NFIB Statement: Individual Mandate is Not a Tax

WASHINGTON DC — Karen Harned, executive director of National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, issued the following statement in response to the government’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by NFIB and 20 states against the recently passed healthcare law:

“Today the Justice Department filed their motion to dismiss the lawsuit that NFIB, 20 states, and individuals brought challenging the constitutionality of the recently passed healthcare law. Most astounding is the Justice Department’s latest argument that the healthcare law is constitutional because the individual mandate penalty at issue here is a tax.

“In the buildup to passing his healthcare bill, President Obama stated bluntly that the individual mandate ‘is absolutely not a tax increase.’ But in their court document filed today, the government brazenly seeks to hide behind a 200-year-old law – the so-called ‘Anti-Injunction Act’ – that prevents courts from determining the constitutionality of taxes. 

“This is an about face from what is laid out in the law. In the text of the healthcare law, the findings for passing an individual mandate specifically rely on the effects of individuals on the national economy and interstate commerce. Nowhere in the findings is the mandate referred to as a tax.  The Justice Department is now calling it a tax to try and convince the court not to rule on whether or not Congress exceeded their authority under the Commerce Clause by legislating that all citizens must purchase private health insurance or face a penalty.

“This bait-and-switch move by the administration further proves that the NFIB was right to join 20 states in this historic lawsuit challenging the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. 

“Small businesses support real reform that provides affordable healthcare options for them and their employees. Instead of listening to small businesses, President Obama signed an unconstitutional bill, which includes an individual mandate that threatens the freedoms of all Americans. For the first time in our nation’s history, the government is forcing its citizens to purchase a product or pay a penalty just because they are alive. 

“NFIB remains committed to supporting commonsense healthcare reforms.  Punishing small businesses and all Americans with an unconstitutional mandate will not fix our broken healthcare system.”