The mandate is the provision which requires that individuals purchase private insurance.
From that mandate flows a host of governmental controls over our lives, from specification of which type of insurance is acceptable, to IRS enforcement of mandate penalties through employer and employee reporting, to possible imprisonment, to a host of bureaucracies and regulations meant to give details to the mandate, to taxes on employers, etc.
Without the mandate, Obamacare is just another runaway spending program destined to bankrupt the nation.
With the mandate, Obamacare is the means by which the government gains control over our lives.
There was a time when Obama was against a mandate. That was when he was running against Hillary Clinton, who supported mandates.
Health care was front and center during the primary (and general election), and one of the key distinctions Obama drew between his plan and Hillary's plan was that Obama would not have a mandate:
"The reason she thinks that there are more people covered under her plan than mine, is because of a mandate. It is not a mandate for the government to provide coverage to everybody. It is a mandate that every individual purchase health care. And the mailing that we put out accurately indicates that the main difference between Senator Clinton's plan and mine is the fact that she would force, in some fashion, individuals to purchase health care ...."
Obama's complaint about a mandate during the campaign was not philosophical based on the constitutional concept of limited federal government.
Obama was against a mandate because it would leave people in a position that they chose to accept and pay government penalties rather than purchase unaffordable health coverage, creating the worst of all worlds. Which pretty much sums up Obamacare.
At so many levels, Obama has head-faked the American public.
Love her or hate her, at least we knew where Hillary stood.
Which is more than we can say for the most historic elected official pushing the worst piece of legislation "since the Great Depression."
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Related Posts:
Taxing Your Mere Existence, Part 2
Taxing Your Mere Existence
IRS The New Health Care Enforcer
Get Rid of the Mandate
Hillary Had A Mandate For Mandates
Obama Was Against Compulsory Health Insurance, Before He Was For It
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Bingo. On all counts.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the article I link to below, 36 states are trying to advance efforts, either through constitutional amendment or legislation, or both, to exempt their residents from health insurance mandates. Those reading this comment who want to see where your state stands can click the "36 states" hyperlink within the article which will direct you to the National Conference of State Legislatures website listing the 36 states and a brief summary description about how each is addressing the issue. Virginia made news recently as it became the first state to successfully enact legislation into law exempting its residents from the mandate.
ReplyDeleteStating the obvious, it is amazingly arrogant for the Congress and administration to push the individual mandate when 72% of all the states are trying to make the mandate illegal within their state.
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/03/06/36-states-aim-to-preempt-federal-health-care-plan/
Oh, but he's being very polite about it. He's asking us to buy insurance. How can you equate this simple invitation with some kind of totalitarian mandate?
ReplyDeleteI will not purchase health care.
ReplyDeleteI will not pay a fine.
I will go to jail first.
That's where they're going to have to provide me with "health care."
It will be interesting when they try to tax state residents how the "state" reacts. Will it block and federal attempt while sorting out whether he has the constitutional right to do it? Certain states will comply, others will resist, which runs into the Constitutional rule that all states must be treated equally. So which side wins?
ReplyDeleteI would love the author of this website to comment on it.
Frankly, this whole mandated healthcare seems like the work of a madman.
While abhorrently unconstitutional and economically unsound, among other faults, at least Clinton's plan would begin to work as far as universal coverage--with the same philosophy as Social Security--everyone has to pay in.
ReplyDeleteObama was obviously playing politics then, and still is now. There is no way he can believe in the economic/policy merits of every line of each of, what is it now?, 6 version of the health care bill?
At least the Hillary wing was closer to the 'true socialism' of single payer, and not simply a corporatist-lobbyist slush fund of medical benefits.
But wait. If you allow people to choose if they want abortion coverage do you then mandate Catholic hospitals and other religiously affliated hospitals to accept it? If you want to stay in power for 40 years do you then mandate amnesty for 20 million illegal immigrants then proceed to skim off the cream of campaign contributions from abortion providers to your left of center party. You betcha!
ReplyDelete