This is going to be a very short diary in which I'm just going to vent/rant a bit about how idiotic the current Supreme Court case over the Affordable Care Act is.
As everyone and their brother now knows, the issue is the so called 'mandate' to buy insurance. If you don't buy insurance, then you are assessed a penalty on your taxes.
This entire farce could have been avoided simply by re-wording the mandate.
If the statute had said, everyone's taxes are being raised by $800 a year to pay for health care -- or for that matter for general revenue -- but anyone who buys health insurance gets a deduction or credit or rebate, then this law wouldn't be in court today.
This is no more a mandate to buy insurance than the home mortgage interest deduction is a mandate to buy a home.
But calling it a tax would have given the Republicans ammo to go after the "Democrat" Congress and administration for raising taxes.
IMO, this is a pointless and silly case.