Throwing the truth in their faces

Republicans fight back on “penalty” v. tax.

Republican congressional candidates and outside groups have seized upon the opportunity to brand Democrats as tax hikers in the wake of Thursday’s Obamacare ruling.

American Commitment, a free market advocacy group, released an ad condemning Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) for driving up spending less than 24 hours after the Supreme Court upheld the Obama administration’s chief legislative achievement.

“He was the deciding vote for the president’s healthcare law,” the ad said. “Tell Sherrod Brown to oppose wasteful spending.”

Brown has a 10-point lead over Republican Treasurer Josh Mandel, according to Real Clear Politics. But the healthcare bill is wildly unpopular in the key swing state.

A Quinnipiac University poll found that 51 percent of Ohio residents wanted the Supreme Court to overturn the bill compared to 37 percent supporting it. Last year, the state’s voters approved an amendment to the Ohio Constitution banning the mandate that all Americans must purchase health insurance, a measure that won majorities in all 88 counties, including Democratic strongholds in Cleveland.

The Supreme Court ruling came just one day after another Quinnipiac poll found the president leading in Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania by margins as high as 9 percent after running even with Mitt Romney in May.

Conservative groups hope to halt that momentum by stressing the tax-increasing elements of Obamacare. Voters in Florida and Pennsylvania disapprove of Obamacare at similar rates to Ohio. The conservative group Americans for Prosperity is using the nationwide disapproval of the law to target swing states in an ad titled, “Not a Tax Increase?.”

“President Obama promised us that his health care law ‘is absolutely not a tax increase,’” the ad says, splicing the president’s own assurances that the mandate was not a tax into the 30-second spot. “Now we know that’s not true—Obama’s healthcare law is actually one of the largest tax increases in history … how can we afford this tax—we’re already struggling?”