The Underground Conservative

Right now, there’s a joke of a debate going on regarding the ObamaCare takeover of the health care system in the House of Representatives. A joke in that there is no real debate. House Democrats have pretty much silenced all opposition, much like the tyrants and dictators they have shown themselves to be.

How much contempt do they feel for your rights and freedoms? They are willing to send you to federal prison for non-compliance with their mandates.

From a press release (via Big Government) from the Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committe comes the stunning revelation that the House bill contains not only the individual health insurance mandate requiring you to buy into the government health care plan for $15,000 a year. Refusal to do so will be treated as refusing to pay your federal income taxes, subjecting violators from one to five years in federal prison and fines between $25,000 and $250,000, depending on whether the nice people choose to prosecute you as a criminal who committed a misdemeanor or a felony.

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.

According to the Congressional Budget Office the lowest cost family non-group plan under the Speaker’s bill would cost $15,000 in 2016.

Yes, refusal to buy their health insurance will leave you with a criminal record that will haunt you the rest of your life. When you go to apply for whatever jobs are left after they ruin the economy, you will have to list yourself as a criminal convicted of either a federal misdemeanor or a federal felony simply for refusing to buy their health care plan.

From Let Freedom Ring:

Pelosi is a tyrant. She’s telling America that we must do what she says or we’ll be prosecuted, with the very real possibility of getting ruined financially by the federal government. This isn’t a dictatorship!!! Just because Speaker Pelosi is acting like it is doesn’t make it so.

It’s now vital that We The People reject Speaker Pelosi’s tyrannical demands. This is the opposite of what the Founding Fathers envisioned when they fought for independence. In fact, I suspect that they’d be leaders of the TEA Party protests if they were living through this type of tyranny.

I suspect that they’d be standing with people arguing that the federal government doesn’t have the constitutional authority to impose these mandates on people, that the Tenth Amendment prevents that constitutionally.

And, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air adds:

The radical nature of the bill has finally become clear.  The Democrats most at risk have begun peeling away, abortion vote or no abortion vote.  They have to win re-election in less than a year, and this will be Exhibit A for their Republican challengers looking to paint them as big-spending statists more interested in bullying their constituents than listening to them.