07/07/12Once again the media is all abuzz about something and almost everybody is totally missing the most important point.
Last week the U.S. Supreme Court, via John Roberts, ruled that The Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare) was indeed constitutional under the 16th Amendment, the Income Tax Amendment.
Now, everyone, is all worried about how this is going to impact their...fill in the blank: insurance, healthcare, taxes, candidate’s chances of winning in November…whatever. What everyone seems to be missing is the fact that this ruling has unleashed two completely new animals upon the land… the "tax-mandate" and the “tax-fine.”
This is nothing like a regular tax-penalty, you only incur a tax-penalty by doing something wrong that involves the reporting, filing, or paying of your income taxes regardless of how those taxes are incurred.
This new “tax-fine,” that Justice Roberts has created, on the other hand, is a penalty for violating some "tax-mandate" that does not need to be related to the reporting or collection of taxes at all. It could be anything. And, apparently, it doesn't need to comply with anything else in the constitution other than the 16th Amendment. As long as it is enforced by the Internal Revenue Service it is, by definition, constitutional.
In the good old days, if you didn’t make any money, or just a little money, then you didn’t have to pay the government anything. Those days are over. Now, every year, even before you’ve earned your first penny, you owe the federal government money and it’s up to you to do, or not do, what the federal government tells you to do, or not do, in order to avoid that tax-fine. Right now that just means that you have to buy a health insurance policy that meets the government’s standards. Well, ok, you also have to prove that you purchased that policy and that it meets all of those ever-changing government standards…, but that’s all…for now.
I say, “for now”, because anybody that thinks that the government is NOT going to use these brand new tools for a whole slew of initiatives, programs, enhancements, controls, and intrusions just as fast as they can get them down on paper and onto the legislative floor just doesn’t understand how our legislative system works. I’m sure lobbyists are already lining up at our legislators’ doors with all kinds of requests and huge campaign donations. Just think, the government can now tell you what to do and what to buy under the 16th Amendment without all those pesky constitutionality questions getting in the way! John Roberts and the Supreme Court have cleared the way, let the 21st Century Gold-Rush begin!
It will start with things we all agree on: Did you replace the batteries in your smoke detectors? Prove it or pay up! Did you recycle your recyclables? Prove it or pay up! ...But it will eventually move into grayer areas like: Did you get your recommended health checkups? Prove it or pay up! Did you you get your regular dental cleanings & checkups? Prove it or pay up! Did your children get their required vaccinations? Prove it or pay up! Did your pets get theirs? Prove it or pay up! Did you get the recommended maintenance on your vehicle? Prove it or pay up! Did you drive the speed limit? (thanks Progressive Insurance) Prove it or pay up! Did you change your furnace filter regularly? Prove it or pay up! Did you get to work on time? Prove it or pay up!
Some might say that we already have that. Their usual example is auto insurance: We are already required to provide proof of insurance to register our vehicles each year. There is a difference, however: The IRS doesn’t come after you if you fail to buy auto insurance. You don’t automatically owe the government money if you choose not to buy auto insurance. If you are caught out on the roadways without insurance, then you are charged with a crime and provided with due process as detailed under the 5th Amendment to the Constitution. (Look for an “auto insurance mandate” to be one of the first “tax-mandates” issued to remove this flaw from their example.)
And that brings up the 2nd big change that the “Robert’s Ruling” has wrought in U.S. law: Forget about “innocent until proven guilty” or “the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury” or any other pesky “due process” rights. Now it’s, “guilty until you prove yourself innocent to some government bureaucrat”.
Since a tax-fine is a legal penalty for failing to comply with the law, will failure to pay this fine result in jail time like with all other fines? If you are late paying your tax bill and that bill includes a tax-fine, will they haul you off to jail rather than just send you a bill or, at worst, garnish your wages. like they do now? And, does a tax-mandate violation go on your permanent record? (You did break the law after all, even if you did pay the fine on time.) And, will you have to disclose all your past tax-mandate violations on employment and license applications? Will outstanding tax-fines come up on your credit report or on the computer screen of the police officer who just pulled you over? And, can the IRS search your records to see if you are guilty of a tax-mandate violation without a warrant? I mean, they don’t need a warrant to conduct an audit, do they? So, if they suspect that you might be guilty of a tax-mandate violation, couldn’t they just demand to see all of your records at any time without showing any kind of probable cause? I know that they can do that now and get you for tax evasion but with tax-fines, if each “proof of compliance” doesn’t hold water, like a health insurance policy that doesn’t cover abortions for example, will that result in additional charges, fines and jail time or will they all just be prosecuted as tax evasion? …
So many questions!
Some would say that, as a practical matter, constitutional rights are a thing of the past anyway, that the 16th Amendment already took away most of those rights and that whatever rights we had left have long since been destroyed by the convoluted ”logic” of the judicial elite that have controlled our government since its early days (Google "Wickard v Filburn").
I don’t completely disagree, but still, I find the Roberts' Ruling remarkable. It is sad and tragic beyond words. This may be nothing less than the final nail in the coffin of what was a brief brilliant flash of human dignity and goodness in an otherwise relentless human saga of brutish oppression, slavery and suffering. That brief flash being a constitutional government that, for the first time in history, enshrined the ideals of individual liberty, equal human rights, and a free market; a country that made great and unprecedented strides towards achieving a better way of life for mankind; a time that spawned a truly miraculous, almost magical, explosion of innovation and wondrous technology.
Our Constitution now lies bleeding on the floor after a cowardly betrayal by utter fools who destroyed that which they swore to protect.
All the conservative pundits on TV and radio say that all we have to do to correct this injustice is to repeal Obamacare. Repealing Obamacare won’t do a thing to undo this new precedent, this brand new “tax-fine” that guts our Constitution and marks the end of the most glorious era in human history.
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