Obamacare faces new legal challenge:
Its 'tax' still violates the Constitution
The Supreme Court saved Obamacare by deeming the law's individual mandate a
'tax.' But in that case, the law violates the Constitution's
Origination Clause, which says all tax bills must originate in the
House, not the Senate. Letting the law stand sets a dangerous precedent.By
Timothy Sandefur | Christian Science Monitor
More From
* Iraqi government takes 10 TV stations off the air for 'incitement'
*
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2013/0430/Iraqi-government-takes-10-TV-stations-off-the-air-for-incitement?s=yaho
*
* Is Obama's second term sunk? 'Maybe I should just pack up and go
home.'
*
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2013/0430/Is-Obama-s-second-term-sunk-Maybe-I-should-just-pack-up-and-go-home.?s=yaho
*
* In China and US, a values upheaval as economies slow
*
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2013/0429/In-China-and-US-a-values-upheaval-as-economies-slow?s=yaho
*
* Why civilian courts are best for terror trials, especially Boston
bombing suspect
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2013/0430/Why-civilian-courts-are-best-for-terror-trials-especially-Boston-bombing-suspect?s=yaho
With tax day and IRS forms fresh in their minds, most Americans might think the
US tax system couldn’t get any more daunting.
But next year, some new complexity kicks in.
One of the hotly debated features of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act (or “Obamacare”) takes effect in 2014. Under the law’s “individual
mandate,” nearly everyone who isn’t covered by an employer will have to buy
health insurance or pay a penalty. This penalty was officially labeled a “tax”
by the Supreme Court, or at least by five of the justices, in its decision on
Obamacare last June.
ONE MINUTE DEBATE: 3 views on whether the next Congress should repeal Obamacare
The Obama administration, however, never argued that the individual mandate is
an exercise of Congress’s taxing authority. And as recently as October, in an
interview with Rolling Stone magazine, President Obama avoided the “tax”
justification, and still insisted that the individual mandate is a regulatory
action authorized by the Commerce Clause.
Just what Americans need: more confusion and ambiguity in their tax law.
By calling the mandate to buy insurance a “tax,” the court did more than
trigger new debates
about semantics. It created a potentially fatal constitutional glitch in the
law.
Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution says that tax bills – “all bills for
raising revenue” – must “originate in the House of Representatives.” The
framers wrote this “Origination Clause” because they recognized the potential
danger in the taxing power, and
they wanted to keep it as close as possible to voters. So they entrusted it to
members of the House, who are elected every two years and have
smaller constituencies than senators, who represent whole states and
serve staggered six-year terms.
But Obamacare didn’t follow the constitutional script. Instead of
originating in the lower chamber, it started in the Senate, when Majority
Leader Harry Reid took an old bill the House had passed that would have given
veterans
tax credits to buy homes, struck out all of that bill’s language, and
inserted instead the confusing web of provisions that became the
Affordable Care Act.
ANOTHER VIEW: Obamacare champions personal responsibility. The states that hate
it don't. (+video)
Was this “gut and amend” ploy valid?
That question is now in front of US District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington,
D.C., in a challenge to Obamacare filed on behalf of Matt Sissel, an Iowa small
business owner who was decorated for service as a medic in the Iraq war.
Obamacare was passed hastily, by lawmakers who admitted they had not
read the bill. The legislation was passed during the holiday season,
through questionable procedural tricks. It was never popular, and a
recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that only 36 percent of Americans
currently support the law. Even the Supreme Court’s liberal wing agreed that
large parts of it were
unconstitutional. In part of last June’s decision, Justices Stephen Breyer and
Elena Kagan joined the conservatives to hold that Congress had illegally tried
to force states to expand their Medicaid rolls.
These are all good reasons not to give a reflexive pass to the law’s
most controversial aspects – including the way it was enacted.
The Supreme Court has never addressed whether the Senate can evade the
Origination Clause by hollowing out a House bill and substituting its own tax.
“If any act violates the Origination Clause, it would seem to be the Affordable
Care Act,” Randy Barnett, a Georgetown University Law School professor
and leading constitutional critic of Obamacare, has written.
OPINION: Beyond Obamacare: 5 opinions on health care reform
The Constitution’s procedural guidelines might seem like dry
formalities. But such procedures were designed to safeguard the rights
of the American people. And if last June’s Supreme Court decision is not to
become a precedent for Congress to impose any variety of mandates on Americans
under the taxing power, courts should take care to enforce
democratic controls over that power.
Timothy Sandefur is a principal attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation, a
public-interest legal organization that litigates for limited
government, individual rights, and free enterprise. He represents small
business owner Matt Sissel in challenging the constitutionality of the
Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate “tax.”
ALSO BY THIS WRITER: Obamacare gives Congress license to micromanage every
facet of our lives
Related stories
* Beyond Obamacare: 5 opinions on health care reform
* 3 views on whether the next Congress should repeal Obamacare
* Opinion: Obamacare champions personal responsibility. The states that
hate it don't. (+video)
* Opinion: Roberts ruling on Obamacare rebukes partisanship with
moderation
* Opinion: Obamacare gives Congress license to micromanage every facet
of our lives
Read this story at csmonitor.com
Become a part of the Monitor community
* Become a Facebook fan!
* Follow us on Twitter!
* Follow us on Google+
* Link up with us!
* Subscribe to our RSS feeds!
When replying to this message,
plz cc: [email protected]
to assure prompt reply.
TEA Party Nation
Top Ten Tips For Getting The Most From Your TPN Membership!
http://www.teapartynation.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network
I’m as mad as hell,
and I’m not going to take it any more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_qgVn-Op7Q
Mrs. Richard "Peggy" Martin (1935 - 2012)
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dfw/obituary.aspx?n=margaret-irene-martin-peggy&pid=159081400&fhid=12241#fbLoggedOut
http://www.legacy.com/guestbook/dfw/guestbook.aspx?n=margaret-martin&pid=159081400&sort=1
<> <> <>
--
--
To join RichsRants, send email to:
[email protected]
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/richsrants?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"RichsRants" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
