Serious Political Commentary for Serious Conservatives

“A Penalty is not a Pig.” It is not a Tax Either!
- Pig in a Poke -
An Analysis of the Antonin Scalia Interview

by Scott Rohter, August 2012

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said something in his recent television interview on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace that was very interesting. In fact it reminded me of something that Sarah Palin once said during the 2008 Presidential campaign. Justice Scalia noted that the interpretation of the Affordable Care Act can only be stretched as far as the language will bear. He then remarked that, “the penalty in the Affordable Care Act was not a pig, and it could never be a pig!” This actually reminded me of something that Sarah Palin said in her very first speech on the national stage. She said, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig.”

By the way, the penalty in the Affordable Care Act is not a tax!.. It is not a pig, and it is not a tax either! Perhaps just calling it a tax is like calling it a pig to the longest serving member of the United States Supreme Court. Maybe that was what Justice Antonin Scalia meant. Perhaps calling it a tax is just like calling it a pig! Either way, the government mandated fine for not buying health insurance is a penalty, no matter what Chief Justice, “E-Tu John Roberts” chooses to call it. It is still a penalty no matter what they call it in Washington D.C. It is not a tax! It was never represented by its proponents as a tax, and it can never be a tax. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig!

As Justice Scalia observed, the language of the Affordable Care Act will not support that interpretation of the law. It does not matter how hard they try to twist it. It does not matter how the penalty is enforced, or who collects it, whether it is the Department of Homeland Security or the I.R.S. The language just doesn’t support that kind of interpretation of the law. Just because the I.R.S. collects the money does not make it a tax, the way the prevailing “Beltway logic” goes. It is still a penalty just the way it always was.

If it were collected by the D.H.S. that would not make the penalty in the health care bill an illegal alien! The fact that five members of the United States Supreme Court were willing to call it a tax in order to achieve their over-reaching goals does not change reality! It does not make it so! It does not make up, down or right, left!  It is still a penalty for failing to purchase the government mandated health insurance. It merely illustrates just how far they will to go in order to achieve their goals! It only illustrates the depths of the depravity to which Democrats and certain Republicans are willing to stoop in order to accomplish their questionable purposes.

"We will climb any wall,… If we can’t climb the wall, we will pole vault over the wall… If we can’t pole vault over the wall, we will parachute in over the wall. But we are going to pass this Health Care Bill no matter what it takes (without actually knowing what it said) so we can find out what is in it!" At least that was what the former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi said. It illustrates the depravity to which Democrats and certain Republicans have sunk. Why do I say Republicans? Well, Chief Justice John Roberts is a Republican isn’t he, or at least he was appointed by a certain well known Republican, wasn’t he?

Since the Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act, there have been a myriad of mainstream Republican organizations, pundits, think tanks and establishment sources alike that have all been trying to whitewash this decision ranging from the discredited old warhorse Newt Gingrich, to The American Thinker news magazine, to the Romney campaign. They have all been trying to tell us what a great legal genius John Roberts really is, and what a great gift he has given the Republican Party by casting the deciding vote in favor of Obama Care. Well, I just don’t see it that way! I’m sorry. Here is what I have to say to all of them.

If you are trying to prevent the total demoralization of the Republican rank and file that is one thing, but don't try to snow me with all of this tomfoolery about what a great gift this Supreme Court decision really is in disguise, and what a great legal genius John Roberts really is! I don’t believe that for a minute and neither does any other conservative with half a brain! The penalty in the Health Care Bill is not a pig in a poke as the longest serving member of the United States Supreme Court said.

But maybe Justice Scalia is wrong. Maybe it is a pig. Maybe John Roberts is a pig too! Maybe President Obama, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are all pigs! I think I actually might be on to something. They are all pigs! They are not Congressmen, or Senators, or Supreme Court Justices, or even President of the United States anymore. They are all just pigs!  They are all just like the penalty in the Affordable Care Act!

Maybe Antonin Scalia was wrong after all. Maybe in reality the penalty really is a pig. Maybe Sarah Palin was wrong too! Maybe if you just put enough lipstick on a pig maybe that somehow changes reality and changes the pig. What do you think? I think a pig is a smart animal. Maybe I should stop demeaning pigs. Maybe I should just call them all a bunch of skunks!

"A journalist has no better friend than the truth." - Scott Rohter
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