Obamacare Upheld: HHS Mandate Stands

Obamacare Upheld: HHS Mandate Stands


In a victory for President Barack Obama, the Supreme Court decided to uphold his signature health care law's individual insurance mandate in a 5-4 decision, with Chief Justice John Roberts siding the the Court's liberal justices.

Al Kresta's comments:

“The Federal government does not have power to order people to buy health insurance, but it can impose taxes on those without health insurance or to cover those without health insurance.

“We always knew that. That is why President Obama repeatedly told the American people that the Affordable Care Act was not a tax. He didn’t want to be seen as imposing new taxes. The Health Care Reform was sold as a NON TAX.

“Chief Justice Roberts has now argued that while the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional under the commerce clause, it is acceptable as a tax. Most of us would then expect the Supreme Court to strike down the bill and tell Congress to reargue it as a tax.

“The Chief Justice apparently doesn’t think that is necessary in spite of the fact that the bill was sold under false pretenses. It was a fraud, a bait and switch. Congress and the President lied to us.

“Evil works at breaking down the trust between people. Honesty is a moral quality without which a people cannot live. When we can no longer trust that our public deliberations are meaningful, that our representatives mean what they say, many of us will be led to drop out.

“We cannot afford to let that happen. What does that mean for the HHS mandate? It means we must continue to fight. I had hoped the Supreme Court would have made our task much easier by striking down the individual mandate. It didn’t. We must, as faithful citizens, insist that our political representatives work to protect our most fundamental liberty. I had hoped this would be a short term battle. It no longer looks as though that’s possible.”

A fuller statement will be forthcoming this afternoon as well as two hours of analysis on "Kresta in the Afternoon" from 4-6 p.m. Eastern Time. Listen live at www.avemariaradio.net