Posted on 03/15/2010 7:43:56 AM PDT by BarnacleCenturion
The official title is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, passed by the Senate in the wee-hours of Christmas Eve. This 2400-page monstrosity does what no enemy of America has ever been able to do: transform the land of the free into the home of the enslaved.
[...]
When government is paying for health care, government dictates the quantity, quality and price of the care. The costs that are not extracted as premiums or co-pay will be extracted as increased taxes.
When government is paying for health care, there are no choices, there are no options. Every life is subject to whatever requirements the government may choose to impose. Smokers, for example, could be denied certain services should the government so decide. Overweight people could be denied certain services unless they meet government-imposed weight limits. Seniors could be denied life-extending procedures should the government decide that the cost is greater than the benefit.
Perhaps the worst consequence of Obamacare is the expansion of a culture that depends upon government; that teaches that government can bestow rights, whether to health care, or education, or a living wage, or all the other so-called rights listed in the socialists agenda.
Obamacare, if enacted, is indeed a shortcut to socialism.
(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...
It’s really Fascism. Businesses stay in business if they help government. Government manipulates the marketplace to assist those businesses with whom they like to “do business”. Economic Fascism in a nutshell.
lets cut the socialism crap.
Barack Hussein zer0bama is a Stalinist/Marxist/Facist.
Ping to Captain Obvious.
"No program to enable America to be energy-sufficient on my watch!"
From what I can tell, this bill is a declaration of war upon We The People.
Will we simply stand there and let them put the shackles of enslavement upon us and our future generations?
Never will we be enslaved. Never!
I just saw this posted over at Politico. I think this says it all (with what the socialists want):
“Diversity means white guys will soon experience their own medicine issued to blacks & hispanics: Jim Crow.
~ 2 wrongs don’t make it right but it sure makes it even.”
BANNED: Motion picture “FAHRENHEIT 451”
Think live they want
Watch what they want
Eat like they want
“Work-camps” as they want
Talk like they want
Live like they want
Die like they want
FOR WHAT? : Pay like they want
It was a giant con game on all parts. The only winners were people like me and the accountants and clerks everywhere. I would create phony billings that had no relation to the drugs actually provided or prices actually charged while at the same time creating and keeping the "real books." I couldn't believe what lies we told to the government, insurers, doctors and pharmacists. The only people who knew the truth were the business owners because they had to stay in business based on profits.
I finally couldn't put my name to that absolute thievery and left the industry. It hasn't gotten any better since.
Socialism is too soft a term to use here. Whether people think it is Fascism, Communism or some hybrid, they should understand it is a dictatorship. It has been said that Communism is Socialism pointing a gun to your head. If this wretched legislation passes, the government will be harsh on whoever “is unreasonable” and refuses to comply - “for the children” of course.
Once again, a foreign press service objectively deals with reality while our own lamestream media chooses to bury its collective head in the sand.
DONT ALLOW TO BE MISLEAD... Catholic bishops send message to faithful: We oppose ObamaCare
MARCH 14, 2010 BY ED MORRISSEY
The Obama administration last week week attempted to argue that Catholic bishops didnt oppose the Senate version of the ObamaCare bill as a way of proving that the bill wont fund abortions. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has responded by asking parishes to post and/or read aloud a statement that clarifies their pposition on the bill, which is adamant opposition. In the statement that many Catholic parishioners will find greeting them as they attend Mass, the USCCB not only declares its opposition but also urges Catholics to contact their elected representatives in Washington to stop it:
As long-time advocates of health care reform, the U.S. Catholic bishops continue to make the moral case that genuine health care reform must protect the life, dignity, consciences and health of all, especially the poor and vulnerable. Health care reform should provide access to affordable and quality health care for all, and not advance a pro-abortion agenda in our country. Genuine health care reform is being blocked by those who insist on reversing widely supported policies against federal funding of abortion and plans which include abortion, not by those working simply to preserve these longstanding protections.
