Once a day, every day, a look at an insight or opinion from a fellow Super Senior …
Pour another cup of coffee and have a look at this one!
(click the title to read the complete post)
Regulating Inactivity and the “Tubby Tax”
by James Soviero:
Six days before we celebrated 235 years of independence, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled President Obama’s healthcare law to be constitutional. A three member panel found, by a 2-1 margin, the “minimum coverage provision is a valid exercise of legislative power by Congress under the Commerce Clause”. “The provision regulates active participation in the healthcare market, and in any case, the Constitution imposes no categorical bar on regulating inactivity”.
The judges used a disturbing choice of words in their decision. They said lawmakers could “exercise….power” even if they were “regulating inactivity”. In their mind, the Constitution does not prevent legislators from punishing citizens for their passivity. That is one, very scary, interpretation.
Apparently, non participation, “….substantially affects interstate commerce…”. The point seems to be that, if you sit around and do nothing, it’s going to raise the health costs for someone else, somewhere else, in the United States. Every in shape, exercise buff should be chomping at the bit to have this applied to the overweight among us who are driving up costs for everyone. Just use the judges’ premise and take it to some natural conclusions. Americans are constantly being lectured about their weight. We’re becoming an increasingly obese society, at greater risk of heart attack, diabetes and stroke. Those are some very serious maladies, with very expensive treatments, sure to affect “interstate commerce”. It would be only “fair” for these people pick up a greater share of the healthcare tab.
Using the court’s rationale, what would stop Congress from passing a law that uses standard weight to height ratios as a benchmark for mandating fitness? They could require an annual “wellness visit” where the patient is marched onto a scale and forced to “weigh in”. The doctor will simply note extra poundage, and collect the applicable “tubby tax”. Talk about punishing inactivity. The “provider” would then send the money off to whichever new federal agency has been created to reap the benefits of this budding cash cow. How would that “valid exercise of” Congressional power, brought to bear on non compliant, portly Americans, be any different than fining them because they chose to pay out of pocket, rather than buy health insurance?
Tongue and cheek aside, do you think that was what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they, by proxy, signed us all up for the greatest experiment in self government and guaranteed individual liberties ever known to man? On July 4th , 1776, they agreed, “we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” Fifty six men signed the Declaration of Independence. Nine died, five were captured, twelve had their homes burned to the ground, and seventeen lost everything they owned. They gave their blood and treasure fighting taxation without representation. It would be shameful, 235 years later, for us give up hard won, precious freedoms because we’ve meekly accepted the untenable notion of…. taxation for non participation.
http://www.independentsentinel.com/2011/07/independence-day-235-years-later-2/
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