If you’re upset over the Supreme Court ruling on ObamaCare, maybe you should be. The Court’s ruling that it’s a tax has left many people frustrated with the system in general. This frustrated, annoyed, outraged feeling where you just want to find a legislator to beat senseless is exactly how you should feel.
(You shouldn’t beat legislators senseless, but this is how you should feel about taxation.)
We’re now being taxed for inaction. It’s a tax for doing nothing. Whether we’re sick or well, whether we want insurance or not, we have to spend that money.
While the thought of being taxed for inaction is certainly outrageous, why aren’t we this outraged at taxes based on action? When we earn money, it’s taxed. When we spend money, it’s taxed. When we inherit money, it’s taxed.
Many people will tell you that taxation based on an action is preferable because you can choose how much you pay in taxes. Though that’s true, at least to an extent, conservatives have supported the Fair Tax approach to consumption taxes that they don’t bother thinking that maybe the tax is too high; all they see is the method of taxation.
The SPLOST initiatives come along, and they get passed. Other tax rate increase initiatives come along, and they pass. And maybe some conservatives oppose them, but where’s the outrage? Where’s that feeling of absolute frustration that government would dare impose itself on us in that manner?
We’ve adopted this mentality that government has some right to a percentage of what we earn, what we spend, and what we are given. Of course, the government needs money to operate, and that has to be done through taxation of some sort. I understand that the government needs to be funded. That’s not the point here; the issue is our overall complacency toward taxation.
The ruling from the Supreme Court on the health care issue has reminded us what we’re supposed to feel like on the issue of taxation. Remember this feeling; hold onto that level of rage; and let this example from the health care issue be a constant reminder of the way government influences our decisions.
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