[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10943]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          THE HIGHEST COURT IN THE LAND IS THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. McClintock) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, in the wake of the Supreme Court 
decision on the so-called Affordable Care Act, the House will once 
again take up the imperative of repealing it.
  But the Supreme Court decision has much more dire implications for 
our Nation and for its cherished freedoms than merely affirming the 
government takeover of our health care. In reaching its conclusion, the 
Court obliterated the fundamental distinction between a penalty and a 
tax. Congress has the power to lay and collect taxes; and, therefore 
the Court reasons, it can apply a tax for any reason, even those 
otherwise outside the confines of the Constitution.
  In this case, the Court ruled that Congress could not impose a law 
requiring citizens to purchase a government-approved health plan under 
the Commerce Clause, but it can impose exactly the same requirement as 
a tax. If it can't fine you for disobeying, it can certainly tax you 
for disobeying. Mr. Speaker, if the government fines you $250 for 
running a red light or taxes you $250 for running a red light, the 
effect is the same. What's the difference?
  Actually, there are two critical differences. First, as a fine--as a 
penalty--the burden of proof is on the government to prove that you ran 
that red light. As a tax, the burden of proof is on you to show that 
you did not run it. Anyone who has ever undergone an IRS audit knows 
exactly what I mean. This decision fundamentally alters the most 
cherished principle of our justice system, the presumption of 
innocence.
  There is a second even more chilling difference between a penalty and 
a tax. Under our Constitution, no penalty can be assessed without due 
process. You cannot be punished until you have had your day in court. 
But to challenge a tax, you must first pay that tax before you can seek 
redress through the court. You are punished first and then tried. This 
is the madness of Lewis Carroll's Red Queen brought to life: Sentence 
first--verdict afterwards.
  Under this decision, Americans may now be coerced under the threat of 
the seizure of their property to take any action the Federal Government 
decrees without any constitutional constraint, enforceable in a manner 
that denies both presumption of innocence and due process of law. By 
this reasoning, it can now tax speech it finds offensive, tax people 
who choose not to go to church or people who do, tax people who own 
guns or people who don't. As long as we call it a tax under this 
decision, there are no limits to the power of the Federal Government.
  I believe this decision will go down in history as one of the most 
deplorable ever rendered, taking a place of infamy next to Dred Scott.
  If the Court has failed to defend our Constitution, then what appeal 
is left us? There is one. The Constitution does not belong to the 
Federal Government. Its ownership is made crystal clear in its first 
three words: ``We, the people.'' As Ronald Reagan said:

       The Constitution is not the government's document telling 
     us what we can and cannot do. The Constitution is the 
     people's document telling our government those things that we 
     will allow it to do.

  Thus, the Supreme Court is not the highest court in the land. That 
position is reserved to the rightful owners of the Constitution, the 
sovereign American people through the votes that they cast every 2 
years.
  The infamous Alien and Sedition Acts were never struck down by the 
Court, but the American people did that in the election of 1800. The 
Supreme Court declared that American slaves were outside the protection 
of the Constitution when it struck down the Missouri Compromise, but 
the American people reversed that decision in the election of 1860.
  Let us pray, while we still can--before that is taxed--that this 
infamous decision will be repudiated by what is actually and rightfully 
the highest court in the land, the American people.

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