Here's an
interesting article about a new book that came out called
"Impeachable Offenses: The Case to Remove Barack Obama from Office."
The six charges it brings up against Obamacare's unconstitutionality are :
1) Taxation without representation
2) It illegally bypassed Congress and bribes states?
3) The State’s rights are being violated
4) The bill did not originate in the House of Representatives
5) Does not comply with the Commerce Clause
6) The Penalty for not purchasing health insurance is illegal
Taxation without representation
One part of the Constitution that may be violated is Article 1 Section
9, which stipulates: “No capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid,
unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before
directed to be taken.”
The Supreme Court ruled the health-care mandate under the legislation
is a tax. However, according to experts cited in “Impeachable
Offenses,” this tax does not satisfy any of the three types of valid
constitutional taxes – income, excise or direct.
Write Klein and Elliott: “Because the penalty is not assessed on
income, it is not a valid income tax. Because the penalty is not
assessed uniformly or proportionately, and is triggered by economic
inactivity, it is not a valid excise tax. Finally, because ObamaCare
fails to apportion the tax among the states by population, it is not a
valid direct tax.”
Illegally bypassing Congress? Bribing states?
Free-market advocate Phil Kerpen, cited in “Impeachable Offenses,”
called the regulations an “outrageous edict that attempts to up-end the
ability of states to opt out of [Obama’s] health care law’s new
entitlement.”
Kerpen called the Obama administration out for what he said was an
obvious attempt to “bribe states to participate by manipulating language
in the law that is meant to authorize start-up grants to instead fund
years of operating expenses.”
Indeed, a July 2012 announcement from the Department of Health and Human Services offered states six full years of funding.
Was the maneuver constitutional? Article I, Section 1 states: “All
legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the
United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of
Representatives.”
Congress does not vest the power to write and rewrite laws in HHS and
IRS; nor can unelected bureaucrats impose taxes on states that
legitimately opted out of a federal program, Kerpen continued.
‘State’s rights violated’
The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution reads: “The powers not
delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it
to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the
people.”
The Tenth Amendment Center, which was among the plaintiffs that took
Obamacare to the Supreme Court, clarifies that the amendment was
“written to emphasize the limited nature of the powers delegated to the
federal government.”
“In delegating just specific powers to the federal government, the
states and the people, with some small exceptions, were free to continue
exercising their sovereign powers.”
Originated in Senate?
“Impeachable Offenses” cites Article 1, Section 7 of the
Constitution, which states: “All bills for raising Revenue shall
originate in the House of Representatives.”
The Sacramento, Calif.-based Pacific Legal Foundation filed a
challenge to Obamacare that contends it is unconstitutional, because the
bill originated in the Senate, not the House.
The foundation claims that under the Origination Clause of the Constitution “all bills raising revenue must begin in the House.”
The tip to follow this course of action came from the Supreme Court
itself. In his June 28, 2012, ruling, it was noted that Chief Justice
Roberts took pains in the majority opinion to define Obamacare as a
federal tax, not a mandate.
Creating commerce
The Commerce Clause, as stated in Article 1, Section 8 of the
Constitution, grants Congress the rights to regulate interstate
commerce, not intrastate commerce, Klein and Elliott note.
[...]
“But every previous case expanding the commerce power involved some sort
of ‘economic activity,’ such as operating a business or consuming a
product. Failure to purchase health insurance is neither commerce nor an
interstate activity. Indeed, it is the absence of commerce,” Somin
added.
Illegal penalty?
Obamacare affixes a financial penalty on Americans who fail to
purchase health insurance in order to regulate behavior – regulatory
powers not granted in the Constitution, documents “Impeachable
Offenses.”
Scott P. Richert commented after the Supreme Court ruling: “Congress
has been given the green light to do something that even the most
imaginative interpretation of the Commerce Clause would not allow: to
compel the supposedly free citizens of the United States to purchase
anything that Congress deems in those citizens’ best interest – or to
compel them to purchase one thing rather than another.”
Richert, who is executive editor of Chronicles, the monthly magazine
published by the conservative think tank the Rockford Institute,
continued: “All Congress has to do is to pass legislation levying a tax
on those who, say, fail to purchase smoke detectors for their homes, or
who insist on purchasing a car that runs on gasoline over one that runs
on electricity.”
This country is in serious trouble when the people are electing a Communist and they see nothing wrong with it. We've lost many great men fighting Communism and here we have a new generation of Americans electing a Commie. The low information voter along with this entitlement mentality is one of the biggest issues facing America today. We need to explain to people that we don't live in the same country that our founding fathers paved the way for. Things like the Income Tax and Inflation (via the Federal Reserve) are the reason the cost of living is much worse today than it was in previous generations. The irony is that people blame Republicans and corporations for not providing a higher wage when it's the aforementioned policies that really affecting these people.
This country is in serious trouble when the people are electing a Communist and they see nothing wrong with it. We've lost many great men fighting Communism and here we have a new generation of Americans electing a Commie. The low information voter along with this entitlement mentality is one of the biggest issues facing America today. We need to explain to people that we don't live in the same country that our founding fathers paved the way for. Things like the Income Tax and Inflation (via the Federal Reserve) are the reason the cost of living is much worse today than it was in previous generations. The irony is that people blame Republicans and corporations for not providing a higher wage when it's the aforementioned policies that really affecting these people.
