Medicare and Obamacare

The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn last week questioned the notion put forth by the opposition to the President Obama's Affordable Care Act that the 'individual mandate' is an "unprecedented" over-reach of congressional power. Cohn argues that if Medicare is okay as law, the individual mandate must also be upheld in the Court.

"I’m speaking, of course, about Social Security and Medicare. Each program is a form of “social insurance” and each serves the same basic function: To protect us from financial shocks that we cannot anticipate or avoid. With Social Security, the shock is reaching retirement without enough income. With Medicare, the shock is high medical bills during old age. During our working years, we pay into these programs by handing over portions of our incomes, in the form of payroll taxes. And we don't have a choice about it, unless we want to start evading taxes..." continue reading here.