I am actually most fearful of this comment. Rush Limbaugh talked about how Social Security was challenged and goverment lawyers argued it was a tax and not a segregated pension savings fund. He said the same argument will be attempted to defend Obamacare, “too bad, it’s a tax”.
I have been pro-FairTax for a long time and have a keen interest in following how the 16th amendment can be repealed. Now Iknow it must be repealed because it allows anything the government wants to do based on the power to tax under the 16th amendment.
The reductio ad absurdam on this is the government could coerce literally anything by taxing you if you don’t do it.
This is actually one reason I am optimistic. I think this entire health care controversy could end up reversing bad precedence imposed by the Supreme Court. The interstate commerce precedence that is currently on the books is outrageous. It is not too hard to understand that Supreme Court Justices during the Great Depression would have had a lot of pressure to go along with the New Deal, but now the court has the opportunity to reverse their mistake.