By ERNEST S. CHRISTIAN AND BETTY JO CHRISTIAN
Investors Business Daily
Posted 09/25/2009
Without regard to one’s views about the health care legislation promoted by President Obama and currently being redrafted by Sen. Max Baucus, everyone is entitled to expect that the task will be carried out with competence and integrity — also with dignity and a high regard for the intelligence of the American people.
Further, even if everyone agreed that the proposed federal interventions in health care were consistent with “best medical practice” and produced the best possible medical care at the least price, all these federal actions would still have to meet constitutional standards.
The controversial tax that both Obama and Baucus would impose on people who do not buy health insurance appears to be a “direct tax” on persons that is unlawful under Article 1, Section 2, of the Constitution, which requires that “direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States … according to their Numbers . .. .”
In addition, Art. 1, Sec. 9, says: “No capitation, or other direct Tax, shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken … .”
The only exception to the constitutional prohibition against unapportioned direct taxes is for the federal income tax, which was authorized by the 16th Amendment — but the direct tax on the uninsured is not an income tax.
Sen. Baucus claims that the tax on the uninsured is an “indirect” excise tax — like the federal gasoline tax — that does not have to be apportioned. But Sen. Baucus appears to be in error. An excise tax is a tax on a “thing” (such as a commodity or a license). That is why an excise tax is classified as “indirect.”
The article continues here.
