Governors Jindal and Scott are to be commended for publicly stating that they will not implement Obamacare in Louisiana and Florida respectively. There will doubtless be other statements like this, and they are all to be encouraged. In 2010, the legislative House of my own state of Idaho passed a measure that stated their unwillingness for such a federal law to be imposed in the state of Idaho. There needs to be a lot more of this, and it is now essential that Obamacare fail for that reason.
We are not playing beanbag anymore, and I have no doubt that whatever red hot pincers were applied to the toes of the Chief Justice can now be applied to the toes of the governors of the several states. I do not know if the states that show resistance will be able to maintain that resistance — but they must maintain it nonetheless. That is their obligation and duty before God.
The heart of the problem is that the Supreme Court has now declared that there is no limiting principle in our form of government at the federal level. This means that if we are to live under limited government — which the Bible requires — that limitation must be enforced at the state and local levels and, failing that, at the level of the church. Simply repealing Obamacare as a policy matter is not enough. Obamacare must be rejected because it is inconsistent with the moral obligation of limited government, and not because it was “unpopular” or “will cost too much.” The problem we are facing is not because of a stupid law. Of course Congress will pass stupid laws from time to time. The problem is the claimed prerogative to stupidity without limit. In a godly form of civil government, we must reject anything that concludes with those fatal words — “without limit.”
So the issue is not a dumb law. The issue is the claim to absolute government. If the law had been a wise law, fully paid for, judicious and full of sunshine, and the Supreme Court had upheld it on these same grounds, I would be just as angry. If Roberts had upheld the health care law because of the “divine right of kings,” our debates would not be swirling around “individual mandate” or “preexisting conditions.” We would be saying things like, “What? Kings? What? Divine Right? What?” It is the same kind of thing here.
Congress is not Jesus, for which we may offer our hearty thanksgiving, and the Supreme Court is not the Supreme Being, and there was no baptism for any of them at the Jordan, and there was no fluttering dove. Congress did not die for me, and if Congress were to die, Congress could not rise from the dead. This means that Congress does not own me, or the members of my congregation. We have all been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, and therefore cannot be possessed in this manner by another. We have already been bought with a price. Talk about a single payer.
But a man can now go out in the evening to sit on his front porch, and the entire time he is there he is a non-stop emitter of carbon, and also, the entire time, he is not buying health insurance. Neither is this miscreant doing a host of other unenumerated things which, provided Congress attaches a tax to it, is now deemed to be fully constitutional. The Constitution as written is a document of enumerated powers, and this decision formalizes the final inversion of that — anything not mentioned in the Constitution as being the province of Congress can now be added ad libitum by that same Congress, provided they are willing to be coercive about it in their powers of taxation. Thomas Jefferson, call your office.
I have heard it being said that Roberts is brilliant, and that while everybody else is playing checkers, he is playing chess. On the contrary, I believe we have mistaken which invisible game he is playing — I think he is in a slow jam casuistry contest, up against a 16th century Jesuit. The question before them is how many cherubim can fit into the now empty Tenth Amendment.