The point I was making, Ma R, is threefold: First, this is not the "unprecedented" expansion of federal power that its detractors make it out to be. Did the government take over every aspect of American life after the enactment of Social Security in 1935? Did we even dictate all retirement planning for all citizens, or do most rely on supplementing the guaranteed stipend of SS with 401k's, pensions, or IRAs? Do we tell everyone what they can spend their SS checks on every month, or can they use them to make car payments, buy food, pay the mortgage, or as my grandmother did, set aside every payment for seven years as a legacy to leave her grandchildren in a trust fund? It's a ridiculous argument. Did the wheat or dairy dedisions of the '30s result in the collapse of the coodities markets and the imposition of socialism?
It doesn't matter that it hasn't happened yet, because like that fictional asteroid, it will. I admit that people do not have health insurance who need it. But what this law suggests is that I should give up my freedom of choice and allow the government to impose its will upon me and my family with a theoretical limitless regulatory power. I am paranoid at times, but in this I am clear eyed and certain; if this is passed the government will find new and inventive ways to force Americans to purchase. What immediately comes to mind is wind and solar power, maybe the cell phone example that the Chief Justice brought up.
It doesn't matter that you believe it hasn't happened yet, because it actually has. The EPA is an all powerful entity who can destroy people at its whim, can create rules without input from Congress and can crush any industry it wants. But you believe that the Federal government wouldn't use that newly appointed power?
One more thing, this cuts both ways. Imagine, if you will, that the mandate is held Constitutional and a Republican as radical and partisan as Obama takes power with a friendly congress. I shudder to think of four more years of Obama, I shudder even more when I imagine four years of somebody like Rick Santorum. You might think it would never happen, but a well place scandal a month before the election would kill any sitting President, or another financial meltdown, or maybe some other unknown event that would turn the country off and put the challenger in office.
I place my trust in the people and do not trust the Federal government.
BTW:
Social Security is a pyramid scheme that if you or I tried to run one, with the same rules and payouts, we would be thrown in jail. The premise of more people were going die than collect was lost years ago and that makes the fund unsustainable.
