Chief Justice Roberts and Economic Fascism
From 2012.
In upholding Obamacare, which is in fact Pelosicare, Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion. He indulged in some lawyer-like deception, as lawyers are paid to do. The law specifically says that the mandatory payment for not buying insurance is a penalty, not a tax. He determined that this penalty would be unconstitutional if it were a penalty (commerce clause), so, lo and behold, it’s a tax!
This is all nonsense, of course. The government has regulated lots of things under the commerce clause, telling people what they must do, can do, and cannot do. If the Supreme Court gives any regulation a thumbs-up, the regulation continues. No single case is going to reverse the federal bureaucracy from pursuing its agenda under the commerce clause.
One man’s opinion on what the commerce clause means is merely his opinion. This opinion does not bind the federal bureaucracy or any future Court decision. It just gave Roberts a way to justify his theory of the legality of unlimited federal taxation, now to be collected as fines for not buying health insurance.
He argued that the government can now force residents and citizens of the United States to buy health care insurance that they do not want, or else face a government-imposed fine for not buying it. He called this a tax. The majority five accepted this.
To the extent that his opinion has established a precedent, Roberts has at long last legalized open economic fascism to America. Of course, it has been alive and well ever since the New Deal, and really since the First Bank of the United States (1791 to 1811). But now it has been placed under the judicial umbrella of a Supreme Court decision.
Economic fascism is the doctrine that there is a government-business alliance that makes the nation wealthy or strong militarily. This idea has never had a judicial basis before. Now it does.
A tax in America prior to last week was a payment by the citizen or legal entity to an agency of civil government. Not so in the new, improved American fascism, as articulated by Chief Justice Roberts. In fascism, a compulsory payment to a private, profit-seeking entity is considered a tax. You can pay it to an insurance company, or you can pay a fine to the federal government. Take your pick. They are both taxes.
ROBERTS’ OPINION
If Roberts’ opinion sticks, the national fascist state has its marching orders.
The central government in Washington now has the power to compel Americans to pay private companies for services they do not want, on penalty of a fine. But this fine is now called a tax.
I have read a conservative’s whitewash of this monstrous decision. The writer says this was a ruling of great cunning. It was, indeed. This is one more example of terminally naïve conservatives who dream that the American fascist state can be reversed on a legal technicality. Not now. Not if Roberts’ argument sticks.
Roberts has enunciated as a principle of law the fundamental principle of the fascist economy: there is a legitimate government-business alliance, established by law, which places government over the private, profit-seeking business, and the business in return is granted some of the immunities possessed by the state. It means that a business can make you an offer you can’t refuse. This principle is now the law of the land.
Americans must now pay insurance companies their pound of flesh or else pay a fine to the federal government. This fine is called a tax by Roberts.
Watch premiums rise!
CONCLUSION
Economically, nothing has changed. It’s the same old system. What makes this new variant new is that it is judicially protected under the taxation clause rather than the commerce clause.
It’s like dog turds or cat turds. Take your pick.
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Published on July 3, 2012. The original is here.