Opinion

To the voters

Opinion of, The Daytona Beach, News Journal
Published: July 5, 2012

In approving the Affordable Care Act, Congress did not think the individual mandate by itself would be sufficient. But making sure that every citizen was "in the pool" would surely help lower health care costs, congressional leaders said.

The jury is still out on that. But the mandate itself narrowly has survived the nation's highest court by a 5-4 vote. Chief Justice John Roberts, an appointee of President George W. Bush, joined with the court's four liberals in upholding the mandate and keeping the law mostly intact.

Roberts and the majority have kept alive what has been a source of great political debate for the last two years — the theory that Congress can punish inactivity. The torturous way in which Congress justified fining people without health insurance was to cite the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, which reads, "The Congress shall have Power To … regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes."

Opponents said the federal government was once again using the Commerce Clause to involve the federal government in the marketplace activities of Americans, but this time in unprecedented ways. Those opponents won a victory last week. Roberts, writing for the majority, specifically ruled out using the Commerce Clause as constitutional justification for the health care mandate.

That provides little comfort for opponents of this massive expansion of federal powers and spending. Obama's health care law survives, the majority said, as a tax.

So the debate over the health care law is back in the political arena, where the people will make the decision on its ultimate fate. Voters will take on that role now. They will weigh the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act one more time, on Nov. 6.