Chief Justice John Roberts wasn't kidding when he offered the commentary about the court's ruling: "It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices." Obamacare is taxation unleashed!
Despite the fact that in 2009, Obama repeatedly denied to ABC News correspondent George Stephanopoulos that Obamacare's individual mandate was equated with increased taxes, the Supreme Court defined the legislation as just that -- more taxation.
When Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was asked by a reporter whether the financial penalty for not complying with Obamacare's individual mandate is, in fact, a tax, she retorted: "Call it what you will. ... This is a very good thing for the American people."
Pelosi, who helped Obama ramrod the legislation, and Obama were frolicking like two kids in a candy store when they learned about the hallmark SCOTUS decision. But I doubt that middle-class taxpayers will be so ecstatic when they are footing the bill every year for another socialized medicine program.
On Thursday, CNN even confessed: "In 2014, the penalty (for not having medical insurance) will be no more than $285 per family or 1 percent of income, whichever is greater. In 2015, the cap rises to $975 or 2 percent of income. And by 2016, the penalty would be up to $2,085 per family or 2.5 percent of income, whichever is greater."
Bloomberg reported: "Some of the largest levies and fees in the 2010 law take effect in 2013. In all, the law is projected to raise an estimated $813 billion in revenue over 10 years to help pay for the expansion of insurance coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That figure includes penalties under the individual mandate, which the court ruled is constitutional under Congress' taxing power."
The fact is that behind closed doors with the Supreme Court justices and out of view of the public, the legal teams from the Obama administration pitched Obamacare as a tax. Obama and his legal eagles lied to the public to get the legislation passed on Capitol Hill and then described it as a tax to pass it before SCOTUS. They knew that the court knows that the Constitution gives Congress the power to tax in order to carry out its duties, and that was their ticket to manipulate their way to victory.
On March 26, the first day of Obamacare arguments before the Supreme Court, Fox News reported that a top Obama lawyer was chided by the justices for calling the fine for not purchasing insurance both a "penalty" and a "tax."
Even U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli repeatedly used the phrase "tax penalty" to describe noncompliance with the individual mandate. Then Justice Samuel Alito rebuffed, "General Verrilli, today you are arguing that the penalty is not a tax. Tomorrow you are going to be back, and you will be arguing that the penalty is a tax."
Verrilli answered Justice Elena Kagan's question of whether noncompliance with the individual mandate would result in breaking the law by saying that if people "pay the tax, then they are in compliance with the law." That reference caught the attention of Justice Stephen Breyer, who interjected, "Why do you keep saying tax?"
To require people to pay a penalty for not buying health insurance is a tax. And I vehemently disagree with Pelosi that Obamacare's new taxes are "a very good thing for the American people" -- in or out of a recession -- simply because more government regulations and taxation restrict our freedoms and pocketbooks.
The actions of Obama's federal government are diametrically opposed to those of America's Framers, who adopted the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Thomas Jefferson, who penned the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, wrote roughly 40 years later, in 1816, to Samuel Kercheval:
"We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers."
Does that not describe Obama's fundamental transformation of America to a T?
Happy birthday, America! We still are celebrating and fighting for your founding principles and freedoms!
Another great summer patriotic gathering is the Patriot Academy, which is a six-day leadership and political training camp for students -- from age 16 -- and adults, too. Patriot Academy is held each summer in Austin, Texas, and the 2012 session -- its 10th anniversary -- will be held from July 30 to Aug. 4. Patriot Academy is hosted and sponsored by my friends Rick Green and David Barton from WallBuilders and also is taught by other insightful, inspirational leaders from around the country. Space is limited to only 100 students and 100 adults for the new adult track. For more information or to register today, go to http://www.patriotacademy.com.
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