In May 2010, a couple of months after the then Democrat-controlled Congress passed the Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare, then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) offered a creative pitch to pass the bill. Describing ObamaCare as an “entrepreneurial” bill, Pelosi advised artistic Americans to quit their jobs with the assurance that the new health care law would pick up the tab for their health insurance.
“We see it as an entrepreneurial bill,” Pelosi said in 2012. “A bill that says to someone, if you want to be creative and be a musician or whatever, you can leave your work, focus on your talent, your skill, your passion, your aspirations because you will have health care. You won’t have to be job locked.”
Last week’s Supreme Court decision allowed ObamaCare’s individual mandate to purchase insurance to stand, not as a penalty but as a tax. Americans who followed Pelosi’s advice and quit their jobs to pursue their “passion” will run headlong into that tax, $2,300 per years on top of income taxes for individuals, starting in 2014 unless they purchase insurance that meets stringent government requirements. Or, unless the Congress and president decide to repeal the health care law.
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