Obamacare Individual Mandate Creates Permanent Underclass

President Obama’s solicitor general Neal Kumar Katyal defended the individual mandate in Obamacare before the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals by declaring that Americans who don’t like the mandate should simply earn less money so as to avoid it. So much for the American dream of upward mobility. The Obama administration apparently wants to reverse the American dream. Downward mobility to avoid Obamacare ought to be the new battle cry for our republic. The unmitigated audacity of this administration continues to amaze me. Ultimately the Obamacare individual mandate will do little more than create a permanent underclass of people who will have no incentive to earn more money because Obamacare will eat away their additional earnings.

Having said that, the solicitor general may be on to something. Americans can avoid Obamacare’s individual mandate by earning less money, so says Mr. Katyal to a panel of 6th Circuit judges. Meanwhile in Washington the Obama administration is doing everything it can to make sure Americans have less money. Perhaps the benevolent administration simply wants us to avoid Obamacare. The government claims unemployment is up to 9.1% and only 54,000 jobs were created last month. This is higher than the 37,000 jobs a private firm claims were created in May. Considering that the government almost always overstates jobs created in their jobs report only to quietly downgrade their numbers a couple weeks later, I would suggest the 37,000 number is more accurate. Either way, the number is incredibly low.

According to Gallup underemployment stands at 19.2%. This is a significant number because it means that these people have job, are not employed 40 hours a week but want to be or they are unemployed. Gallup does not count people who have simply given up looking for work. All of these people likely could avoid the Obamacare individual mandate according to the Obama administration because they don’t earn enough money. Apparently these people should be rejoicing over the fact that they don’t have to buy into a massive health insurance boondoggle but I’m guessing most of these folks would rather earn more money so they can feed their families and put a roof over their heads. But if they do gain full time employment, there is a serious possibility that they’ll be stuck paying the individual Obamacare mandate. So it begs the question whether obtaining more employment is even worth it for these people.

Therein lies the problem with the Obamacare individual mandate and with the solicitor general’s argument. Like welfare, the individual mandate has the potential to discourage work. People who don’t earn enough money aren’t subject to the mandate and so there is an incentive to not bother working. Part time employees will have no incentive to seek full time employment, it wouldn’t be worth it for them because a good portion of their additional earnings will be sucked up by Obamacare.

The solicitor general’s arguments are absurd and contrary to what was passed by Congress. One of the 6th circuit judges noted that earning less money to avoid the individual mandate was never discussed by Congress. The argument is a creation of the President’s team of lawyers and while it may be creative it runs contrary to what Congress passed. The 6th circuit and the Supreme Court can and likely will look at Congressional debate records for help in determining the purpose of various provisions of Obamacare. Nowhere will they find the solicitor general’s argument, and thus it will likely be rejected.

When thinking about the Obama administration, we shouldn’t just think about the high unemployment or the absurdly high budget deficits. We must also remember that their grand solution to the Obamacare individual mandate, for those of us who don’t want to told what to buy by the government, is to earn less money. The Obama administration has been working hard to ensure that all of us earn less money. The unintended consequence of the solicitor general’s arguments, and Obamacare in practice, is that the legions of underemployed will find themselves with no incentive to seek additional employment. Thus Obamacare will have created a permanent underclass through the individual mandate. What a legacy!