THOMAS Sowell is an American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author. A National Humanities Medal winner, he advocates laissez-faire economics and writes from a conservative and libertarian perspective. He happens also to be black. He recently wrote: “It’s amazing that people who think that we can’t afford to pay for doctors, hospitals and medication somehow think that we can afford doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it.”

Thomas has hit the nail squarely on the head in his assessment of Obamatax. Anyone who thinks the government can run anything better than private enterprise need only review the long, long list of failed and failing government programs. If after doing so you still think Thomas is wrong please go smoke more of that happy grass.

Do you really believe health care will be both better and cheaper under Obamatax? Have you any idea whatsoever about economics and how effect inevitably follows cause? Who do you suppose will be subsidizing all the welfare queens – and kings – who already live on unemployment insurance and pump out babies on a regular basis simply because it’s easier and more financially rewarding than working for a living?

Nobody knows yet how many new government jobs will be required to administer Obamatax. It’s estimated that the IRS alone will need an additional 15,000 agents to make sure nobody cheats tax-wise.

Which brings us to the so-far-puzzling-and-obscure effect of Obamatax on our little corner of the Pacific. Ever since the Supreme Court rendered its quirky constitutionality verdict, local officials – both public and private – have been running in tight little circles proclaiming that the sky is falling, the sky is falling. Island health insurers are concerned that they may soon be forced out of business from financial pressures imposed by the new tax. Gov. Calvo mutters about legal action. We don’t yet know whether he intends to challenge the Supreme Court decision or the law itself, but either way it’s a losing proposition, even in light of the fact that GovGuam has never won a legal tussle with the feds. If GovGuam has financial problems, guess what? So does the federal government. The short answer from the feds would probably go something like: “You have taxation authority. Handle it. Quit whining.”

As I understand it, U.S. territories are designated to receive Medicaid payments of some $6.3 billion through 2019. Unfortunately for us, $5.4 billion of that will go to Puerto Rico, which last year received an additional $900 million in Medicaid funding and added 220,000 new beneficiaries.

The remaining billion or so will presumably be divied up among the rest of us. So far there’s little information of substance coming out of other territories. The CNMI doesn’t seem to have any coherent plan to confront or benefit from Obamatax and like it or not, neither do we. In a video message in the media on July 7, Gov. Calvo rattled his "legal action" sword and predicted territorial bankruptcy. He noted that compliance with Obamatax presents Guam with a problem not “soluble.” Noting that the definition of “soluble” means capable of being dissolved or disintegrated, it appears he has it about right. The old WWII term “shell-shocked” comes to mind. Still fixated on that "hopey-changey" thing?