Pelosi Bill: Buy Insurance Or Go To Jail!
More change we can believe in. Not only does the House bill manadate that you buy insurance, but it also includes provisions for civil and criminal penalties - including up to 5 years imprisonment - for refusing to do so.
PELOSI: Buy a $15,000 Policy or Go to JailJCT Confirms Failure to Comply with Democrats’ Mandate Can Lead to 5 Years in JailFriday, November 06, 2009
Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.
In response to the JCT letter, Camp said: “This is the ultimate example of the Democrats’ command-and-control style of governing – buy what we tell you or go to jail. It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately.”
Key excerpts from the JCT letter appear below:
“H.R. 3962 provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax.” [page 1]
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“If the government determines that the taxpayer’s unpaid tax liability results from willful behavior, the following penalties could apply…” [page 2]
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“Criminal penalties
Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses. Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:
• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.
• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]
When confronted with this same issue during its consideration of a similar individual mandate tax, the Senate Finance Committee worked on a bipartisan basis to include language in its bill that shielded Americans from civil and criminal penalties. The Pelosi bill, however, contains no similar language protecting American citizens from civil and criminal tax penalties that could include a $250,000 fine and five years in jail.
“The Senate Finance Committee had the good sense to eliminate the extreme penalty of incarceration. Speaker Pelosi’s decision to leave in the jail time provision is a threat to every family who cannot afford the $15,000 premium her plan creates. Fortunately, Republicans have an alternative that will lower health insurance costs without raising taxes or cutting Medicare,” said Camp.
Can you say, ‘fascism?’
It’s not a fascist bill. It’s a communist bill. They’re going to implement socialized medicine to centralize the country and make all Americans subjects of the federal government – just like the Russians were subjects of the Soviet tyranny.
November 7th, 2009 at 1:56 amZbigniew:
There is no fundamental difference between fascism and communism. Both are variants of statism that involve complete state control over private activity. Under communism, the state exercises that control by taking title to all property; under fascism, the government arrogates to itself full control of private property, but leaves a worthless deed of title to that property in the hands of private individuals.
The Democrats’ proposal is closer to fascism than communism. They do not propose making doctors and insurers federal employees. Rather, they propose to keep doctors and insurance companies nominally private, but to have all aspects of their professional lives regimented by the state. That is fascism, not communism.
Of course, the differences between fascism and communism are superficial. In the battle between the individual and the state, both fascism and communism choose the state. Only laissez faire capitalism chooses the individual – though neither party in Washington today has much of a clue about what laissez faire capitalism means.
November 7th, 2009 at 6:20 amEd: Really? Did you know that during the early 1920s the Soviet Government ALSO allowed some private property (albeit subjected to Moscow diktats)? Have you read about the New Economic Policy?
It doesn’t matter if that bill is fascist or communist. It must be stalled in the Congress.
November 7th, 2009 at 9:02 amZbigniew:
Of course I know about the NEP. The fact that Lenin allowed a small amount of freedom in order to forestall total collapse in 1920-1 does not change the nature of Soviet communism. Nor does it discredit the (superficial) distinction between fascism and communism, which I also said were fundamentally similar. And remember that NEP was abandoned shortly after Stalin consolidated power in 1928.
I agree that stalling and killing this bill is of great urgency and importance.
November 7th, 2009 at 9:59 amBut please don’t kid yourself: the entire industry will eventually be nationalized, just like the British socialist government nationalized the British medical industry 60 years ago (thus creating the NHS). It’s inevitable. Wherever a government implements socialized medicine, the medical industry is eventually taken over by that government.
November 7th, 2009 at 10:11 am