WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said requiring people to get health insurance and fining them if they don’t would not amount to a backhanded tax increase. “I absolutely reject that notion,” the president said.

Blanketing most of the Sunday TV news shows, he defended his proposed health care overhaul, including a key point of the various health care bills on Capitol Hill: mandating that people get health insurance to share the cost burden. Those who failed would face financial penalties.

Obama said other elements of the plan would make insurance affordable for people, from a new comparison-shopping “exchange” to tax credits.

“Right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase.”

He told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he will keep his pledge not to raise taxes on families earning up to $250,000.

President favors ACORN probe

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said there should be an investigation into the hidden-camera video involving employees at the activist group ACORN and a couple posing as a prostitute and her pimp.

Obama told ABC’s “This Week” in an interview broadcast Sunday that what he saw on the video “was certainly inappropriate and deserves to be investigated.” But the president did not say who should investigate.