I cannot state strongly enough how very much I dislike the ruling from the Supreme Court today on Obamacare. One the one hand striking down the use of the commerce clause is good, but then turning around and saying the mandate works as a tax is horrible. Basically now the Supreme Court has established precedent for Congress to use taxing behavior or lack of behavior as a means of controlling what individuals do. One of the arguments against the use of the commerce clause to support the mandate was that if the government could force people to buy health insurance, it could then force people to buy broccoli. Well, now, the government can, if it chooses, tax people for not buying broccoli. In other words, you still end up punished for not doing what the federal government tells you you must do.
This is what comes of sacrificing principle for so-called “practicality.” This is what comes of voting into office the “electable” candidate rather than the one who shares your principles. This is what comes of all the excuses for not protecting liberty. You lose liberty little by little.
Thankfully, the number of people willing to fight back against this is growing. The situation is not hopeless. There are rising politicians who are starting to push back against the government expansion of power. And there are growing numbers of people who are willing to support those politicians. Things will change slowly, but they will change.
And I am still holding out hope that someone like Justice Janice Rogers Brown will be nominated to the Supreme Court. I will be very happy when that happens. And mark my words, one day it will happen. Maybe not specifically Justice Brown, but someone like her. Then you will know we are working our way forward to a more free and just society.