Obama is right, we are on the precipice: of a disaster; of an achievement of premeditated destruction.
“…it’s clear we are on the precipice of achievement that’s eluded Congresses, presidents for generations — an achievement that will touch the lives of nearly every American,” Obama said. ~foxnews.com
The fact that it will touch the lives of every American is undisputed. The manner of that touch is what every American has the right to question.
Like Lennie’s loving yet lethal embrace in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the government tends to strangle and smother what it means to protect and cherish. The Federal government is a blunt and wholesale tool.
The uninsured: soon to be felons
The Democrats National Healthcare plan, aka Obamacare, demands that you be covered by health insurance. If you are not covered you are required to buy it or face fines and penalties. The IRS may be the agency enforcing this mandate. How soon after American citizens are considered felons for not purchasing health insurance will Obama be impeached?
Why would Democrats do this to Americans? What happened to the nurturing parent?
More important, an individual mandate crosses an important line: accepting the principle that it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that every American has health insurance. In doing so, it opens the door to widespread regulation of the health care industry and political interference in personal health care decisions. The result will be a slow but steady spiral downward toward a government-run national health care system. ~cato.org
‘DMV efficiency with IRS compassion’
Until the Federal government, including the IRS, swears to the hippocratic oath perhaps they should stay out of the Health Care business. Using the iron fist of the IRS (for our own good, of course) is monstrous.
The Senate bill imposes a new requirement that all persons who provide health care coverage to others must file a return with the IRS listing the names, addresses, social security numbers, and the coverage period for each person, and “such other information as the Secretary [of Health and Human Services] may prescribe.” (Section 161(b) starting at page 107). The bill does not limit what information the Secretary may request, so it is conceivable and likely that information as to the nature of the coverage, the family members included, and other details will be reported to the IRS.
….This information is to be provided to the IRS for good reason. The House bill provides for a tax on people who do not have acceptable coverage at “any time” during the tax year. House bill section 401 provides for a new section 59B (at pp. 167-168) of the Internal Revenue Code:
(a) TAX IMPOSED.—In the case of any individual who does not meet the requirements of subsection (d) at any time during the taxable year, there is hereby imposed a tax equal to 2.5 percent of the excess of—
(1) the taxpayer’s modified adjusted gross income for the taxable year, over
(2) the amount of gross income specified in section 6012(a)(1) with respect to the taxpayer. ~legalinsurrection.blogspot.com
Cost of congressional caring
They do care, don’t they? Yes, they care. In the trillions! All this spending will, of course, reduce costs. Really?
The proposals now before Congress would require just about everyone to buy health insurance or to get it through their employers — which would generally result in lower wages. In other words, millions of people would be compelled to spend lots of money on something they previously did not want, at least not at prevailing prices.
Estimates of this burden vary, but for a family of four it could range up to $14,000 a year over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Right now, many Americans take the gamble of going without insurance, just as many of us take our chances with how much we drive or how little we exercise.
The paradox is this: Reform advocates start with anecdotes about the underprivileged who are uninsured, then turn around and propose something that would hurt at least some members of that group. ~nytimes.com
Health Insurance Mandate Includes ‘Tax’ Despite Obama Denial
Dem’s Nationalized Health Care Plan Still Requires a Monthly Abortion Fee
Video: Baucus Admits Obamacare Costs $2.5 Trillion
How much ObamaCare costs the average family
ObamaCare’s Cost Could Top $6 Trillion
The point is that the cost of everything the government mandates is always, yes always, much more than originally estimated. The cost to individuals and families will be far more than anyone now thinks or believes it could be. (With the possible exception of myself who thinks that it will utterly bankrupt the country.)
Slow but Steady Spiral Downward
As the government asserts control over healthcare choices its entanglement will engender more entanglement. The real danger here is the politicization of health. When Health care decisions become acts of congress we are all in real trouble. Why would we want to make individual health decisions collectively? Why would we want to take a decision that should be based on science and your individual health and turn it into a decision that must be made in a political arena based on political criteria and all the vageries of ideology, bad logic, campaign contributions and payoffs?
I predict that this bill will destroy the Democrat party and repealing this abomination will be the central platform of the next majority party.