Okay so I heard some judge somewhere has just ruled that Obamacare is not unconstitutional. Because it is a tax.
And of course Congress has the right to tax. Anything and anybody. Including doing nothing at all. Including existing. I guess a tax on the miniscule warp in space time around one’s body mass will be next down the pike..
But gee -- I also heard there is a law called the Anti-Injunction Act. It prohibits a tax increase from being disputed legally until the tax is actually levied. I mean -- duh -- that would be like asking for an audit on next years next income tax. Or an abatement on your real estate tax in, say 2024.
And because the “individual mandate” of Obamacare doesn’t kick in until 2014, no one has actually paid the penalty yet.
So the only way this judge could take this case was if the question was not about any tax. If the penalty was a penalty. And stayed that way.
But niewww... then he rules the penalty is a tax. But it hasn’t been paid by anyone. And remember this "tax" (formerly penalty) cannot be disputed. Which means he can not rule on it yet.
Um this vaguely sounds like a dog chasing his tail. Or sawing off the tree limb you are sitting on. I think they call it a circular argument.
Of course I am not surprised that some lowly hack district Federal judge would come out with such a preposterous tortured piece of illogic and garbage jurisprudence.
Surely saner heads will prevail.
This whole mess will get appealed all the way to the Supreme Court ….
and THEY will get it right. Sure.
Just like they ruled the Bill of Rights applies to corporations.
