Obamacare is "constitutional"

[roo_ster]

Bad law, bad policy, bad precedent.

Buckle up, folks, the trip down will be a doozey.  I don;t expect Romney to arrest the slide to any great extent.

[Scout26]

I predict employers by the tens of thousands will now dump their employee health insurance programs.  

This.

And the resulting costs to the .gov will far outstrip whatever revenue is generated by the "tax".

I am not sanguine.

You might be if you don't pay your tribute to Obamacare.

[just Warren]

Boy I'm glad we all voted for Bush otherwise this might have been EVEN worse!

[RocketMan]

I am not sanguine.

But you might be exsanguinated if you don't buy your health insurance, peasant.

[roo_ster]

Boy I'm glad we all voted for Bush otherwise this might have been EVEN worse!

Luckily, Jeb Bush is lining up behind Romney as Next RINO POTUS candidate.

Damn.  Both of them worked hard to screw us nearly as bad as the Dems.

[RocketMan]

   It's been a long day -- and it's not even lunch yet.  I think I am going to get drunk.  I hate this....

I know how you feel.  I'm on my third 12 hour graveyard in a 65+ hour week.  (And I'm a salaried engineer, so no overtime.  How am I going to pay for my ObamaCare without overtime.   )

[longeyes]

Nothing fundamentally changed; the long-set trends continue.  Perhaps now we will not be so naive as to think that We the People are really more than bystanders who are simply cash cows.  November's show will be interesting but not so interesting as what follows: the culture is decadent and the nation is sorely riven.  At some point we will see, when it gets bad enough, a militant movement arise that is finally fed up with being cannibalized (time to rescreen The Matrix?).  This may be solved in Congress, but it will more likely be resolved in the streets.  We still have two nations, one that feels entitled and the other that is expected to subsidize them.  Sounds to me like an unstable formula for national viability, but I've been preaching the inevitability of secession for several years now and y'all are tired of hearing it.  Carpe diem.

[zahc]

So basically the Feds can create any law they want, period, and it's ok because the fines for not obeying the law are taxes?

This explains a lot, actually.

[longeyes]

The Feds, and Congress, can do what they want only because We the People let them do it.  We have been passive for a long, long time.  Our choice is more comfortable passivity or constructive action.

[Balog]

So basically the Feds can create any law they want, period, and it's ok because the fines for not obeying the law are taxes?

This explains a lot, actually.

And the Feds can get around the requirement on the passage of taxation bills by claiming they aren't taxes.

[Balog]

People who voted for Bush over Kerry bc of SCOTUS are now just as laughable as Obama's anti-war voters.

From the twitters.

Unless Holder sent Sinaloa cartel gunmen to Roberts' house to hold his family hostage this is a major betrayal.

[tokugawa]

hey! This is a fine law- now we will be able to hire 50,000 more government employees to staff the new dept of American Social Services (Acronym ) . And they can spend all their time deciding what is and is not in your best health interests. Say goodbye to the motorcycle and the cheeseburgers, folks. Oh yes, and the guns-guns are dangerous, lead is poisonous, can't have any of that, so sorry. And I am really sorry about your mom, she had a 50 % chance of recovery but she was 74 and we just can't spend the funds on a non productive citizen- unless they are a member of our selected minority equal's, or made a significant contribution ...
 
 the "climate change" scam is to give them control over everything you do ,and this is worse -not just control over everything you do, but everything you are.
 
  this is a meddler's dream come true.

 

[lupinus]

Roberts justification has got to go down in the annals of most asinine justice reasoning of all time. It wasn't merely implied, it was outright written and specified to not be a tax. So basically any government collection of monies is a tax. Any collection of money by the government is okie dookie under the congress right to tax, even if they aren't aware it's a tax. *expletive deleted* *expletive deleted*.

At first I was awe struck. Now I'm just pissed off.

[brimic]

Roberts justification has got to go down in the annals of most asinine justice reasoning of all time. It wasn't merely implied, it was outright written and specified to not be a tax. So basically any government collection of monies is a tax. Any collection of money by the government is okie dookie under the congress right to tax, even if they aren't aware it's a tax. *expletive deleted* *expletive deleted*.

Roberts is a rank amateur compared to what Justice John Marshall has done. Roberts is just following the story line of bigger federal government started a long time ago.

[Ron]

The best part of the ruling is it is a reality check.

Even those of us who hate the direction the country has been going for decades still often tell ourselves little lies about how the Republic can be saved.

The fed, congress and the court are not going to give up any power or authority they each have accumulated over the decades. The republic was lost a long while ago, we are just watching it play out in slow motion. So the speed of decline will pick up now as we enter into the new normal, the fundamentally changed United States.

Maybe Obama will win again and we can finally see the end game being instituted.  

