Press Release / Rich Nugent's office

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                              

“The federal government became more powerful today than I ever imagined it could be.”

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) –following the United States Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the individual mandate in the President’s healthcare law, Rep. Rich Nugent (FL-05) issued the following statement:

“In justifying their decision to uphold the individual mandate and in explaining the full scope of power granted to Congress under its authority to tax, Chief Justice Roberts wrote,

‘Congress may also “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States.” U. S. Const., Art. I, §8, cl. 1.    Put simply, Congress may tax and spend. This grant gives the Federal Government considerable influence even in areas where it cannot directly regulate. The Federal Government may enact a tax on an activity that it cannot authorize, forbid, or otherwise control.’

“The Supreme Court ruled today that although the federal government does not have the constitutional authority to force you to buy health insurance, it does have the authority to levy a tax penalty on you if you do not.  In other words, the federal government can’t force you to do something, but they can compel you to do something through their power to tax you.  In my mind, there is virtually no meaningful difference between those two.

“What’s next?  Where does the power end?  If the government decides that it is in the national interest to require all Americans to buy a new car, they may not be able to force you to go buy a Chevy, but they can levy a tax to compel you to do so.  If the government decides that it is in the national interest for all Americans to put solar panels on their roofs, they can’t force you to go buy solar panels, but they can tax your wages until you break down and decide to give in.  And if, as Justice Scalia alluded to, the government decides that you should be required to buy a hundred pounds of broccoli because they think it’s good for you, they can tax your income until you’re eating broccoli morning, noon, and night.  The court’s language is that vague. That may sound ridiculous, but to the Founders of this country, I think the idea that the federal government could compel you to buy anything would sound ridiculous. 

“The problem that I think many people are overlooking is that even after the President’s healthcare law is repealed and replaced, the power to compel behavior will still be there.  That’s why to me, this is so much bigger than healthcare – bad as Obamacare is on its own.”