President Obama’s health-care bill is now moving toward final passage. The policy issues may be coming to an end, but the legal issues are certain to continue because key provisions of this dangerous legislation are unconstitutional. Legally speaking, this legislation creates a target-rich environment. We will focus on three of its more glaring constitutional defects.
First, the Constitution does not give Congress the power to require that Americans purchase health insurance. Congress must be able to point to at least one of its powers listed in the Constitution as the basis of any legislation it passes. None of those powers justifies the individual insurance mandate. Congress’s powers to tax and spend do not apply because the mandate neither taxes nor spends. The only other option is Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce. SOURCE
Senate Health-Care Bill Could Hit Middle Class Hard
The Senate health care bill could end up hitting middle-class workers hard, through a new tax on insurance plans that could ultimately cut through to their wages.
Both the House and Senate bill raise money for the sweeping overhaul of America’s health insurance system by cutting about a half-trillion dollars from Medicare and raising lots of new revenue.
The House bill raises it by imposing a 5.4 percent surtax on people making $500,000 a year or more a strictly money-raising move with no impact on health care itself. But the Senate bill raises the biggest chunk of its new revenue through a 40 percent tax on so-called Cadillac health insurance plans plans that cost more than $23,000 per family.
And that tax, critics say, will trigger a series of changes that will result in billions of dollars in new taxes on the middle class over the next decade.
First, the tax will hit plans widely used by middle-class employees. The majority of workers with the high-value plans are union members and state government employees who are not considered wealthy, even though Obama advisers like to say the tax is aimed at benefits enjoyed by the likes of Wall Street bankers.
“A lot of those folks that have Cadillac plans have Chevy wages. And that’s what makes it, has made it, somewhat controversial and a real issue of contention,” said Jim Kessler, vice president for policy with the non-profit think tank Third Way.
Second, some say the tax will make many of the high-value plans too expensive and slowly cause them to disappear since employers could wind up cutting back on benefits they offer to avoid any passed-on price increase. SOURCE
Voters we better keep the phones busy calling our congress. Tell them right up front if they vote for this Obama health care bill that they will not get your vote! They are going to rush this bill to a vote faster than any bills in the past. Obama has to have the health care bill passed to keep from becoming a president with no power to get bill like the cap and trade passed. In other words he done if it does not pass!
