ObamaCare Upheld! Ninth District Reacts to SCOTUS Decision

In a long-awaited and controversial decision, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday 5-4 to uphold most parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Justice Kennedy, who was seen previously as a swing-vote, sided with Justices Thomas, Alito and Scalia, while Chief Justice John Roberts, appointed by George W. Bush, cast the deciding vote, siding with Justices Breyer, Kagan, Ginsburg, and Stotomayor. Kagan, however, did not recuse herself, even though she had a hand in the molding of the legislation.The 2000-plus -page legislation was upheld by Roberts on the basis of taxation. As cited in a Foxnews.com article today, Roberts wrote,

“The Affordable Care Act is constitutional in part and unconstitutional in part,”

explaining,

“The individual mandate cannot be upheld as an exercise of Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause,”

and,

“That Clause authorizes Congress to regulate interstate commerce, not to order individuals to engage it. In this case, however, it is reasonable to construe what Congress has done as increasing taxes on those who have a certain amount of income, but choose to go without health insurance. Such legislation is within Congress’s power to tax.”

Initially, however, the legislation was presented and sold to the American public as healthcare. The president himself repeatedly reiterated that the legislation was healthcare and not a tax, which was the basis of Kennedy’s dissent. Kennedy called the entire bill invalid, reminding the public that the administration went to

“great lengths to structure the mandate as a penalty, not a tax.”

Here in the ninth district, congressional candidates were quick to react.

“The Supreme Court failed the citizenry of this great country,”

Rep. Doug Collins (R-Gainesville) stated in a press release yesterday, adding,

“The individual mandate should not be allowed to stand, even as a tax. With this decision, the federal government has once again raised taxes on millions of hardworking Americans and taken another step away from the free market system our Founding Fathers put into place.”

Also reacting to the decision, Martha Zoller stated in her press release yesterday,

“We’ve known all along that this is a tax, and a huge one at that. With barely 36 percent of Americans in favor of this new governmental health care, Obama now want(s) to enact the largest tax increase in U.S. history on the rest of us. That is unacceptable. We must repeal this law.”

Upon hearing yesterday’s decision Roger Fitzpatrick said he was shocked and angered. He said by upholding the law, “

we can be assured that nothing so blatantly unconstitutional would ever be perpetuated on the American people.”

He added that with the decision to uphold the bill comes the

“most massive tax increase in U.S. History.”

But, more significantly, Fitzpatrick said,

“It strikes a bigger blow to our liberties than any other piece of legislation has before.”

The only Democrat in the Ninth District race also responded, saying the ruling was a positive thing for the American People.

“All of us should be glad,”

he stated,

“that the issues surrounding such an important issue – health care for Americans – can and will continue to be debated by elected members of Congress and not determined by an un-elected court… Having said that, we need to work hard on the bill to make sure it is less burdensome to businesses, individuals, and providers. There will certainly be some significant short-term pain, but we should never avoid short-term pain at the expense of long-term gain as we tackle this difficult problem.”

With exception of Democrat Jody Cooley, each ninth district candidate vowed to work to repeal Obamacare if elected.

Controversy and issues surrounding the decision, though, are many. Conceivably the greatest concern of the decision to uphold the law is the threat to individual liberty. In his article today, Father Johannes L. Jacobse said that with yesterday’s decision, the Republic is no more.

“As freedom gets chipped away,”

he said,

“the straight jacket gets tighter and then hardens to envelop the mind like a steel casket.”

Responding to the decision, Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney said he would work toward repealing Obamacare on his first day in office, saying,

“Obamacare is bad medicine, it is bad policy, and when I’m President, the bad news of Obamacare will be over.”

Many see yesterday’s decision as just the beginning of muddling into the morass of the issue, as 23 lawsuits from 14 states and D.C. involving 50 plaintiffs are still pending.