Quite a few years ago I held much the same opinion when President Clinton was in office and first lady Hillary Clinton led the charge to nationalize health care.

Then and now I fully object. As working Californians and consumers, my family and I, like many others in the working class, certainly pay more than our fair share in taxes and insurance premiums.

We go to the gas pumps in California and the price really ratchets up to allow for funding to go to mental health, tobacco cessation and other programs.

While I could support a gasoline tax that actually repairs the highway infrastructure, I don’t feel nonsmokers or non-mental health patients should foot the bill for others through a gasoline tax.

Our monthly contributions to the Franchise Tax Board get divvied up with a share going to support the medically uninsured in the social service system, the same for federal taxes. Federal contributions go to Social Security and Medicare, programs for seniors.

Now, please don’t get me wrong. I am a senior and do support those programs and the dollars I contribute. My point is only about the many ways in which working Americans already contribute to the cost of insurance.

On top of the state and federal contributions, personal deductions are also made from our wages to cover the cost of our family health care insurance premiums.

My question back then still rings true today: Just how many people are we supposed to purchase health care for?

Tax or penalty by definition doesn’t alleviate the true concern. Where the original plan was to penalize those without insurance, learning the Internal Revenue Service will be assessing those charges does not let me sleep easy at night.

Now instead of just worrying about how much Obamacare is likely to cost my family, I have to worry about the IRS being given permission to delve even further into my life and the personal lives of all Americans.

Naïve would be the person who believes any government agency could actually identify those not purchasing insurance without serious scrutiny into every facet of a private life.

While I have never been one to buy into the “Big Brother” conspiracy theory, this totally smacks of intrusiveness.

And, while we are on the topic of this horrendous task, are we foolish enough to believe the current number of individuals employed by the IRS can take on this task on top of their other duties?

I think not … stand back folks, the government is about to swell again. More employees means more retirement packages, more federal health insurance and who knows what other kinds of benefits.

If I’m not mistaken, those employees and benefits are funded by American tax dollars, or should I say, by the red ink with which they print the federal budget.

Common sense says if you are deep in debt, you certainly can’t afford to hire anyone else to do the job. Maybe the plan is to pay those employees from the collected taxes. What if that doesn’t work? I’m afraid of where they will go next to get the money and how that will, unfortunately, impact each and every one of us.

I’m equally concerned about errors being made. Look at the gargantuan size of the current no-fly list compiled by the government. A 6-month-old baby, really? And I want these folks looking at my wages and assessing taxes?

While I truly want to remain positive about the state of the economy and recovery of the America I once knew, I can’t help but think Obamacare has committed the foul and the working class will, in its stead, be sent to the penalty box.