Weekly Opinion Editorial
WINNING A BATTLE-
by Steve Fair
The ruling on federal
mandated health insurance by the Supreme Court of the United States
has dominated the news in the past week.
Chief Justice John Roberts joined with the four liberal justices on the
court to uphold the individual mandate requiring all Americans to buy health
insurance or to pay a fine.
Writing the
majority opinion, Roberts and the other four justices evidently based their
decision on ObamaCare being a ‘tax.’
President Obama and the Democrats have long argued the mammoth federal
health care program was not a tax. Conservatives
had argued that forcing Americans to buy a product was a violation of the
Commerce Clause in the U.S. Constitution.
The justices agreed that the government could not force us to buy a
product, but then in their 5-4 ruling contradicted themselves by saying it
could be done if it was called a ‘tax.’
*****
Four observations
about the ruling:
First, this
ruling surprised most people because the ‘tax’ argument was not expected to be
the basis of the ruling. It is true
Congress is given the constitutional authority to tax, but is ObamaCare a
tax? Not according to Justice Scalia,
who wrote in the dissenting opinion, “To
say that the Individual Mandate merely imposes a tax is not to interpret the
statute but to rewrite it.” And President Obama has repeatedly said the
fines and penalties imposed on Americans who do not buy health insurance are
not a tax. On Sunday, his chief of
staff, Jack Lew said on CNN’s State of the Union
that the penalty for failure to buy health insurance is not a tax. "This
is a penalty," Lew said "It's something that only 1 percent of the
people who could afford insurance -- (and) who choose not to get it -- will
pay." So while the SCOTUS rules
the Individual Mandate a tax, the White House doesn’t want to have it labeled a
tax in an election year.
Second, federal
mandated health insurance is most certainly a tax. Webster defines a tax as: a sum of
money demanded
or required by a government for its support or
for specific
facilities or services, levied upon incomes, property,
sales, etc.
Federal mandated health insurance fits the
definition of a tax. As Shakespeare
said, “A rose by any other name would
smell as sweet.” Penalties are a
form of taxes just as are tolls, tribute, import duties, customs, and excise
fees. Calling a tax a tax can be political suicide,
so politicians have conveniently re-labeled taxes and called them mandates and penalties,
but that doesn’t change what they are.
Third, you never
know about Supreme Court justices. Most
presidents nominate candidates who broadly share their ideological views,
although a justice's decisions often end up being contrary to a president's
expectations. According to the U.S.
Constitution, “The President of the United States
Fourth, this
ruling is really a nightmare for the Democrats.
It allows them to claim victory in a battle, but it could cost them the
war. President Obama said the ruling was,
“ a great victory for all Americans,’ but 69% of the American public have said
they don’t want ObamaCare. Rush Limbaugh says it was the largest tax increase in world history. Now the Democrats must take ownership of that TAX. In the
majority opinion Roberts wrote, “We do not consider whether the Act embodies
sound policies. That judgment is entrusted to the Nation’s elected leaders. We
ask only whether Congress has the power under the Constitution to enact the
challenged provisions.”
No comments:
Post a Comment