As the Democrats campaign on the alternate reality that the economy is bad for the working man and woman, the rest of us on planet earth realize that we have more opportunity and more freedom than ever before. One of those freedoms that we have again is the ability to not buy health insurance and not be fined by the federal government for that decision thanks to the repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate which is in effect now for tax year 2019.

The unconstitutional Affordable Care Act (yes, it’s unconstitutional – I don’t really care what the Supreme Court Justices have to say about it) made American citizens pay a fine for not having a health insurance plan. According to healthcare.gov, for the tax years 2014 through 2018, if you could afford health insurance but chose not to buy it, you may have had to pay a fee they called the “Individual Shared Responsibility Payment” unless you were able to get an exemption or a subsidy.

Excuse me? How exactly does the federal government know if I can afford health insurance? Do they have a spreadsheet on what my monthly bill are? Do they know that the engine in my Kia quit just two months after I bought the vehicle? Do they know my dog needs x-rays and blood work done?

And what does shared responsibility mean? Shared responsibility of what? The shared responsibility to pay for drapes in a congressional staffer’s office? Because yes, I’m quite sure that the money will end up in some sort of health care program or fund (wink, wink).

So for five years, people got to give the federal government some of their hard earned money because they didn’t do what Obama & friends wanted them to do. They were fined for not being good little children of the government. I’m surprised we didn’t all end up with an Individual Shared Responsibility Payment for not eating broccoli or voting Democrat.

Who would have stopped them?

Luckily, the only way that the Democrat charlatans could take your money for this Obamacare travesty was if you paid voluntarily or if you were owed a refund that they could snatch away from you. Taxpayers who didn’t pay their ACA penalty were thankfully not subject to liens, levies or criminal prosecution. Wasn’t that nice of them?

When this theft started to occur, I tried to counsel family and friends to take more money out of their paychecks so they didn’t get a tax refund but that fell on deaf ears. For some reason, people like to use the IRS as a savings plan and get their own money sent back to them each year. Now, admittedly, I take it to the other extreme and usually owe about $900 every 12 months but there’s absolutely no reason to let the government keep your money interest free all year to use as they wish.

Thanks to the Republicans and Trump, who some liberals lovingly refer to as “Orange Man Bad”, the Obamacare taxman does NOT cometh this year. You are now free to move about the cabin and use your tax refund on whatever serious or silly things you want to spend it on – car repair, a new tattoo, vintage comic books, new carpeting, a weekend trip or donate it to your favorite Republican or Presidential candidate (wink, wink).