Pay to Breathe?!

In addition to all the other egregious assaults on American freedoms in the recently passed health care “reform” legislation, the most egregious is the Health care mandate that will take effect in 2014.

This provision of this awful bill – forcing all Americans to buy health care insurance or be fined/jailed – is in effect a tax on breathing.

Think that could not possibly be true? Think again. As stated in Chapter 48, Section 5000A of HR Bill 3590:
“An applicable individual shall for each month beginning after 2013 ensure that the individual, and any dependent of the individual who is an applicable individual, is covered under minimum essential coverage for such month.”

The next several paragraphs, sections, etc., of the new law lay out the penalties for failing to get “minimum essential coverage” – a complicated description of fines based on your income and number of dependents, among other things.

By the way – this bill is incredibly difficult to read – you have to go back and forth between sections, and have other bills and IRS Codes, etc., available to really discern what is in the thing. You don’t suppose they do this on purpose to confuse and frustrate regular citizens trying to decipher the law, do you? Nah, they wouldn’t do that.

Cutting to the chase – this section of the law states that if you are breathing in America in 2014, you will have to pay – either buy health insurance or pay fines. In other words, a tax on breathing.

But Wait! There’s More!

You will not have to comply with this mandate to have health coverage if you are in a protected class as defined in the same section:

• Religious Exemptions -
  * “Religious Conscience Exemption” – if you are a member of a “recognized religious sect
  or division thereof described in section 1402(g)(1)”. In the copy of the bill I downloaded, there is NO section 1402(g)(1) – that section stops at (f) – very curious. I don’t know exactly which religious sects this includes, but I know Christian Scientists and the Amish do not make use of modern medical care. I am sure there are others.
  * "Health Care Ministries” – I understand this to be people in a common religious sect
  who share medical expenses.
• Individuals who are not lawfully present – so if you are not in this country legally, you are not required to have health insurance or be fined for not having it. Illegal immigrants can breathe and get their health care for free! Yea!
• Incarcerated Individuals – if you are in jail, you get your health care for free
• Individuals Who Cannot Afford Coverage - If your required contribution to your coverage
  exceeds 8% of your household income, you are exempt. Or, if your income puts you at or below the official poverty level. They use the phrase “Taxpayers with income under 100 percent of the poverty line” – which is ridiculous, because nobody at that level of income pays any taxes, so how can they be a tax payer? Or if you are a member of an “Indian Tribe.”

Oh, and member of the US Congress and their staffs will be exempt too. Of course, they know best for you and me, but they do not have to follow their own rules.

So, assuming the Law of Unintended Consequences (a corollary of Murphy’s Law) is working – and it ALWAYS is with ANYTHING Congress does – there will be plenty of loopholes for people to use, especially if you are a crony of a Democrat Congressman.

How is Congress justifying this infringement into our lives and health? The commerce clause of the US Constitution of course.

The clause; Article I, Section 8, Clause 3, of our Constitution states; (The Congress shall have Power) to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.

In the bill, there is this:
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following findings:
(1) IN GENERAL.—The individual responsibility requirement provided for in this section (in this subsection referred to as the ‘‘requirement’’) is commercial and economic in nature, and substantially affects interstate commerce, as a result of the effects described in paragraph (2).
(2) EFFECTS ON THE NATIONAL ECONOMY AND INTERSTATE COMMERCE.—The effects described in this paragraph are the following:
(A) The requirement regulates activity that is commercial and economic in nature: economic and financial decisions about how and when health care is paid for, and when health insurance is purchased.
So, Congress in its infinite wisdom, found that Americans NOT buying something – in this case health insurance – is “commercial and economic in nature and substantially affects interstate commerce”.

Huh? A non-existent “activity” is “commercial and economic in nature.” How can something that DOES NOT EXIST be commercial and economic? It is a non-event.

This is the same thing as saying that every time you decide NOT to buy something – say a new DVD or dinner out, or a new car, or ANYTHING, you are engaging in commercial and economic activity, and the Congress can REQUIRE you to buy it. Somehow, your decision to not buy health insurance is now defined as commerce “among the several states”.

Any third grader can tell you that not doing something is NOTHING – IT DOES NOT EXIST.

This is such a convoluted piece of logic that it defies explanation. The US government can now FORCE you to spend YOUR money on something you may decide you do NOT want, and justify it as “constitutional.”

The people who foisted this HUGE piece of crap on us HAVE TO LEARN that this will not stand. November is coming, and they will see then that the American people WILL be listened to and WILL be obeyed by their elected representatives – or we will get new representatives.