 

[brimic]

Maybe Obama will win again and we can finally see the end game being instituted.

Jeez, don't sugar coat it.

[vaskidmark]

Hold it a minute...it says that if you don't have insurance, you'll pay the tax, and it's irrelevent whether you willfully go without or are unable to get it?  So, if I lose my job, and therefore my insurance, my taxes would go up?  Whose bright idea was that?  (Don't answer.)

....

See, that's when The Affordble Care Act kicks in - since you are no longer covered at work you will be covered under ACA - presuming you signed up.  And since your employer dumped the company plan they will be putting that employee contribution into your paycheck - and that is what will make your tax bite increase, not ACA.

Of course, you are signing up for something akin to a HMO that has a bazillion other members and five doctors, four of whom are out on the golf course.  We'll get you an appointment right away - call before 11 AM and you will be given an appointment by 3 PM.  Of course, you appointed time will be some time after Thanksgiving two years from now.  But you got your appointment right away, so what are you whining about?

I swear, taking those grad school courses in bureaucracy sure makes it easier to follow all this.  Still don't believe any of it, but I can follow it.

stay safe.

[grampster]

Ah, yes fellow campers.  We may now be free men again.  All we have to do is pay the appropriate tax and we get to avoid any law we wish.  If you have enough scratch, you can pay the Total Tax and avoid all laws.  President, Congress, Supreme Court, Department of the Freedom Tax.  Anarchy through taxation coming to a tetrarchy near you.

[SADShooter]

The best part of the ruling is it is a reality check.

Even those of us who hate the direction the country has been going for decades still often tell ourselves little lies about how the Republic can be saved.

The fed, congress and the court are not going to give up any power or authority they each have accumulated over the decades. The republic was lost a long while ago, we are just watching it play out in slow motion. So the speed of decline will pick up now as we enter into the new normal, the fundamentally changed United States.

Maybe Obama will win again and we can finally see the end game being instituted.  

 

I heard it hypothesized that the decision was plotted to create the conditions for a Romney election and complete reversal of the statute. I just cannot believe that, except as illustrating Ron's little lie. ALL of our institutions now put politics, or at best pragmatism, over principle. If this isn't proof, grits ain't groceries. The fall is inevitable, as Ron says, the only variable is time to the bottom.

[longeyes]

The Fall can be a happy fall.  Had we remained "unified" it would have surely meant we would all be slaves.  At least this way some, awake and sober, may separate themselves and remain free.  That may be as good as it gets.  We should never have expected the tiger to be a tabby.  They want us muzzled, meek, and marginalized.

[Fitz]

Omg now Americans will wise up and stop the madness and demand that their government return to its--

Oh wait. No they won't. Americans are *expletive deleted*ing lazy, and will take this just like they have everything else. Nothing will change until a revolution. We are well and truly boned

[SADShooter]

So, if this law is constitutional because it falls under Congress' tax authority, what happens if Congress imposes a national sales tax/VAT? Would this not be precedent allowing them to regulate EVERYTHING? And does not Commerce Clause reach pale in comparison? Or have I stepped over the edge into complete delusion?

(Apologies if someone else already alluded to this and I missed it.)

[birdman]

My analogy, feel free to use on your favorite libtard:
Up until this precedent, all taxes were based on doing something (earn income, sell/buy something, own property), meaning that if you did none of those things, you would not have to pay the government any taxes. Now, you do, even if you do NOTHING, and dont require or use any services.

Right now, people pay taxes on gasoline when they buy it, those taxes pay for roads (among other things) that we all use...even walkers and cyclists who use no gasoline. With this precedent, it would be legal for the government to levy a tax on every person who doesn't buy gasoline, in order to help pay for the roads, which we all use. Let's say that tax is $100. However, if you buy $600 in gas (from a private, non-government company btw), you dont have to pay the $100.

Freedoms?  What are those?

[Perd Hapley]

Before the bill passed, they bemoaned the plight of those without health insurance. Millions of Americans were desperate for it. We were dying without it. Every ten seconds, we were told, someone dies from the lack of it. How interesting that the whole plan to help people who couldn't afford insurance hinged on taxing people without health insurance. 


This little clip in which Obama is angry that anyone would call the mandate penalty a tax, is getting a lot of play today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg-ofjXrXio

His argument is that it makes sense for people who choose to go without insurance to be penalized, because they will be a burden on the system the rest of us are paying for.

In my late twenties, I went without health insurance for about a year-and-a-half. I didn't have a full-time job, and didn't think about it too much. I also used no health care resources, beyond whatever band-aids I may have bought with my own cash. I'm sorry I was such a burden, Mr. Obama. 

[stevelyn]

We just took another step closer to cracking open the ammo box.