Feds Defending ObamaCare: Trust Us, We Have Authority!

Do you remember the original debate on the Constitutionality of the new ObamaCare law? Supporters, and that means liberals in our government, claimed that they "absolutely" had the power to force individuals to purchase health insurance. When asked WHERE that power came from, they universally cited the commerce clause.

Last September, Obama categorically DENIED that the "individual mandate" was a tax, relying on the commerce clause as sufficient justification for the mandate.

Today, however, our government is claiming, in briefs filed defending the law against the first legal challenge in court, that it IS a tax. And because it is a tax, they claim that they have the power for the individual mandate... AND that the law can't be challenged until somebody pays the tax and seeks a refund.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/health/policy/18health.html?_r=1

When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.”

And that power, they say, is even more sweeping than the federal power to regulate interstate commerce.

In addition, the department notes, the penalty is imposed and collected under the Internal Revenue Code, and people must report it on their tax returns “as an addition to income tax liability.”

Because the penalty is a tax, the department says, no one can challenge it in court before paying it and seeking a refund.

The law itself attempted to protect itself from a Constitutional challenge by incorporating TEN different passages defending Congress' power to implement this law. Not ONE of those passages contains a single mention of a tax.

Congress anticipated a constitutional challenge to the individual mandate. Accordingly, the law includes 10 detailed findings meant to show that the mandate regulates commercial activity important to the nation’s economy. Nowhere does Congress cite its taxing power as a source of authority.

So, what it boils down to is that our government doesn't really KNOW what gives them the authority to force ObamaCare on us, but we should trust them when they tell us that they absolutely HAVE that authority!

Isn't it lovely? They want what they want, and they'll find a way to make it Constitutional if they have to INVENT something to do it!