Posted on 03/05/2013 8:05:42 AM PST by SeekAndFind
One of the necessary features of any law is enforcement. Taxes are laws, and if you don't pay your taxes, the government swoops down on you like a raptor on a rodent. You then must either pay up or prove that you don't owe the money the government says you owe.
Otherwise, government can garnish your wages, take your house, or maybe even put you in prison. None of that applies to the "tax" that Chief Justice John Roberts "discovered" in the Affordable Care Act, which the legislation had mistakenly labeled a "penalty" for noncompliance with the mandate to buy health insurance.
To help dissuade the judiciary from "legislating from the bench," this newfangled tax/penalty should forevermore be referred to as the "RobertsTax." (CAUTION: reading further may make you a "subversive.")
If having provisions for enforcement is necessary for a "tax" to really be a tax, then the RobertsTax isn't a tax at all -- it's a suggestion. That's because ObamaCare expressly forbids the IRS from prosecution for nonpayment of the RobertsTax. However, the IRS can deny the taxpayer his income tax refund if he owes the RobertsTax. (This has been addressed at The American, Forbes, Reason, NPR, Businessweek and elsewhere.) But if denial of one's income tax refund is the only mechanism available to the IRS to enforce the RobertsTax, then the RobertsTax can be easily avoided by simply not overpaying one's income tax throughout the tax year.
For those Americans just emerging from the 47 percent who don't pay income taxes into the 53 percent who do, ObamaCare becomes an issue. If they have a federal income tax bill of even a single dollar, they become subject to the RobertsTax.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
John Roberts is a disgusting coward.
He was made an “offer he couldn’t refuse” by “Scarface”
All the arguments back and forth about what a “tax” is relative to Obamacare seem moot.
It’s not tin-foil-hat territory to suspect that Robert’s tortured logic and convoluted ruling is cover for some kind of corrupt, undue pressure and influence put on him at the time of his decision.
“The Roberts tax”
Sounds rather like something I heard in a movie:
“...the [Pirates] code is more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.”
— Captain Hector Barbossa
“It’s not tin-foil-hat territory to suspect that Robert’s tortured logic and convoluted ruling is cover for some kind of corrupt, undue pressure and influence put on him at the time of his decision.”
Yeah! Like his illegal adoption of two Irish children.
The good news was they got their 15,000 new IRS agents.
Well paying upper middle class jobs.
More prosperity for Wash DC / Nova!
“But if denial of one’s income tax refund is the only mechanism available to the IRS to enforce the RobertsTax...”
The Federal Financial Management Service (FMS) is the actual org that would be withholding your refund.
FMS can grab ANY money paid to you by the Feds.
That includes Social Security payments...
Roberts merely pointed out what the tax law already said - that the penalty was to be treated as a tax. He then went on, however, to point out the restricted definition of "person" that Obamacare applies to, but no one wants to acknowledge that. Because hey, if you understand his ruling, you might have to actually stand for something. So it's better to slander him by getting pissed over something he didn't do? No wonder the Rats are winning - the conservatives won't even address the actual issues.
One Stone, Two Powers: How Chief Justice Roberts Saved America
I’ve been wondering, if the mandate is truly a tax, how is it that obama has been issuing waivers for favored constituents. Does any administration have the authority to waive a lawful tax for which a taxpayer is liable? If so, where does it get that authority?
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