Healthcare ‘Tax’ Constitutional?- The Founders Might Say Otherwise

In today’s completely stunning decision, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. Chief Justice Roberts joined the liberal justices, creating a 5-4 majority that declared the individual mandate  a ‘tax’ and therefore constitutional.

Unbelievable though it may be, because of Chief Justice Roberts, the federal government can now essentially force you to do whatever it sees fit through the power of taxation. For example, let’s suppose the federal government institutes a law stating you must maintain a certain healthy weight and have to work out an hour every day to maintain that weight. Don’t want to? Fine, just pay a tax. According to the Supreme Court’s ruling, that’s completely constitutional.

This is so obviously not constitutional, you can almost hear James Madison and the rest of the Founders weeping. After all, wasn’t one of the primary reasons the Founders declared independence because of ‘taxation without representation’? The Stamp Act, the Sugar Act, the Tea Act which led to the Boston Tea Party- all of these were heavy taxes imposed on the colonists that vastly affected trade in the Colonies. The Founders maintained it was tyrannical for a distant government to impose such heavy, burdensome taxes on its people.

How is this any different?  The Supreme Court has ruled that the individual mandate is Constitutional as a tax- a tax you have no say in. You must either have health care, or pay a tax. Your objection means nothing to the federal government. How is this not tyranny- the tyranny of a government over a voiceless people, of the same sort the Founders objected to?

It is not constitutional as a tax. The federal government’s taxing power is limited to three specific purposes- paying debts, national defense and guarding the nation’s Welfare (interests). An individual purchase ‘tax’ meets none of these requirements.

But you don’t even have to be familiar with the language of the taxing power to know that the Founders would be inherently opposed to this, and would never have given the federal government this type of absolute power over the people. In fact, they rebelled against it. History is repeating itself. The question is, what are We the People going to do about it? Lie down and let the government seize more power? Or let our voices be heard?