BTW [MENTION=15512]Dante[/MENTION] overall I do respect your belief that this bill frees up more choices FOR YOU
because you assume insurance is needed anyway to pay costs, so to you, it is not
losing any freedom, but working within the choices anyway.
That's fine, but please understand this is the same logic of prolife advocates do not believe banning abortion
would eliminate choices either because they wouldn't chose that anyway!
Or why govt imposing Christian prayer wouldn't affect their freedom if "they would choose it anyway."
I don't think you like when people "of other beliefs" imposing THEIR choices on you through govt.
They feel similar to you, here, where if the "choice" is needed anyway, and helps more people by "mandating it through govt," why not?
Clearly this only works if you AGREE with that choice, and would choose it anyway, or you would argue that govt is abused to push someone's beliefs or agenda, wouldn't you?
Dante if you are going to impose YOUR standards of what is free choice on
people who don't agree, think about when Christians or prolife people impose
limits on choices where they don't see any loss or threat to freedom either.
I can appreciate if this bill helps YOU protect YOUR CHOICES, but please "equally respect the free choice of others" who are deprived of freedom by these mandates that violate their beliefs and interfere with their natural freedoms.
[MENTION=22295]emilynghiem[/MENTION] It appears you are a bit confused with principle and ideology.
1) abortion: The 'choice' position is about individualism and opposition to government intrusion into the most personal of issues, ones own body and pregnancy; a medical choice that may or may not affect the life of a woman who is pregnant. It's very personal and in the opinion of many religious busy bodies or the state have no overriding interest that could possibly be of any value, unless of course one hides behind being a self-appointed protector of an unborn human being, a fetus. This choice or result of a sexual act between individuals should not be a state/government issue.
Hi Dante: Thanks for the extra effort to clarify this in detail; I think it is very important to make some distinctions here:
(1a) the issue of choice is one thing - and leads to admitting the problem is "faith-based" arguments and beliefs in defending the "right to life" equally as the "right to choice."
As long as the "right to life" arguments DEPEND on faith based arguments such as "when does life begin" and what constitutes a person protected by law, etc., then these arguments "technically" don't hold up under Constitutional requirements to keep religious bias out of govt authority and laws. Otherwise, the right to life could be defended equally as right to choice -- the problem is not letting "faith based beliefs" get imposed by law.
That's ONE issue
(1b) the other is DUE PROCESS. Even if both sides AGREED against abortion, the problem remains that punitive laws "after pregnancy occurs" are going to affect the women more than the man in the decisions made, including legal burdens and punishment if this is illegal. I believe this issue should be addressed separately from the choice/life issue.
I believe it was the "due process" issue that got the law struck down by Roe v. Wade.
Dante said:
2) health care insurance: read the law ad the Supreme Court opinion where it is explained why the principles involved.
The 'free choice' is to pay for health care insurance, which historically the state will end up paying for in the end, or to accept the 'shared responsibility payment' in the law, known as the penalty within the mandate, that functions as a tax for the constitutional purposes of the ruling.
See?
Again there are at least TWO different issues here, Dante
(2a) If it is a tax, then it violates the principle of "no taxation without representation"
For the taxpayers who dissent, and do not agree to the terms of the taxation, this is causing multiple layers of problems as a result.
Any person or politician who is HONEST and seeking to REPRESENT the public would LISTEN to the objections and try to work them out in good faith. Anyone who DENIES the objections and dismisses the complaints as invalid is not representing those citizens.
So the spirit of the legislation is off to begin with if it does not represent the whole public.
(2b) there are OTHER ways to pay for health care that were not even addressed.
Sorry, Dante, but it is NOT "free choice" to mandate that people buy insurance and to penalize 'all other ways' of paying for health care - especially when these "other ways" are NEEDED ANYWAY because insurance does NOT cover all costs or all people. This is punitive and regulating choices, especially where health care involves religious and spiritual choices outside of govt jurisdiction.
I mentioned prison reforms where those costs taxpayers are already paying could easily pay for educational and medical loans, for example. Also immigration and drug policy reform could also free up BILLIONS of STATE dollars to pay for health care per STATE.
Dante the problem is the President wanted to make this a FEDERAL issue so he can take control as President. He wanted to initiate action, but as President he has to keep it FEDERAL.
If the health and prison problems were delegated to STATES then GOVERNORS and local reps would have responsibility, and the President could not control that process.
Dante, I cannot tell you enough that the problems need to be addressed and represented LOCALLY by STATE.
Where the FEDERAL authority comes in
is that PEOPLE and States DO reserve equal Constitutional rights to due process, petitioning and protection of the laws.
So we should INDEED take the SPIRIT of the Constitutional laws on a Federal and empower local CITIZENS and STATES to set up Constitutional protections LOCALLY using LOCAL programs and resources to manage sustainable systems.
If we delegate this to the States and people locally there is more DIRECT access, representation and accountability.
Instead, if you go through Federal levels and Congress, then it takes a lot more process to reform and make adjustments to policies/programs needed PER STATE, and each STATE has different populations to represent and serve, so their process is different.
It is selfish, shortsighted and unfair to push policies for whole states uniformly through Congress where it naturally is going to backlog the system in conflict because too many people and interests cannot be covered by one generic policy.
The federal law should have simply made it mandatory for states to manage their own health care where nobody is forced to foot the bill for expenses from other people's irresponsibility except where people AGREE to pay for those costs.
So if people AGREE to pay for insurance, or pay for hospitals or ER for others,
whatever methods or groups citizens AGREE to pay for, everyone remains free to meet their terms and work out the plans; but people CANNOT force taxpayers to pay, for example, for drug addicts who refuse to get help or commit crimes and send people to the hospital, or pay for people either to have abortions if they don't believe in that or pay to have kids as welfare tickets if they don't agree. States can set up microlending with requirements to pay back welfare, similar to educational loans, and work with charities or schools to set up medical programs where people work off their education, internships or residencies, by serving the public through clinics and teaching hospitals.
There are any number of ways to cover health care, especially by addressing prison and immigration reforms at the same time.
The federal level could oversee the security and public regulations, but the states have to address and represent their local populations to equally include all citizens.
the federal level is not designed for those specific needs.
So that is where the individual liberties or free choice are completely wiped out by these federal mandates.
The mandates selectively penalize options other than "insurance" while politically granting exemptions to whole groups. So it is not equal protection or equal choice, but only serves certain political agenda and criteria.
It makes NO sense to penalize choices such as 'charitable donations' to pay for health care or even medical facilities, programs or education directly,
when all these other avenues are NEEDED ANYWAY.
If health care reform were pursued by investing FIRST in developing programs needed to PROVIDE for public health, education and services, then people would naturally use insurance and other means to manage all the costs and services.
Instead the legislation sought to mandate insurance first, which deprived citizens of liberty to pay for health care and develop programs by FREE WILL, by business, charitable and educational outreach.
So it is basically PUNISHING people for NOT depending on federal govt to mandate insurance. Instead it should be REWARDING states and people for setting up better coverage and programs for people, and respecting natural freedom to create these locally.