Yesterday was an historic and terrible day.  The supreme court decided Obamacare is constitutional.  The terrible part was how they reached their decision.  I know a lot of people in district 19 agreed with Obamacare and thought it should be upheld.  I agree everybody should have access to affordable health care, but I don’t think Obamacare was the correct solution or even the right direction.

What horrifies me and should horrify everyone is how the Supreme Court came to their decision.  They did not base their decision to uphold the individual mandate on the commerce clause as people expected.  They upheld it based on taxation.  In short, they said congress can write a law requiring you to purchase some good or service from a private entity and if you don’t they can charge you what amounts to a tax because congress has the ability to tax.

Think of the ramifications of that.  What will congress require us to buy next; Other types of insurance, guns, exercise equipment, vitamins, drugs, health food, private financial investments, etc.  The list is endless.  If you refuse to comply with what congress thinks you should pay for, you get taxed.  What corporation wouldn’t want congress writing legislation ordering people to buy their products.  Not that I’m against corporations.  Corporations are a benefit to society providing goods and services we enjoy at low costs.  But as with anything, some will abuse this new precedent the Supreme Court has created.  Some will pay lobbyists millions even billions of dollars to get legislation passed that will force their product on the public with the threat of paying a tax if you fail to buy that product or service.

We need to elect people to legislative positions who will not vote for this type of legislation in the first place.  I am one of those people.

That echos the sentiment of Chief Justice Roberts:

Here is a quote from Chief Justice Roberts on the ruling; “Members of this Court are vested with the authority to interpret the law; we possess neither the expertise nor the prerogative to make policy judgments. Those decisions are entrusted to our Nation’s elected leaders, who can be thrown out of office if the people disagree with them. It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.”