House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) dodged questions about whether the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act is a tax Thursday, after the Supreme Court upheld the measure as a tax:
REPORTER: The president has said himself on numerous occasions the individual mandate is not a tax. Do you think that the individual mandate in the health care law is a tax?
HOUSE MINORITY LEADER NANCY PELOSI: The court has upheld the legislation; I think, and I have to see the specific language, that they identified with how we wrote the bill in the House as part of their documentation for the decision. Call it what you will—it is a step forward for America’s families. And you know what? Take yes for an answer. This is a very good thing for the American people. What you’re talking about here is Washington talk. What is happening out there is families with a child with a preexisting medical condition, which means for a lifetime they will be discriminated against in terms of insurance, not anymore. Same thing when the bill is fully implemented. That’s what’s really important to people. Technical terms, that’s for us here. What means something to the American people is what it does for them.
Before Pelosi took questions, she delivered a short statement on the ruling, saying that "the best is yet to come" regarding the health care reform.