John Roberts was right! It IS a tax!!Exactly what I was trying to tell others so many months ago.
Reading the actual text of the arguments plainly showed what the question before the SC was.
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Once again I go to the decision for an answer, not an article...
That is not the end of the matter. Because the Commerce Clause does not support the individual mandate, it is necessary to turn to the Government’s second argument: that the mandate may be upheld as within Congress’s enumerated power to “lay and collect Taxes.”
If the question hadn't been raised it wouldn't have been necessary to address. Since it was it had to be...and it was.
The Affordable Care Act is constitutional in part and unconstitutional in part. The individual mandate cannot be upheld as an exercise of Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause. That Clause authorizes Congress to regulate interstate commerce, not to order individuals to engage in it. In this case, however, it is reasonable to construe what Congress has done as increasing taxes on those who have a certain amount of income, but choose to go without health insurance. Such legislation is within Congress’s power to tax.
The individual mandate is another progressive income tax.
AND CONGRESS KNEW ALL ALONG!! I'm not going to look for it, but the debate is all in the Congressional Record.