Yesterday President Obama put the full court press for his socialized health care program by appearing on five different Sunday morning news programs. With polls showing 56% disapproval of the Obamacare plan, the White House hopes a media blitz can stem the bleeding (pun intended).

Of all the interviews, probably the most revealing was done by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. That is of course a surprising source considering Stephanopoulos is a former Clinton advisor and is certainly left-leaning. When Stephanopoulos queried the president about the fact he has “lost control” of the health care debate, President Obama said, “Well, not so much lost control, but where I’ve said to myself, somehow I’m not breaking through.”

So is it that the president’s message isn’t getting through despite appearing in national media three times more often than previous presidents? Or is it simply that the American people aren’t buying what the president is selling?

The answer is of course obvious. Rather than accept that the American people are able to listen and make an intelligent, informed decision as they are, the president is intent on trying to browbeat the public into submission and compliance. It probably comes as quite a shock to him that not everyone is willing to follow him over the socialized health care cliff.

Stephanopoulos was able to articulate at least part of the problem with the plan, that of the fact that it amounts to a large tax increase. The president naturally took offense to this description but I have to hand it to Stephanopoulos, he stood toe-to-toe and had President Obama struggling to dispel the facts.  Watch the video below.  The fireworks over the tax increase start about 3 minutes in.

From FOXNews.com:

In the interview airing Sunday, Stephanopoulos pressed the president on his plan to require people to purchase health insurance.

“Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don’t. How is that not a tax?” the host asked.

Obama responded: ” No, but — but, George, you — you can’t just make up that language and decide that that’s called a tax increase.”

Stephanopoulos then offered the dictionary definition.

“I don’t think I’m making it up. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary: ‘Tax, a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes,’” he said.

Visibly taken aback, Obama rejected the notion it was a tax increase and said pulling the dictionary out was a sign the host was “stretching” a little.

“No. That — that’s not true, George. The — for us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase,” Obama said.