ObamaCare: it’s a tax, bitches
That ObamaCare has been upheld is a disappointing decision, but I try never to bet against a government drawing more power to itself so I’m not surprised. And it could have been worse: it got an acknowledgement that this is bullshit under the commerce clause or the necessary and proper clause. It also acknowledged that this is a tax. It always was a tax, and President Obama lying that he wasn’t levying a gigantic tax didn’t change the fact that he and the Democrats levied a gigantic tax.
Worse, his gigantic tax increase isn’t even enough to pay for his health care takeover; it’ll accelerate the rise of our national debt, something that will have to be paid off one way or another, if not by us then by the next generation. Either by increased taxes or increased inflation.
Today’s decision is disappointing because this is a power to tax based on what we don’t do. In one stroke it makes our already complicated tax system infinitely more complex. Our tax law today is incomprehensible, but at least in theory you could know what things you had to pay attention to and ignore the rest. You bought a new house? Look for the tax laws on buying and owning a home. Got a job? Look for tax laws on income. Buying your own health insurance? Look for laws on that. The system is complex enough, and it taxes enough different things, that you’re probably going to forget something, eventually, and not pay your taxes on whatever it is you forgot you did. But you’ll be substantially in compliance because normally you know what you’ve done. And it is conceivably possible to simplify this sort of tax system so that you don’t run the risk of accidental felonies.
Today’s decision changes that. You can’t possibly look up all the things you aren’t doing. Even under a simplified tax plan there are still an infinite number of things that each of us individually are not doing. We’re all going to end up like the car manufacturer who didn’t think to submit their 100% electric car for emissions testing. Today it’s just one thing, not buying health insurance, but unless this power is curbed it will be used to tax other things we don’t do. And eventually we’ll have tens of thousands of pages of taxes on things we don’t do.
So it makes lawyers and accountants that much more important, since we will have to pay them to study all the things that people don’t do that can get us taxed. And we’re circling that much closer to the bureaucracy event horizon.
On the plus side, at least for Romney, it did finally get me off my self-constructed fence to actually donate money to the Romney campaign.
In response to The Bureaucracy Event Horizon: Government bureaucracy is the ultimate broken window.
- Charlie Cheated on His Income Tax: Homer and Jethro
- “But the form that he used was a 1020 sheet; after 5 o’clock that form is obsolete. And between the hours of ten and twelve you use a W2 but on holidays you file an LOQ.”
- DNC Executive Director Taunts on Twitter: “It’s Constitutional. Bitches.”: Ace at Ace of Spades HQ
- “Executive Director of the DNC Patrick Gaspard actually said that.”
- Mandate upheld: what now?: Ed Morrissey at Hot Air
- “The opinion actually ruled that the mandate violates the Commerce Clause, but as a tax that no longer matters… The Supreme Court has signed off on what is, in very practical terms, a tax levied by the insurance industry on Americans simply for existing. It’s an amazing, and fearsome, decision that really should have both Right and Left horrified.” (Memeorandum thread)
- Now it’s up to you, America at Mitt Romney for President
- “Today, the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare. But regardless of what the Court said about the constitutionality of the law, Obamacare is bad medicine, it is bad policy, and when Mitt Romney is president, the bad news of Obamacare will be over.” (Hat tip to CAC at Ace of Spades HQ)
- Why don’t you mind my own business: Bill Whittle at Eject Eject Eject
- “Obamacare doesn’t even work in theory.”
- Zeno’s motorcar
- Automobiles are awesome machines. But sometimes it seems as though they’re stuck twenty years in the past.
More bureaucracy
- The precarious value of middlemen
- In a world of choice, a middleman must add value (lower prices, ease of delivery) in addition to their added costs (fewer choices, lower quality, etc.) But the costs are always there. Once a middleman is mandated, there is no longer any need to add value.
More ObamaCare
- New York Times to cut jobs ahead of Obamacare
- According to Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, the cuts are unavoidable. “The Times cannot afford as many employees under the Affordable Care Act.”
- A tale of two speeches: Condi Rice and Paul Ryan
- Rice and Ryan. Now there’s a ticket.
- Health care reform: walking into quicksand
- The first step, when you walk into quicksand, is to walk back out. Health providers today are in the business of dealing with human resources departments and government agencies. Their customers are bureaucrats. Their best innovations will be in the fields of paperwork and red tape. If we want their innovations to be health care innovations, their customers need to be their patients.
- Please take pity on this health care orphan
- Yeah, because of a massive regulatory bill that kills job creation, young adults don’t have jobs, and because they don’t have jobs, they don’t have health insurance.
More President Barack Obama
- President Obama defeats Math Roundly
- President Obama edged out a two percent victory over Math on Tuesday night, promises perpetual peace, abundance for all.
- Poll gives Obama his worst marks yet
- Six months before election day, Americans have a bleaker view of the country’s direction than at any time in more than three decades, and they attribute it to President Obama’s handling of gasoline prices and the rest of the economy.
- President Obama talks about NCLB
- In tough economic times, President Obama unveils a new NCLB program to ensure fairness “from Main Street to Wall Street.” Stephen Price Blair goes to the White House to discuss this new program with the President.
- President Obama switches parties
- President Obama, angered over the Democratic Senate’s inability to pass basic legislation, says he will become a Republican.
- Barack Obama’s creepy campaign
- What does Obama think his relationship is with his supporters?
- Seven more pages with the topic President Barack Obama, and other related pages
More taxes
- Simplifying taxes into complexity
- Most of us look at how complex taxes are, and want to simplify how taxes are calculated. But if you have the beltway mentality that our money isn’t ours, you’ll want to simplify how taxes are collected.
- Vodka Economics
- Stephen Green’s light bulb: “corporations don’t pay taxes. Not one red cent. They never have and they never will, even if you jack up the corporate rate to infinity-percent-plus-one.”
- A customer service model of federal spending
- “If we can put a moon on the man, why cannot we devise a system whereby every state is billed by DC annually, and let the states compete for citizens to pay the taxes?” Moving from a system where the federal government taxes individuals to one where the federal government taxes state governments makes all of our lives a lot simpler and solves a lot of thorny civil rights issues as well.
- What’s wrong with a national sales tax?
- When considering a new tax, consider how easily that tax is abused by the state and by the state’s good intentions.
- No corporation pays taxes
- Corporations don’t pay taxes. Their employees do, and their customers do. Every dollar that a company has to pay in taxes, that company must pass on to either their employees or their customers, if the company wants to stay in business.
- 19 more pages with the topic taxes, and other related pages