Individual Mandate A “Tax?” Romney Given A Major Issue

The Obamacare decision is in with Bush appointee John Roberts siding with the liberals in ruling it constitutional. The mandate it appears will be declared a “tax” and thus it doesn’t fall under the Commerce Clause. It’s the most absurd of rulings, a complete cop out that ignores what the mandate actually is. Even Obama said it isn’t a tax. In calling it a tax, the Court suggests that individuals can simply “opt out” and refuse to pay it. And what, have 100 Fed agents on our doorstep demanding money? Ridiculous. So much for President Bush appointing conservatives to the bench. These Supreme Court appointments matter and Bush completely dropped the ball with Roberts. It would have been even worse had Alito not replaced the pathetic Harriet Miers.

With all of this in mind, expect Obama to gloat. But also expect the Tea Party to rise up in protest, backing Romney with vengeance. Romney’s campaign has been doing pretty good so far, they’ve not run into any major gaffes recently. Expect Romney to get a slight boost in terms of support as Tea Partiers who may be sitting on the sidelines suddenly join the Romney fray. Obamacare is still opposed by over 50% of the country, so Romney clearly has an issue to play with here. This could be the issue that puts him over the top, Obamacare remains unpopular.

Also expect Romney to raise a significant amount of cash. The Tea Party isn’t the only group that hates Obamacare, businesses and Catholics hate it as well. It’s caused premiums to skyrocket and we all know what Obama is trying to do to the Roman Catholic Church concerning contraception. If 5% of Roman Catholics who generally vote Democrat swing to Romney because they don’t like what Obama is doing that could be enough to win the election for Romney. That issue is back in play now.

Romney has been given a golden opportunity to campaign on the repeal of a job destroying, unpopular 2,000+ page healthcare law. He has the opportunity to corral all of the Tea Party into his camp. The ruling in the very least didn’t expand the Commerce Clause, we can at least rest on that. But this is truly the best ruling for Romney if he wants to win because now he has a major issue besides the economy to run on. He needs to campaign on repeal and offer his own, clear, concise market based alternative. If he does that, he can win this election.