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"A Rose by Another Name"
The Penalty in the Affordable Care Act is Still a Penalty, No Matter What they Call It
By Scott Rohter, July 2012

It is my belief that we should continue to call the punishment in the new Health Care Law for not carrying insurance what it really is. It is a penalty for not purchasing health insurance! Let’s not give in to the pressure from the media to start calling it a tax now, just because John Roberts called it a tax. Let’s face it. The punishment in the Affordable Care Act is a penalty no matter what the Chief Justice calls it.  It is still a penalty no matter what the media says! It is a government ordered fine for not carrying the mandated health insurance. A fine is not a tax!  Well at least it isn’t in my world anyway. It is a punishment that is attached to a specific undesirable action or behavior which is regulated by law. Americans have never had a law before that required us to buy health insurance! That is at least we didn’t until the Democratic controlled Congress passed such a law in 2010, which ordered all Americans to purchase health insurance or pay a fine. It is called the Affordable Care Act. Actually the full name of the law is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  It requires all Americans to carry health insurance, but it doesn’t guarantee that any American will receive the necessary medical treatment that they need, or the health care they seek. It doesn't protect Americans in any way. The name of the Bill is a misnomer, like so many other things in our world today. However, it does provide big health insurance companies with a captive market!

What’s next, the Affordable Food Act? Will we all be required to eat broccoli or pay a penalty? What about the Affordable Car Act?  Will all Americans be required to buy a Chevy Volt just to subsidize General Motors? What about the Affordable Housing Act? Oh, they probably already passed that Act! Will we all be ordered to purchase a house next, just in order to stimulate the housing industry, and bolster the sagging housing market? Where does this end? I’ll tell you. It ends in State Socialism! It ends in the Federal government having complete control over your lives!

The penalty in the Affordable Care Act is not a tax! It never was a tax! It was never represented as a tax by its proponents when the Health Care Bill was presented to the public or sold to Congress! And it will never be a tax, no matter what the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court says at this late date! John Roberts does not have the power to change the meaning of words! No matter what “Justice Judas”, the Chief Benedict on the Supreme Bench says,… a penalty for not buying health insurance is still just that, a penalty! It doesn’t depend on what the definition of is, is! And if the penalty was really a tax, than the whole case would have literally been tossed out of court on its ear over 2 years ago, because no one has ever paid the tax yet, so none of the plaintiffs had any legal standing to sue in Federal Court!

Let’s get real. John Roberts is a traitor! He has sold out the very conservatives who supported his appointment to the Court in 2007. He simply hornswoggled his way to the Supreme Court, and bamboozled us into believing that he was a real conservative just like the rest of us. Recently, after writing a lengthy legal explanation that supported his baffling decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act, Justice Roberts still left everybody confused by arguing in pages 11 thru 15 of his ruling that the government fee assessed for not carrying health insurance is in fact a penalty, not a tax. But then a little later on in his explanation he contradicts himself and declares on pages 31 thru 44 of his ruling that it is still a tax anyway, all of his prior arguments notwithstanding.

Words have meanings, Mr. Roberts. This isn’t some little make belief world for children that you are arbitrating here, like “Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood”, where Mr. Rogers could make just about anything happen like magic because it was all created in a Hollywood Film Studio. A rose by any other name is still a rose… And a penalty for not buying health insurance is still a penalty, no matter what you call it! All of the spin in the world can’t change reality, and it can’t change the definition of what is, is. Bill Clinton learned that …the hard way!

All of the progressive strategies that were used by Democrats, to bring this Health Care legislation to the place where it is today clearly suggests the same thing. They demonstrate that the Democrats who employed these tactics were willing to use trickery and deception, and just about anything else at their disposal to achieve their political goals. To them the end justifies the means, and they are still willing to do whatever it takes to implement the Affordable Care Act.  Just like Nancy Pelosi said. “We will climb any wall. We will parachute over the wall if we have to. We will deem that the legislation passed if we don’t actually have enough votes to pass it. But we will pass this health care bill, and then we will find out what is in it.” The Democrats made their intentions abundantly clear. And now so has the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. John Roberts has made his intentions abundantly clear too. However a penalty is still a penalty, no matter what they call it!

"The truth, the political truth, and nothing but the political truth. A journalist has no better friend than the truth." - Scott Rohter
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