Just when you thought that Health Care Reform could not get any more Draconian :
Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail.
Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses. Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:
• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.
• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]
When confronted with this same issue during its consideration of a similar individual mandate tax, the Senate Finance Committee worked on a bipartisan basis to include language in its bill that shielded Americans from civil and criminal penalties. The Pelosi bill, however, contains no similar language protecting American citizens from civil and criminal tax penalties that could include a $250,000 fine and five years in jail.
Read Full Story at House Committee On Ways And Means Republicans
Keep in mind that the government is depending on your refusal to participate so they can fine you.
They are depending on the fines that are deducted from your paycheck and your tax returns to help pay for the medical care of those who can afford insurance and purchase and participate in the plan.
This is merely another attempt to ruin those families that are already hanging by a thread.
I can only sit back and wonder at the fact that some among us have elevated to political power the likes of Pelosi and her crowd. I have looked at this provision and certain other aspects of the House bill and concluded that we have not seen such an idiotic attempt to undermine our constitutional liberties since the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Anyone who supports this bill and still claims to be a supporter of the Constitution is in my book either an abject fool or a liar.
Just how absolutely asinine is the idea that Federal bureaucrats are not only going to have a “nihil obstat” and “imprimatur” over the design of your personal health plan and the ability to intervene in the details of your medical treatment but will also have the power to use the law against you if you resist. This is an absolutely unprecedented intrusion into our personal affairs. And to top that, while we the citizens could face prosecution for failure to bow our heads to the modern-day jackbooters in government, the illegal aliens would somehow get to skate away.
Now, listen up, all you who are ready to become a modern-day Esau and sell your constitutional inheritance for a mess of potage. This crap from Pelosi, Waxman, et al is just a starting point for their assault on your basic freedoms. I am one who is quite willing to try to find an equitable way to provide financial assistance to those who need but cannot afford health care insurance, as well as an equitable way to cut the costs of medical care. But I am not about to pay for it with my own freedom of choice.
I spent a lifetime on the front lines in the protection of you and your constitutional rights. If you become complicit in this violation of those rights, I tell you I will regret every minute of that lifetime. Veterans Day is coming. Ceremonies will be held. Right now at this moment, I am inclined to say screw you with your ceremonies. I did not spend all those years fighting on behalf of someone who is now ready to give me what amounts to the old excuse that Mussolini made the trains run on time.
For all those who have been in this fight through participation in public demonstrations, communications with representatives in government, and efforts to ensure the election of political candidates who still believe in the Constitution, I say good on you. I have never been a “political” person — largely excluded from it legally by the nature of my profession. But I will tell you that, from here on in, a will send every damned dime I can scrape together to support any political candidate anywhere who is willing to take on those scabrous statists trying to abrogate my rights. To quote a statesman of yore: “If they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”
So Delilah, aka Comrade Nancy, got 220 of her house slaves to vote for that damned bill. I want to see a list of those 220 idiots.
Could recent events have raised the possibility of Virginia adding her name to the roll call of states that have declared sovereignty under the 10th Amendment ?
Given the degree that these clowns in Congress have trampled upon the Constitution, it is time for all U.S. states to send this message.
Wolverine…me too.
We should take the GOTV show on the road in those weakest districts.
Kelly In Va. is already on board.
Btw, this evening I flipped over to CSPAN frequently. Some of the speeches were very illuminating.
Only once did I hear mention of the question of constitutionality of Pelosi’s Frankenstein monster…
Perriello and Connolly — two fools who need a political whipping for sure.
And my heartiest congratulations to Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, R- Louisiana, the lone Repub voting for this piece of Pelosi crap. Thanks a bunch, Ahn. You “saved” the fetuses (at least you did until the Dems get a chance to strip your amendment out in conference) but you helped to throw the rest of us into the fire at the same time. You’re a real pal, you are.
Wolv,
Cao should be made to pay. This is done by recognizing that the specimen is a cull. As a cull it is not good for anything. Neither milk, meat, hyde nor glue. Just put it down in the primary. With Republicans like this, who needs Democrats?
If the Republican party is serious about regaining its former stature, it needs to put some skin into the accountability game. Cao needs to be held accountable for his actions — in this case a vote for a bill that is a freedom, job and people killer.
This means he needs to undergo “trial by primary.”
Otherwise we will, if we ever are trusted again, go right back to 6000 earmarks per year. We saw what that got us, that is right, we got Obama.
I just read that doctors in the AMA revolted and forced the Trustees of that organization to withdraw the AMA endorsement of the House bill. Came too late, I guess. Maybe it will help in the Senate. Too bad the MSM doesn’t do some double checking whenever Obama claims he has an endorsement of his proposals.
Tomorrow my chopped up AARP card goes into the mail, along with some very choice comments.
Actually, Jacob, we may not have Cao around for all that long. He’s the guy who won a completely unexpected victory in the New Orleans district previously represented by convicted Democrat felon William Jefferson. That district is whoppingly Democratic, and I suspect Cao’s win was a real fluke, probably because of the Jefferson thing. I kind of doubt that Cao will be able to hold onto the seat long once the Jefferson business subsides completely — unless, perhaps, he crosses the carpet at some point a la Arlen Specter.
It looks to me like Cao has already caught the power madness and thought that he might buy his way into a continuation in that seat by selling the rest of us out. Nice that!
I never thought I would say this about someone who is also pro-life, but screw Cao and his one-issue mentality. Fat chance in any case that his vote on this bill will keep that seat from going its usual Democrat way. I say kiss him off and concentrate elsewhere. Dealing with that seat is like trying to unseat Henry Waxman in that ultra-liberal California place called West Los Angeles. Complete waste of effort and money. We have to go after the truly vulnerable seats.
W,
‘I never thought I would say this about someone who is also pro-life, but screw Cao and his one-issue mentality.’
Amen. To top it off you know the Stupak amendment won’t survive the reconciliation process. What a joke. This amendment was allowed to come to the floor, so it could offer a fig leaf to the blue dogs. What a joke!
Absolutely, Jacob, that Stupak amendment was a cynical Kabuki dance – there’s no doubt it’ll be gone in the reconciliation process, and even Stupak knows that. It’s revolting (oops, not the best choice of words this day…)
Time to go to work on Webb (we all know Spineless Lapdog Warner is well beyond reach), and then to start identifying the replacements for as many of the 220 as is humanly possible.
The one lesson from our recent past – we can’t just throw anyone with an “R” after their name, we need qualified, non-psychotic, electable men and women to run.
As much as some want to think that last week was all about a “message to Obama” (message clearly not received, by the way), if we’d put up, (well, I won’t name any names, just think of some local Republicans who crashed and burned in recent years), if we put one of them on the ballot instead of McDonnell, we’d all be mourning the day of Deeds …