Chief Justice John Roberts recently struck another blow against limited government by creating a new, unrestrained power to use taxes to compel activity (even if the proponents of the tax insist vehemently that it is not a tax!).
There *is* something we can do about that. A *constitutional amendment* may be necessary to abolish this SCOTUS newly endorsed “penalty tax”. It should also prohibit the Congress from using any “penalty tax” to coerce any activity or non-activity. It may even be necessary to more clearly define the original constitutional limits on the taxing powers of Congress.
Conservatives definitely think that this “penalty tax” is an assault on freedom. And I think liberals will be scared of it too when they no longer control the Senate and White House in 2013 (I hope!). I wouldn’t worry too much about inaction by weak-kneed Boehner and Mitchell. With a new Republican president and a bunch of new Tea Party senators and representatives, they *will* work on passing this amendment. Or, if necessary, a majority of states can call for a constitutional convention to pass this amendment. That’s another reason to cast your vote for conservatives this November and every other election all the way up and down the ticket from your local dog catcher to president.
It might also be a good time to fix some other supposed vagueness in the US Constitution, like:
the right of the *people* to keep and bear arms, as well as a well regulated Militia;
abolishing the idea of “anchor babies”. Only children born of legal US citizens can automatically be granted US citizenship;
to qualify for the office of president, the person must have both parents be US citizens.
Under the Original Constitution, Direct taxes are defines as taxes by the Federal government DIRECTLY upon the citizen and they are prohibited without apportionment among the states.
The 16th amendment relieves the Federal government of that apportionment requirement but ONLY for income taxes.
AS Obamacare’s individual mandate is not taxing income but rather inaction, and it is directly imposed by Washington upon the people. Then the Constitutional text would at least require it to be apportions among the States.
John like his liberal buddies doesn’t care about the Text of any Federal Constitution or law of any kind, they just rewrite it to fit his needs. No amendment to that Constitution is going be anything but Text. As long as its up to Federal employees to enforce and “interpret” that text it will only have the force and meaning they want it to have. This is of course to effectively unbound them, The guards are hand picked by the Prisoners who thus now run the prison, and it is we the people who are left subject to their boundless whims.
If we are to preserve and restore our rights we will require nothing short of a revolutionary change disarming and replacing the “Federal” government.