Can We Call It a Tax Now Since No One is Paying Attention?!?

The Obama Administration finds itself in court defending the recently-enacted healthcare legislation, on the basis that it amounts to a tax! This of course comes after months of denying that very same thing in public pronouncements leading up to the passage of the legislation.

"When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.”

And that power, they say, is even more sweeping than the federal power to regulate interstate commerce.

Administration officials say the tax argument is a linchpin of their legal case in defense of the health care overhaul and its individual mandate, now being challenged in court by more than 20 states and several private organizations.

Under the legislation signed by President Obama in March, most Americans will have to maintain “minimum essential coverage” starting in 2014. Many people will be eligible for federal subsidies to help them pay premiums.

In a brief defending the law, the Justice Department says the requirement for people to carry insurance or pay the penalty is “a valid exercise” of Congress’s power to impose taxes."

It goes without saying to most readers that politicians are lying, hypocritical and duplicitous. All of those traits are on display here in embarrassing detail.

Whether the penalty that arises for failure to purchase the requisite amount of health insurance is a "tax" or simply a "penalty" is ultimately for the courts to decide. From my standpoint, I don't know that the difference is altogether that important.

The real issue is whether this tax or penalty is constitutional. As the Obama Administration readies for battle in court, it's worth keeping in mind that the federal government's allowable activities are expressly limited by the Constitution. Therefore, it will be no surprise if ultimately this legislation is thrown out on the basis of being unconstitutional and in violation of the 16th Amendment.