There is NO Penalty for Refusing to Pay Health Care Tax: Fake Outrage is Veiled Racism

From [HERE] The Supreme Court ruled today that the Affordable Care Act, the comprehensive health care reform package signed by President Obama in 2010, is constitutional. The Court upheld the law’s most controversial provision, the individual mandate, ruling that it is constitutional under the government’s authority to levy and collect taxes.

Republicans have falsely claimed the mandate was the “biggest tax increase ever in American history,” so of course, conservatives immediately jumped on the idea that the individual mandate was a massive tax hike on the middle class, reviving an argument Republicans have made since the law passed more than two years ago:

The mandate can indeed be characterized as a tax, as the Court found. But it is a small tax that contains no penalty for failing not to pay it. The tax imposed by the individual mandate amounts to either $695 or 2.5 percent of household income for those who don’t have insurance and are not exempt based on income levels. By comparison, the payroll tax cut extension Republicans repeatedly blocked earlier this year would have added 3.1 percentage points to the tax and cost the average family $1,500 a year.

The mandate, meanwhile, would hit a small amount of Americans — somewhere between 2 and 5 percent — according to a study from the Urban Institute. The number could be even lower depending on the law’s success: in Massachusetts, the only state with an insurance mandate, less than 1 percent of the state’s residents paid the penalty in 2009.

The majority of the Affordable Care Act’s other taxes, such as a payroll tax increase and a tax on high-cost health plans, are aimed at upper-income Americans. In exchange, millions of jobs will be created as new people enter the health care system and millions of people will gain access to affordable, quality insurance that they otherwise would not have. And, as we detailed earlier today, the Court’s decision to uphold the entirety of the law will have significant benefits for the nation’s economy.

No Penalty 

In photo, angry white guy with angry sign. Angry about having health care, I guess....blah, blah, blah. From [HERE] Although the next few days will be filled with fireworks from both sides, it’s difficult to see how health care will remain a significant issue for the rest of the presidential campaign. Neither candidate has much incentive to talk about the issue going forward: President Obama knows that, even though the law is constitutional, it’s still extremely unpopular. And Mitt Romney doesn’t have much desire to spend the fall talking about why or how his health-care plan in Massachusetts differed from this one. For most voters, the conversation will be back to the economy in a matter of days.

Although health care is unlikely to matter to most swing voters, there’s more than enough fodder in the court’s decision to inspire the true believers in both parties all the way to Election Day. Democrats can celebrate that the law is still in place. And because there is no penalty for refusing to pay the new health-care tax, they can point out that there’s no requirement for people who don’t want insurance to buy it. Republicans still have a “repeal Obamacare” message to motivate their base and don’t have to worry about defending the loss of the law’s more popular provisions. Even better, now they have a new tax to attack.

Such an attack is viable due to the public's misconception that the tax is enforceable with a penalty for failing to pay it. But there is none. In reality this is a hollow issue -- but to racists who feel threatened by the changing demographics of the country and a President who symbolically represents that change to them, "Obamacare" is redmeat, pretext for their fears about being the vanishing majority and one day perhaps being a nullity. Expect much more nonsense.     

The bottom line: more rhetorical ammunition and turnout motivation for the parties’ bases. Not much difference for everyone else. -  Like Obama's "immigration announcement" and support of gay marriage, the Health Care Act is very minimal to people and mostly illusory. That is, Obama did not confer any legal rights on undocumented persons. There is no new law for undocumented persons to enforce. With a limited amount of resources at his disposal, the Executive can choose to decide what laws to enforce and what punishment to seek from the Judiciary. (Separation of Powers - the Executive enforces the law). The President cannot enforce all the laws due to a lack of resources. Such a lack leaves the President with choices to make based on his priorities - the same way a Mayor's (or Governor) office may order the DA not to enforce or prosecute a local vagrancy law, or any other law for instance. These choices are called prosecutorial discretion. Obama has provided the U.S. Attorney with flexible criteria or guidelines to decide what undocumented persons to arrest and/or prosecute. If for instance, prosecutors decide not to apply the criteria there is basically no remedy for the aggrieved undocumented person (claims for arbitrary or selective prosecution are a long shot) -  they have no new cause of action.  Also the Executive can choose to change his mind. Undocumented persons are still unlawfully present, nothing Obama did changed their status. 

If Obamacare is unenforceable and the mandate has no teeth what is all the noise about?  Details do not matter to the red meat crowd of the Republican Party -- and the non-stop self victimization of the the party of the vanishing white majority.

Reality is just a minor inconvienance to the right wing's freaky, freaky flow. Such white angst or fear is not irrational or based on emotionalism; it is calculated. According to Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, racism is a system of white behavior and survival:whether it is conscious and/or subconsciously determined [MORE]. And what the White Collective is doing on the planet is engaging in behaviors—in economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and more—in order for them to survive on the planet, by any means necessary. A planet by the way, upon which the vast majority of people are classified as non-white (Black, Brown, Red and Yellow) by white skinned people. Expect racism from these folks. Bw thinks this her definition is applicable here  - to the so called "health care debate."