The Supreme Court failed the people of the U.S.

Published 12:44 am Thursday, July 5, 2012

Well, the United Sates Supreme Court has spoken on the constitutionality of Obama Care.  I must state up front that having read our Constitution, I can’t find in it the authority that our Supreme Court has determined, we the people have granted it.  The Framers of the Constitution did not work on behalf of the government, they attempted to design a governmental environment that allowed and protected the peoples’ freedom.  The Framers worked for the individual.  They viewed themselves as having suffered from an oppressive government.

Many of us had hoped that the Supreme Court would perform two publicly difficult tasks; first uphold and protect our constitution, second demonstrate that one branch of our government still understood that it derived it power from the people. We wanted the Supreme Court to act in the interest of the citizens of this country.  They have, in my opinion, failed on both counts.

You do not need a doctorate in law or history to understand our forefathers wrote our Constitution with the thought and desire that they would prevent to future oppression like that suffered by the American Colonists at the hands of an English monarch.   I would offer you the thought that the American Colonists had more input into the British Tea Act of 1773 than we had input into Obama Health Care law.

Even with the huge tax increases, Obama Care will be faced with the need to constrain the expense of healthcare.  The math is simple, add millions of new people to an insurance plan and you will need new billions of dollars to fund the plan.  Short falls in funding healthcare will lead to restricted, rationed, delayed or denied healthcare.  There will be some people denied healthcare because of their age…

The Supreme court has failed the people it was formed to protect.  Following the Revolutionary War, there were a number of circumstances our founders sought to prevent.  If you study the period preceding the writing of the Constitution, read the history of the writing of the our Constitution, it is apparent the founders sought to create a government structure that would prevent similar problems from occurring, and if they did occur to provide mechanisms for relief.

Separation of power into the three branches was created to provide some built-in checks on the power of the individual branches.   Each branch has specific powers that were given to just one branch with the other two branches representing a check of that power.  There was one authority the founders gave special attention to and that was the power to tax.  This is understandable as it was British taxation that became one of the major issues that led to the American Revolution.

The Constitution clearly defines the power of the Congress, the House and Senate to levi taxes.  The framework for the House and Senate are defined in Article I, ten sections, of the Constitution.  Article II, four sections, describe, the Executive branch and Article III, three sections describe the Judiciary.  Those that penned the Constitution clearly spent more time, placed more of their  energy and thought in those that had the opportunity to make law and levy taxes than they did in defining the Executive or Judiciary branches.  The final description of the Supreme Court the was left to congress.

The Supreme court was established as the final relief for issues of governance.  The basic concept was the Supreme Court would be responsible for the interpretation of the Constitution and the constitutionality of laws and acts.

The only good thing in this decision from the Supreme Court was the correction of the lie there were no new taxes required to cover the costs.  They corrected that lie by changing a penalty to a tax.  They corrected an error in the law written by Congress by usurping Congressional power.  They replaced what was defined by the President as being a penalty, definitely not a tax with an unconstitutional act where the Supreme Court levied a tax.

Just to think, our forefathers thought they had it bad under the tax burden placed on them by the King of England.

Ed Tyler lives in Pell City. He may be reached at ed@edtylerinc.com