WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. Mike Lee told members of the Utah press that he sees the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act as a short-lived victory.
Lee said he was in the courtroom as the Chief Justices made their decision. It was not the decision he expected or hoped for, he said.
Despite the individual mandate being upheld in the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling, Lee predicted, “It will be prove to be a hollow and short-lived victory.”
Lee noted the individual mandate was upheld as a tax, something that President Barrack Obama originally said it was not intended to be. He said the only way the mandate was able to be maintained was by the Court’s “shoehorning” it into Congress’s preexisting taxing authority.
“I hardly can imagine…that its status as a tax will enhance the mandate’s popularity,” Lee said.
Lee also said he felt the impact of the ruling would be “significant” come election time.
“It will have a big impact on the presidential race,” he said.
Aside from the ruling on the mandate, Lee said he was pleased the Supreme Court concluded the Congress had overstepped its bounds in relation to powers set forth by the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The Supreme Court also deemed an expansion of Medicaid under the ACA as unconstitutional.
As for what Lee wants to do with the ACA, he said he wanted it “repealed in its entirety.”
Decisions on healthcare should be made by individuals, he said, not bureaucrats.
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Copyright 2012 St. George News.
When is a tax not a tax? Just ask Mike Lee and Mitt Romney. In a 2009 interview with CNN, Romney explained how the Massachusetts health care mandate worked. If a state resident decided to forgo health insurance when he or she could afford it, Romney said, that person would face the loss of a tax exemption. In other words, he or she would be assessed a tax penalty. In other words, a TAX.
In order to qualify for the tax exemption, Romney added, “You’ve got to have health insurance, because we want everybody in the system. No more free riders.”
Just ask the residents of Mass how they like their healthcare system. Almost all of them have health care and most are happy with it. The Affordable Care Act will work just the same way.
Thank you Mitt Romney for taking the lead in affordable healthcare for all Americans! (Just don’t bring it up. He’s running away from it.)