TCCRI Rally for Freedom Presentation

The Central Challenge of our Generation

2008: candidate Obama opposed increasing taxes on the middle class and
opposed an individual mandate.

2009-2010: Congress debates and passes a bill that imposes an individual
mandate through penalties. President Obama signs PPACA.

2010-2012: Legal briefs filed by the Government argue that the mandate is
both a penalty and a tax. Makes oral arguments to that effect.

June 28, 2012: Chief Justice Roberts reasons that the mandate is
constitutional as a tax but not as a penalty; but reasoned the Anti-Injunction
Act isn’t applicable to the case since the penalty in PPACA isn’t a tax.

July 1, 2012: White House COS insists the mandate is a penalty despite the
Court opinion.

Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute – txccri.org

The Central Challenge of our Generation

“Obamacare as passed by Congress
didn’t pass constitutional muster.
Obamacare as passed by the Supreme
Court didn’t pass Congress.”
Rich Lowry, editor, National Review


The Mandate is unconstitutional but it’s not

• “We never have classified as a tax an exaction
imposed for violation of the law, and so too, we
never have classified as a tax an exaction described in
the legislation itself as a penalty.”

• “To say that the Individual Mandate merely imposes
a tax is not to interpret the statute but to rewrite it.”

Dissenting opinion by Justices Alito, Kennedy,
Scalia and Thomas. NFIB v. Sebelius


Essential Problems of Obamacare

• Substantially increases federal power, especially to
tax.

• Relies on deficit spending and entitlement
expansion, but does not end the problem of the
uninsured.

• Imposes significant costs and restrictions on
businesses and individuals


How Did We Get Obamacare?

Stretch the Constitution
“Since virtually every aspect of the health care
system has an effect on interstate
commerce, the power of Congress to regulate
health care is essentially unlimited.”
– Nancy Pelosi, December 2009.



Spend Money We Don’t Have

“CBO and JCT now estimate that the insurance
coverage provisions of the ACA will have a net
cost of just under $1.1 trillion over the 2012–
2021 period.”

- Congressional Budget Office , March 2012



Abuse Congress’ Power to Tax

“Those without coverage
pay a tax penalty of the greater of $695
per year up to a maximum of three times
that amount ($2,085) per family or 2.5%
of household income.”
- Kaiser Family Foundation, Summary of Health Reform, April 2011



Abuse Congress’ Power to Tax
• Penalties paid by individuals in Texas
are estimated at $2.2 billion through
2019.

• Penalties paid by Texas businesses are
estimated at $9.3 billion through 2019.
http://www.window.state.tx.us/specialrpt/healthFed/hr3590Cost.pdf


How Do We Guard Against
Future Federal Overreach?

What States can do…

What Congress can do…

What the People can do…


State Action
• In 2000, there were 1.6 million on Medicaid

• By 2010, there were 3.2 million people enrolled

• The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC)
estimates that caseloads for Medicaid and the Children’s
Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in Texas will increase by
more than 1.8 million by fiscal 2014, and more than 2.1
million by fiscal 2019 as a result of the federal legislation


Texas Medicaid Spending
(% of budget)

2001: 14.0%
2011: 20.2%
2023: 37.2%


State Action
Press other states to join – and Congress to consent to – the
Interstate Health Care Compact. Texas joined in 2011.

The Interstate Health Care Compact (IHCC), an agreement
among several states in response to federal health care
legislation, is being promoted by the nonprofit Health Care
Compact Alliance. Under this compact, member states agree
that:
• states should have full discretion over health care spending;
• state regulations should supersede federal regulations
concerning health care reform;
• states should receive federal health care funding each year
in the form of direct block grants.

Congressional action

• Repeal and Replace Obamacare

• Repeal and de-fund aspects of the
government apparatus for implementing
Obamacare, such as the “penalty”

• Give consent to the Health Care Compact


Citizen Action

“In questions of power, then, let no more
be heard of confidence in man, but bind
him down from mischief by the chains of
the Constitution.”
- Thomas Jefferson, Kentucky Resolutions, 1798.


Citizen Action
Four Potential Constitutional Amendments to Consider:

1. Balanced Budget Amendment

2. Repeal the 16th Amendment (ending federal income
tax)

3. Prohibit unfunded federal mandates

4. Prohibit federal judges from levying taxes


Citizen Action:
Constitutional Amendments to Consider

Pass a Balanced Budget Amendment:
Debt and Deficit spending allows government to
grow beyond its limited powers...

The massive increase in federal spending is made
possible because there is no limitation on what
Congress can spend.

The consequences have been dire.


National Debt: $15.795 trillion

Federal
Spending
and
Revenue
1965 -
2012:


Citizen Action:

Repeal the 16th Amendment:
The federal income tax is the primary source of the
federal government’s power to reach into our lives and
businesses. Obamacare makes this especially true.

The federal income tax facilitates crony capitalism and
special interest strangulation of Congress.

Given the Supreme Court ruling, the power to tax
inactivity is a broad, new power for Congress.


Citizen Action:

Repeal the 16th Amendment:

“The 16th Amendment gave government a
limitless lien on a man’s property and, by
extension, on his life. The Amendment turned
government into the almighty source – rather
than the protector – of man’s rights and
Americans into indentured slaves.”
- Ilana Mercer, Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies


Citizen Action:

Prohibit Unfunded Mandates:
Despite Congressional enactment of legislation as the
State and Local Cost Estimate Act of 1981 (Public Law
No. 97-108) and the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act
of 1995 (Public Law No. 104-4), the federal
government continues to impose unfunded mandates
and effectively dictate program administration
through regulation. Texas, like all states, must ask the
federal government for management flexibility.


Citizen Action:

Prohibit Unfunded Mandates:
Prohibit federally-imposed mandates upon
state governments, or local units of
government, for which the federal
government does not provide the necessary
funding with which to completely pay for
the implementation of such mandates


Citizen Action:

Prohibit Federal Judges from taxing
In 1990, with a vote of 5 to 4, the Supreme Court, in Missouri, et
al. v. Jenkins, et al. (495 U.S. 33), disregarded Article I, Section 8 of
the Constitution, which reserves solely to the legislative branch of
government the authority to tax.

Since 1993, lawmakers in 27 states and territories have adopted
and transmitted to Congress memorials requesting that Congress
take necessary action to amend the Constitution.

Clearly prohibit all federal courts from ordering or instructing any
state or political subdivision to levy any new tax or to increase any
already-existing tax

Citizen Action:

Prohibit Federal Judges from taxing

“Imposing a tax through judicial legislation
inverts the constitutional scheme, and places
the power to tax in the branch of government
least accountable to the citizenry.”

Dissenting opinion by Justices Alito, Kennedy, Scalia and
Thomas. NFIB v. Sebelius


TCCRI Rally for Freedom Presentation

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