The
American government has, of late, overstepped its legal bounds in
many areas of the American people’s lives. One of the most recent and
significant economic policies that serve as an example of this trend is Obamacare.
As John S. Hoff points out in his article in the Independent Review, Article I, section 8, and clause 3 of the
Constitution authorizes Congress to regulate interstate commerce – but the
Affordable Care Act, “in requiring people to engage in commerce rather than
merely regulating existing commerce, appeared to exceed that authority” (Hoff,
2013). And although the Supreme Court has broadly interpreted the Commerce
Clause since the New Deal, there is a boundary the Court had never crossed in
those seventy-five years – they had never found it Constitutional for the
government to require a person to
engage in commerce (Hoff, 2013). But now, thanks to the Supreme Court’s
decision, the American people are being forced to buy something that not all of
them want to buy. They are being compelled
to engage in commerce, contrary to the Commerce Clause of their own
Constitution. This is the most blatant example of disregard for the
Constitution that the American people have yet seen in their history.
As
Liberty University’s Government lecture notes point out, government’s role in
the lives of the American people should be limited to specific areas. “The role
of government is to facilitate the free association of its citizens. Government
must also define and defend private property… government is not a corrective
device” (Lecture Notes 8.1, Liberty University). The Supreme Court got around
the unconstitutionality of the Affordable Care Act by stating that it was a
tax, a tax that, once again, the American people are being forced to pay. The
Supreme Court argued that “the penalty it imposes for failing to have the
required insurance is nonetheless constitutional as an exercise of Congress's
authority to levy taxes (Art. 1, Sec. 8, el. 1). Even though the president had
assured Americans that the mandate was “absolutely not” a tax, and Congress had
asserted authority only as a regulation of commerce, the administration showed
no embarrassment in arguing in court that the mandate actually is a tax” (Hoff,
2013). Government health care will not only be regulated by the state and
upheld by the Supreme Court in spite of its unconstitutionality, but it will be
paid for out of the American people’s taxes. The government policy of Obamacare
thus flouts the principles of free exchange along with the Constitution through
a tax that pays for something the American people did not even want in the
first place. This is a double grievance and one that doubtless has the Founding
Fathers turning in their graves, for it goes against freedoms that America
initially held dear – the freedom to choose, the freedom to buy and sell
without state compulsion, and the freedom from unwanted taxation.
“Everything
we get, outside of the free gifts of nature,” Hazlitt writes in Economics in One Lesson, “must in some
way be paid for.” But economists all over the world “tell us that government
can spend and spend without taxing at all; that it can continue to pile up debt
without ever paying it off” (Hazlitt, 1946). It is obvious, however, that “all
government expenditures must eventually be paid out of the proceeds of
taxation” (Hazlitt, 1946). The funds for Obamacare have to come from somewhere,
and what better place than the hardworking American taxpayer’s pocket? Gerald
Wells writes in Arkansas Business that
“Obamacare will impose higher taxes totaling $4 trillion between now and 2035”
and that among these taxes are an increase in Medicare hospital insurance
payroll tax from 2.9 percent to 3.8 percent, an annual fee on health insurance
providers, a 2.3 percent excise tax on certain medical devices, an annual fee
on branded drugs, and an increase on the medical expense deductions floor from
7.5 percent to 10 percent (Wells, 2013). Truly, as Chief Justice John Marshall
warned us in 1819, “the power to tax is the power to destroy” (Lecture notes
8.1, Liberty University)
In
conclusion, the policy of Obamacare and the implementation of the Affordable
Care Act are severe mistakes on the part of the Supreme Court and a powerful
example of how the American government has overstepped its bounds in
regards to economic policy. It limits the capitalist freedom of the American
people to buy and sell, forces upon them a tax to fund a product they do not
even want to purchase, and goes against the oldest law of the land written to
protect the country from corruption. As Hazlitt so intelligently points out,
“government’s main economic function is to encourage and preserve a free
market” (Hazlitt, 1946). When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes the
philosopher and asked if there was anything he could do for him, the
philosopher told the great king, “Yes, stand a little less between me and the
sun.” This is, Hazlitt states, “what every citizen is entitled to ask of his
government” (Hazlitt, 1946.)
Reference:
Hazlitt, Henry. “Economics in One
Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic
Economics.” 1946. Three Rivers
Press, New York, New York.
Hoff,
John S. "Obamacare: Chief Justice Roberts's political dodge." Independent Review 18.1 (2013): 5+.
Academic OneFile. Web. 14 Dec. 2013.
Lecture notes 8.1, Government 200 –
D07, Liberty University, 14 December 2013.
Wells,
Gerald L. "Obamacare costly, unconstitutional." Arkansas Business 30 July 2012: 27. General OneFile. Web. 14 Dec.
2013.
