It no longer matters who the President is, or who controls Congress, or even whether Obamacare is repealed or not. All of that is immaterial, less than meaningless because what happened in the Supreme Court of the United States had nothing to do with health care, nothing to do with Republicans vs Democrats, or conservatives vs liberals. All of that mess was just a sideshow, a distraction to keep us from seeing what was really going on.
Chief Justice approved the individual mandate, in effect, by saying that it was obvious that the federal government had taxing authority over the inaction of individuals.
Let that sink in for a moment.
A conservative Supreme Court Justice, the Chief Justice, young and likely to preside over the course for a couple of decades, just ruled that the federal government has the authority under the Constitution to levy a tax on people who are not engaged in any activity other than breathing.
Can you hear me now?
Until today, taxation was dependent on economic activity. You had to buy, sell, trade, invest, or transfer wealth in order to be taxed. Or in the case of user fees, another form of taxation, you had to use something, a park, a road, a facility, a resource, or something. In effect, you had to have a transfer of value in order to be charged a tax.
Not anymore. Now you can incur a tax liability just sitting in a chair breathing.
The Supreme Court just said that you owe the federal government money because your heart beats, and they granted the IRS the full force of law to collect.
Are you starting to understand why Obamacare is small potatoes? Don't get me wrong, it's bad, but this is much worse.
- Participate in community service, or pay a
Buy a car from GM or pay a
Buy from a government approved list of suppliers or pay a
Buy something you don't believe you need, or pay a
Support these approved charities, or pay a
This is now the world we live in, where the federal government has the authority under the Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, to tax you if you don't do what they want.
And if you think these taxes would never pass, well, you probably never expected Obamacare to pass either. Never underestimate the greed of the people. Pitched properly, every one of the above taxes could pass easily.
And this is the law of the land, thanks to the opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts.
Tell me again how we are free.
