The Supreme Court’s decision today to, in effect, uphold the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. “Obamacare” as constitutional is a ghastly defeat for freedom, liberty, and individualism in the United States. Of course, the real pain of this decision won’t be felt until after the November election, however, when, starting in 2013, when many – if not most – employers start to drop their healthcare insurance plans because the penalty (er, the Court calls it a tax even when its primary proponent said it wasn’t) will be less costly to embrace.

But don’t worry, if that were to happen and President Obama is re-elected his response will be to simply raise the so-called “tax” imposed on “irresponsible” employers in the name of “fairness”. Of course, you can only do that if there are employers around to raise the tax on. Make no mistake about it, if Obamacare is allowed to be enacted this is a small business and jobs killer.

Whether or not this becomes a pyrrhic victory for Democrats and big government loving, nanny state liberals remains to be seen – you can now bet that Mitt Romney’s promise to “repeal Obamacare” (whatever that means) now gets equal, if not higher, billing as an election election issue as the economy and jobs. In a swing state like Florida, you can bet Romney and Republicans will be pushing the fact that Obamacare loots the Medicare fund by half a trillion dollars simply to cover the cost of implementing Obamacare. And how this plays with Independents (who have already been polling as strongly against Obamacare) will be interesting to see.

In just the course of a week, between this and the Court’s decision to uphold only part of Arizona’s SB 1070 law, this Supreme Court has made mince-meat of the Constitution, but maybe it’s just as well – after all, it shows just how much elections matter in this country. Elections do matter. Who is elected to go to Washington and help write legislation that upholds the Constitution of the United States does matter. And this year’s election will determine whether the President and his political party now responsible for the biggest tax ever imposed on American citizens, some $1.7 trillion over the first decade according to the Congressional Budget Office, will pay a price at the ballot box.

Here’s hoping my Republican and conservative-leaning friends and colleagues who call themselves independents now understand more fully the importance of being engaged and getting out the vote this coming November.

BTW, thanks to the folks at Free Republic for the image. FReeper LALALAW provides a hopeful final word, writing in part:

Do not think that Benedict Arnold Roberts, the unethical Kagan and their liberal activist cohorts have done the Democrats a favor. The ruling concerning Medicaid expansion, likely will have the effect of blowing the whole thing out of the water. The cost of Obamacare will skyrocket if States opt out of the Medicaid expansion, which at least 26 are likely to do.

Without the Medicaid expansion, individuals under 133% of poverty not eligible for traditional Medicaid would now qualify – and need – the full subsidy under Obamacare exchanges. This means that the law is not paid for. In fact, it could not have obtained the CBO blessing originally proferred and would not have been enacted.

Most importantly, this means Obamacare can be repealed under Reconciliation with 51 senators!!!!

We’ll see….