Making the rounds of most of the Sunday morning news shows, President Obama said requiring people to get health insurance and fining them if they don't would not be a backhanded tax increase. "I absolutely reject that notion," he said. (source) Maybe he's right. Maybe it's not a tax increase. Maybe extortion is a better description for give me some of what you have or I'll take more of what you have.

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But since extortion is not legal (and I'm pretty sure it's not constitutional), we are left with nothing to call the president's plan but a backhanded tax increase. And yet somehow Mr. Obama managed to keep a straight face as he said on ABC's This Week, "Right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase." Does he really think the American people are not bright enough to see that mandatory auto insurance is only required for liability purposes and that Americans have a choice whether or not to own and therefore insure a motor vehicle? How would we be allowed to opt out of his mandatory health insurance? Answer: we would not.

And so President Obama's push the mandatory purchase of health insurance proves his pledge not to raise taxes on families earning under$250,000 is a lie. And he reiterated that lie Sunday morning on CBS' Face the Nation.

Sadly we are very used to politicians lying to us and are rarely surprised when campaign promises are broken. But this new level of dishonesty from the Obama administration is way beyond the norm. Making a promise, breaking it and then claiming the promise was kept defies not only logic but common decency. We are not as gullible as you seem to think we are, Mr. President. To amend the immortal words of Representative Joe Wilson, you lie and then you lie about lying.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) appeared on NBC's Meet The Press Sunday after the president's taped interview and said that, "The president is selling something that people, quite frankly, are not buying." While Senator Graham is correct, it doesn't matter. With a plan that includes extorting the American people, Mr. Obama has signaled he is no longer selling but dictating.