OPINION: Do you remember ‘No taxation without representation?’

Well, it appears to me that it is time to drag that slogan out of history and reintroduce it as part of our new tax debate. According to the recent ruling by our Supreme Court that the Obama Health Care plan to penalize people for not buying insurance is a tax. In fact, many political pundits insist that the entire bill contains dozens of new taxes that were hidden in those thousands of pages of text that makes up the bill. None of which were made clear to Congress before the bill was passed.

Remember what then Speaker of the House Pelosi said, “We have to pass the bill before we can see what is in it!”

Pelosi, the Democratic leadership and the White House still insist that the many revenue enhancing measures in the bill are not taxes. But Chief Justice Roberts says that unless the measures are a tax, that the bill cannot stand. According to his, and the left wing of the courts, ruling, the bill must be interpreted on the basis of the tax laws and not the commerce clause. They argued that the commerce clause cannot be used to force individual economic actions on individuals.

Then there is the question of the bill’s position on Medicaid. It contains a section requiring the states to drastically expand their Medicaid programs. If they refuse, then the federal government could cut off all financial contributions to the state programs. This portion of the bill was ruled unconstitutional. That lends support to the tenth amendment’s states rights position.

So, the White House is still trying to say that the demands placed on individuals by the health care bill are not taxes, and thus are constitutional. The Supreme Court, the Tea Party and many conservative commentators insist that it is.

It is clear to me that it is a tax that was hidden from congress by the massive bill, and that most of our legislatures voted for the bill without having any idea of the taxes it contained. Therefore, it was a case of “taxation without representation,” and thus abuses our citizens and our economy with an unfair tax.

Take care, America. We may well be facing our third great tax war. The first was the American Revolution. The second was the war for Southern Independence (yes, that war was about taxes far more than the question of slavery,) and now a war to end the abusive taxes currently being imposed by our federal government.

This new war is being fought at the ballot box, and this November will determine the winner. I am voting for the taxpayers to win over big government. You have to decide how you will vote.

Frank Gillispie is founder of The Madison County Journal. His e-mail address is frank@frankgillispie.com. His website can be accessed at http://www.frankgillispie.com/gillispieonline.