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To: SoFloFreeper; Jim from C-Town

Since the enforcement part of OCare is a tax, they cannot tax the Catholic Church.

Therefore, forcing Catholic hospitals to pay for insurance that includes abortions should be dead on the tax argument alone...


6 posted on 07/16/2012 4:18:04 PM PDT by Former MSM Viewer (We're supposed to be more angry about what Romney does with his money than what Obama does with ours)
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To: Former MSM Viewer
Since the enforcement part of OCare is a tax, they cannot tax the Catholic Church. Therefore, forcing Catholic hospitals to pay for insurance that includes abortions should be dead on the tax argument alone...

This is not entirely accurate. The Church is free from property taxes, but payroll, stipends, and liquidation of some assets are taxable.

18 posted on 07/16/2012 5:45:48 PM PDT by Bayard
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To: Former MSM Viewer

Your argument, unfortunately, is flawed. The only enforcement part of Obama/Pelosicare declared a tax is the mandate on individuals. A separate mandate applies to employers, but the Supreme Court did not rule on the constitutionality of that mandate because the petitioners did not bring that argument to the Court.

Moreover, the government can tax the Catholic Church as much as it taxes any other entity. The Sixteenth Amendment (income tax) supersedes the First Amendment (freedom of religion), and in any case, this Administration considers religious liberty as a nullity. Only a special provision of the tax code grants the Church an exemption from income taxation, and the Church must comply with certain regulations to qualify. For example, the Church cannot maintain her tax exemption and support or oppose a political candidate or any other political issue; a special exception allows black Protestant churches to agitate for Democrats yet retain their exemption.

Catholic hospitals, however, do not qualify as churches under the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act and the regulations promulgated thereunder. They must comply with the legislation as ordinary businesses. If they object to the abortion mandate, then they must pay gargantuan fines. The Catholic Church, her institutions, and her faithful cannot provide abortifacients, contraception, sterilization, and abortion as these are intrinsically evil.

That leaves these groups several options. They can continue to operate without employing anyone; the requirement to provide these procedures applies only to employees. For a hospital, that’s impractical right now, although I suppose that a tremendous surge in vocations of medically qualified persons to religious orders may displace the current staff.

Alternatively, the hospitals may pay a special tax ($2,000 per employee) and simply not offer health insurance (for reasons unrelated to opposition to abortion, which carries a special punitive fine). The employees then each pay a tax of not less than $695/person (or $2085/family) and simply decline medical attention. That arrangement may prove economically viable, especially if other employers drop their coverage. Essentially, health insurance becomes too expensive, so the employer pays a tax, reduces wages to compensate for the tax, and have each employee pay a special tax from the wages. Technically, if the hospital employs fewer than 50 persons, or if no employee nor spouse nor dependent of any employee receives a subsidy on any exchange, then the hospital need not pay the $2,000/employee tax. In the case of hospitals, this arrangement may prove particularly enticing if the hospital then can offer or provide some limited form of healthcare to employees, their spouses, and their children; however, I’m not sure how legal that might be.


23 posted on 07/16/2012 7:51:28 PM PDT by dufekin (Obama and Pelosi: at war against the Church--and innocent American babies)
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