats do with this historic power? Did they attempt to tackle entitlement spending? Did they address the solvency of social security? Did they do anything about immigration reform? The answer is no, no, and no. The Democrats spent all that time arguing amongst themselves over the terms of Obamacare. Few people remember this now – but Democrats themselves couldn’t agree on the terms within their own ranks. In fact, the bill was ultimately passed after Democrats lost the 60th Senate seat through a legislative gimmick called reconciliation. The bill was so hurriedly rammed through that many legislators hadn’t even read it. Nancy Pelosi infamously declared “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it.”

During the time Congress was debating the bill, President Obama was pitching the idea of an individual mandate to the media. Obama at one point declared the mandate was “absolutely not a tax increase.” Obama had to take this position as he had previously pledged – repeatedly – that he would never raise taxes on families earning less than $250,000 a year.

But a funny thing happened, though, as Obamacare worked its way through the courts. Several different judges concluded that Obamacare was an unconstitutional expansion of the commerce clause. So the administration, fearing defeat, resorted to the argument that Obamacare was really … wait for it … a tax!

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Obamacare as constitutional, approving Obama’s new desperate argument that the healthcare bill was a tax – even though Obama had earlier said it was not a tax – and even though Obama said he would never raise taxes on the middle class. Not a dime, he said.

So where are we now? The Democrats – given a brief window of power – have passed a piece of garbage that sixty to seventy percent of the public now rejects (depending on which poll you consult). The Democrats continue to frame Obamacare as the “will of the people” despite the fact that it was passed on a purely partisan basis – not a single Republican voted for it. And the President has executed a spectacular flip-flop – denying that the mandate was a tax before later arguing it was. And in the process he has broken his no tax pledge to the middle class.

Hey Democrats, you passed this baby all by yourself. You fought in court to keep it. And you won. You own it now! Good luck going forward with that.