John Roberts vs. Obama in '09: Health Care [Obamacare] Mandate, a tax?

The U.S. Supreme Court found itself in a difficult quandary over the last several weeks: The court was having an extremely tough time trying to defend, and uphold, the President's health care plan under the laws of the Constitution.

The individual mandate requiring Americans to carry insurance or pay a fine was clearly a constitutional nightmare. But, in an act of utter desperation, Chief Justice John Roberts joined the Supreme Court's 4 Liberal justices in ruling that the mandate was legal under Congress' constitutional authority "to collect Taxes" to provide for "the general Welfare of the United States."

In an interview, in 2009, President Obama insisted that the mandate was not a tax, and that he wasn't breaking his pledge not to increase taxes on the middle class by implementing the mandate.

But, Mr. Roberts, knowing full well that Obama's signature health care monstrosity was in dire jeopardy, defied the President's own argument and ruled that the mandate was indeed a tax, and thus, was constitutional and legally binding.