A Yakov Smirnoff America

It appears that as of today, April 1, 2014, the deadline for open registration, the Affordable Care Actⁱ will have achieved the stated goal of seven million registrants (of the approximately 318 million Americans). Several extensions of the deadline were necessary because of “glitches” in the system. There were many protests and court cases involved in the acceptance of the new legislation and its associated regulations, but it's now the law of the land. And those who do not wish to participate may elect not to do so. But they'll be fined for that kind of protest. And the fine will increase as time goes by. Such is the “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” with which, according to the Declaration of Independence, we were “endowed by [our] Creator,” and the prized “freedom of choice” which American culture values so highly.

Whether or not the legislation is wise – and I must admit to some reservations – there are a few points about it worth noting. The first relates to its legitimacy. The Supreme Court, a non-legislative body appointed for life, came close to invalidating it yet didn't, though portions of the act were found not in keeping with our laws. But the greatest argument surrounded the mandatory registration of everyone, with a penalty for those who didn't accept the concept. The government maintained that it had the right to do so under the Constitution's Commerce Clause and it maintained, with great vigor, the idea that this was not a tax. Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that it wasn't justified under the Commerce Clause, and, along with the four Justices who considered the entire law to be unconstitutional, that would have made a majority to strike it down. However Justice Roberts ruled that Congress had the right to tax (even though they vehemently denied that they were doing so in this instance) and that this would be acceptable as a tax, so they could have done it that way. Therefore he sided with the four Justices who favored the act and it was upheld.

Another problem is the view of many that the law contravenes their religious freedom. It does so, they claim, by mandating their provision of contraceptives and abortions to those in their employ, irrespective of their own personal beliefs. Several lawsuits are currently being argued on this point.

Additionally, the legislation is long and complex. Much of it was written, subsequent to the law's passage, by unelected bureaucrats who crafted the regulations which will be used in its implementation. These regulations come from anonymous civil servants who do not answer to the voters, and what they write is never reviewed or passed by Congress. The Constitution may not authorize them to write our laws, but they do so anyway. Congress makes no pretense at understanding the implications of what they've done, so they leave it to others to make it sound right. And the “others” may have their own axes to grind.

There are many other objections to the act, however one interesting feature is that it emerged from failure. When the public was first asked to sign up for it, the mechanisms to do so failed miserably. Years had been spent perfecting the system, but it couldn't do the job. The regulators tried various fixes but were unsuccessful. So they called in private industry to pick up the pieces. After about a month of reprograming, the “outside consultants” corrected the errors of our bureaucrats.

The implications of this situation are significant. The government decided that it would do what it claimed private industry couldn't. It would provide health insurance superior to that on the open market. When it realized that it lacked the expertise to do so, however, our leaders did not abandon their plans but called upon private industry to fix what they had broken. They asked one group of entrepreneurs to help them in their move on another. And the public was in the middle – often having to accept what they didn't want in the first place or be “taxed.” It doesn't bode well that the same less than skillful bureaucrats will be running the health insurance program that they couldn't implement. And the same “experts” are contriving so many of the other rules that govern our lives. “What a country.”ⁱⁱ

But it's April Fools' Day, so we can only laugh about it. The joke, though, is on us.

I       “Obamacare”

ii        Yakov Smirnoff, Russian comedian.