Is ObamaCare Mandate a Tax?

Obama did make a promise (already long since broken) not to tax the middle class, and he most likely knows far more about man dates than I do, but still…

Washington Examiner — This afternoon, the Fourth Circuit panel considering the Commonwealth of Virginia’s challenge to Obamacare has asked for supplemental briefs from all parties related to the arguments about the federal government’s constitutional powers of taxation. This may mean that the court is setting itself up to rule that the penalty for not purchasing insurance under Obamacare is, in fact, a tax and not a penalty at all, and that therefore the court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case. This would make the Fourth Circuit the first court in America to buy the Obama administration’s argument that Obamacare’s individual mandate is, in fact, a tax. Every other court to hear an Obamacare case – including those that have upheld the law – have rejected this line of argument out of hand. (H/T: C2)

How do you tax nothing? They can tax income, they can tax property, they can tax sales, they can and do tax a large variety of purchases and transactions. They tax just about every activity and item in existence. But how do you tax the lack of a purchase? How can you tax a transaction that never occurred, a product that was never purchased? Whether it’s a 5% tax or a 100% tax, it’s still 5% or 100% of zero dollars spent on zero transactions for zero gain. Taking money from people who choose not to subject themselves to death panels is a penalty, pure and simple. A pecuniary punishment for not submitting to Obama’s Glorious People’s Health Care (a subsidiary of Soylent Green, Inc.)

I don’t buy it. Can I be taxed for not buying their bullshit?