Roberts’ Rule: A Taxing Mandate
Chief Justice John Roberts, the SCOTUS with the allegedly most-est conservative leanings, sided with the Supremes liberal left today in upholding a large bulk of President Obama’s Affordable Health Care Act. This from Fox News:
In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled as constitutional the so-called individual mandate requiring most Americans to obtain health insurance starting in 2014.
…
Chief Justice John Roberts, who was appointed during a Republican administration, joined the four left-leaning justices on the bench in crafting the majority decision.
“The Affordable Health Care Act survives largely unscathed,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of those justices, declared at the end of the reading, claiming the “setbacks” going forward will be “temporary blips, not permanent obstructions.”
The ruling relied on a technical explanation of how the individual mandate could be categorized. Roberts, in the opinion, said the mandate could not be upheld under the Constitution’s Commerce Clause. However, it could be upheld under the government’s power to tax.
“The Affordable Care Act is constitutional in part and unconstitutional in part. The individual mandate cannot be upheld as an exercise of Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause,” Roberts wrote. “That Clause authorizes Congress to regulate interstate commerce, not to order individuals to engage it. In this case, however, it is reasonable to construe what Congress has done as increasing taxes on those who have a certain amount of income, but choose to go without health insurance. Such legislation is within Congress’s power to tax.”
Understand, first, that the heart of the Obamacare ruling veers exactly opposite to arguments that its namesake made in its taxable defense:
But it is a tax; effectively the largest one ever imposed in a single sweep on middle-class America. And the implications moving forward? This from Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air:
Basically, this is a tax that you have to pay to private companies … The Supreme Court has signed off on what is, in very practical terms, a tax levied by the insurance industry on Americans simply for existing. It’s an amazing, and fearsome, decision that really should have both Right and Left horrified.
Nevertheless, this is the law of the land. We can now look forward to taxes levied by the auto industry for not having bought a new car in the last seven years, the liquor industry for buying too few bottles of wine to maintain your health, and by the agricultural industry for not buying that damned broccoli after all. We might even have Obama attempt to impose a tax for not buying enough contraception; we can call that the Trojan tax.
Popular opinion from liberal pundits view the SCOTUS ruling as a huge victory for Obama. That might be accurate in the sense of winning the battle, but I’m not convinced it extends to winning the war come November. The court’s decision effectively gives presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney a huge lure to coax conservative voters off the couch with the promise to repeal Obamacare if elected. Even outside the party’s conservative base, a solid enough majority of Americans still view Obamacare in an unfavorable light that it could play in Romney’s favor. Tag team that with a continued focus on the economy, and it becomes doubly effective on the campaign trail. Romney, in fact, is already headed down that road. This from NRO:
“What the court did not do on its last day in session, I will do on my first day if elected president of the United States,” he said. “And that is, I will act to repeal Obamacare.”
“Let’s make clear that we understand what the court did and did not do,” Romney continued. “What the court did today was say that Obamacare does not violate the Constiution. What they did not do is say that Obamacare is good law, or good policy. Obamacare was bad policy yesterday. It’s bad policy today. Obamacare was bad law yesterday. It’s bad law today.”
Toward the end of his remarks — which lasted only a few minutes — Romney emphasized the economic fallout that would occur if Obamacare was left in place.
“If we want good jobs and a bright economic future for ourselves and for our kids, we must replace Obamacare,” he declared. “That is my mission. That is our work, and I’m asking the people of America to join me.”
Yeah, I know, pinning hopes on the guy who crafted the template for Obamacare to overturn the same hardly screams optimism and confidence. But right now, it’s about all I got.
Irony Alert: Um, who was it that voted against confirming Supreme Court Justice John Roberts?
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