Obama T-Shirt Showdown Escalates From 'BFD' to 'BFTax'

(Image Credit: National Republican Congressional Committee/Facebook)

It's a T-shirt-off!

Republicans have taken the Obama campaign's "big f-ing deal" T-shirt and raised him a "big f-ing tax" shirt as both parties try to take control of the conversation after the Supreme Court's health care ruling.

The National Republican Congressional Committee Friday posted a photo of what might be the next item of GOP swag, a T-shirt that reads "Obama Care Still a BFTax." The NRCC post said that if the photo got 5,000 "shares," it would start selling the shirt.

Nearly 10,000 people had "liked" the Facebook image as of Monday morning and it had been shared more than 7,700 times.

The post is a play off a T-shirt the Obama campaign began selling last week to commemorate the Supreme Court's upholding the president's health care law that reads "Health Reform Still a BFD."

The shirt channels Vice President Joe Biden's now-infamous hot mic moment when he whispered to Obama, "This is a big f-ing deal" after the law first passed.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's senior adviser, Eric Fehrnstrom, was quick to criticize the Obama campaign's swag, tweeting, "Still not presidential. Kids, earmuffs."

The NRCC's spoof of the shirt comes as Republicans aim to capitalize on the Supreme Court's ruling as proof that Obama's health care law amounts to a huge tax increase.

Want more off-the-cuff politics? Check out OTUS on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @OTUSNews.

"The president said it was not a tax," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on "Fox News Sunday."

"The Supreme Court, which has the final say, says it is a tax. The tax is going to be levied, 77 percent of it, on Americans making less than $120,000 a year. So it is a middle-class tax cut, tax increase."

But the Obama administration maintains that people who do not buy health insurance will be hit with a "penalty," not a tax increase.

"It was set up as a penalty for people who choose not to buy insurance, even though they can afford it," White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew said on ABC's "This Week."

"And for that 1 percent, we call it fair."

Get more pure politics at ABC News.com/Politics and a lighter take on the news at OTUSNews.com