Hi G5000
Are you taking into account the difference between States passing a mandate for their State and through their reps all representing the same State where this mandate would apply
Vs.
a mandate passed for ALL STATES (without their reps specifically voting on it) on the federal level. So this NEW idea of using the IRS (not state taxes) to penalize citizens for not
buying health insurance and/or using federal govt to regulate religious exemptions
brings up new issues on a federal level that are DIFFERENT from a state level
A. on a federal level, normally a Constitutional amendment is required before
expanding the authority of federal govt to implement this "hybrid" mandate
mixing private insurance business contracts with federal taxation through the IRS.
this is not the usual format of federal govt regulation, but a new creation.
thus, such an innovation normally requires a constitutional amendment before
giving federal govt such authority to implement a reform not given in the Constitution
B. states rights vs federal rights have been brought up, especially with the religious issues at stake. with the legalization of marijuana, arguments are defending this by claiming states rights over federal laws by which marijuana is still illegal. so which way is it?
C. religious freedom issues where the federal govt is clearly mandating fines against those who chose to exercise beliefs that "health care is a choice" while forcing the taxes to go into programs that favor beliefs in "health care is a right". if the bill were equal, then there would be equal requirements to pay into the other system up front, not just one system.
furthermore the federal govt is regulating WHICH religious beliefs qualify for exemptions, again discriminating on the basis of religion or creed, which federal govt is not authorized to do but prohibited by the First Amendment. by the fourteenth amendment, people's beliefs in either right to health care or right to choose should be equally protected by law.
States have rights to implement policies if their citizens agree to use the process to make these public policy. Even that can be contested on Constitutional grounds, the same way this is on a federal level. There is a difference.
And if you do not see a difference, but someone else does by their beliefs in Constitutional laws or states rights, those people have equal rights to their beliefs as you do.
Just because you and I do not believe the same things, does not give us the right to abuse federal govt to impose mandates that violates the beliefs of others we don't share.
that is what is going wrong here, where federal mandates that don't respect such beliefs equally is unconstitutional, and not even recognized because people's beliefs don't agree!
That would be the rightwing
Heritage Foundation (the inventors of the individual mandate), Senate Republicans not
once but
twice, and of course
Mitt Romney.
So? whats your point?
My point is hypocrisy and double dealing. The individual mandate was a right wing invention, was proposed twice by the GOP on the national level, and the GOP nominated a man for President who not only supported it but forced it onto the people of his state.
But, oh my God, when a DEMOCRAT does it, suddenly it is a tool of Satan!
Hypocrisy.
For decades now, the Democrats have been saying loud and clear what they would do about healthcare if they were given a chance. And with this knowledge fully in the minds of the GOP, what did the GOP do to fix a broken healthcare system for all Americans when ALL the reins of power were in their hands?
NOTHING!
Well. Not exactly nothing. They created a trillion dollar entitlement program for seniors to get votes for 2004, WITHOUT PAYING FOR IT. So all this current bellyaching about budgets is hypocrisy in the extreme.
The GOP completely capitulated on the issue. They left it for the Democrats to solve.
We were sold down the river.