July 2, 2012 11:46AM # “Conservatives’ Last Legal Option to Invalidate Obamacare” By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) --- SHARE *The New Republic* [reports](http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/104511/challenge-obamacare-conservative) on an issue that Jonathan Adler and I have been [highlighting](http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2012-06-24/obamacare-healthcare-supreme-court-unconstitutional/55796730/1): an IRS rule that will tax employers and subsidize private health insurance companies without congressional authorization. Why would the IRS issue such a rule? Perhaps because ObamaCare could collapse without it. The post quotes another law professor who acknowledges the Obama administration faces a serious problem: > “It’s fairly decent textual case,” says Kevin Outterson, a professor at Boston University Law School, and health care blogger for [The Incidental Economist](http://theincidentaleconomist.com/). And if it stood, he says, the consequences could be disastrous. Disastrous for ObamaCare, that is. But as Adler and I have written previously, if saving ObamaCare means letting the IRS tax employers without congressional authorization, then ObamaCare is not worth saving. ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Regulation](https://www.cato.org/regulatory-studies), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).