On November 7, the U.S. House of Representatives passed major health care reform that reaffirms the essential, longstanding and widely supported policy against using federal funds for elective abortions and includes positive measures on affordability and immigrants.
On December 24, the U.S. Senate rejected this policy and passed health care reform that requires federal funds to help subsidize and promote health plans that cover elective abortions. All purchasers of such plans will be required to pay for other peoples abortions through a separate payment solely to pay for abortion. And the affordability credits for very low income families purchasing private plans in a Health Insurance Exchange are inadequate and would leave families financially vulnerable.
Outside the abortion context, neither bill has adequate conscience protection for health care providers, plans or employers.
Congressional leaders are now trying to figure out how the rules of the House and Senate could allow the final passage of a modified bill that would satisfy disagreements between House and Senate versions.
ACTION: Contact your Representative and Senators today by e-mail, phone or FAX.
To send a pre-written, instant e-mail to Congress go to www.usccb.org/action.
Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at: 202-224-3121, or call your Members local offices. Contact info can be found on Members web sites at www.house.gov & www.senate.gov.
MESSAGE HOUSE:
I am pleased that the House health care bill maintains the longstanding policy against federal funding of abortion. On the other hand, the provisions on abortion funding in the current un-amended Senate health care bill are seriously deficient and unacceptable. I urge you to work to uphold essential provisions against abortion funding, to include full conscience protection and to ensure that health care is accessible and affordable for all. I urge you to oppose any bill unless and until these criteria are met.
MESSAGE SENATE:
I am deeply disappointed that the current un-amended Senate health care bill fails to maintain the longstanding policy against federal funding of abortion and does not include adequate protection for conscience. I urge you to support essential provisions against abortion funding, similar to those in the House bill. Include full conscience protection and ensure that health care is accessible and affordable for all. I urge you to oppose any bill unless and until these criteria are met.
WHEN: Votes in the House and Senate are expected at any time. Act today!
The USCCB is not known for its adherence to conservative political principles. Had the House version passed in the Senate, the bishops would have likely been cheering as Barack Obama signed it into law. Their opposition to the Senate version and their call to activism against it shows just how radically the Senate changed the abortion provisions. This is not status quo ante on federal funding for abortion, and even the normal supporters of government intervention in health care know that.
Ill update you after attending Mass tonight on whether that message gets read at my rather liberal parish.
Update: Steven Ertelt at Life News has the report about the endorsement from the Catholic Health Association:
The Catholic Health Association is coming under fire today for releasing a statement not only endorsing the pro-abortion Senate health care bill but issuing a misleading statement making it appear the bill does not fund abortions. The head of a national pro-life organization disabused the CHA in response.
Despite the endorsement of the pro-abortion bill, Keehan claimed CHA hasnt diluted its pro-life stance.
On the moral issue of abortion, there is no disagreement, Keehan contends. On the technical issue of whether this bill prevents federal funding of abortions, we differ with Right to Life.
Douglas Johnson, legislative director for National Right to Life, spoke with LifeNews.com about Keehans statement and dismissed the so-called segregation of funds as an accounting gimmick.
The House and Senate bills do not merely differ on a technical issue,as Carol Keehan would have people believe, he said. This is another regrettably attempt to minimize the substantive issues involved in order to smooth the way for the Obama legislation.
In reality, the Senate bill contains multiple pro-abortion provisions, which in total constitute the most pro-abortion single piece of legislation to reach the House floor since Roe v. Wade, Johnson added.
The CHA didnt convince the USCCB, either, a group that would have been predispositioned to buy Keehans spin.
Sister Carol is a former longtime health executive herself, and her compensation at Catholic Health Association is $856,093. This in an organization whose expenses are only $17,660,797. Three other employees at CHA each make more than $300,000.
Do Not Be Misled [Archbishop Chaput anti-healthcare bill]
NRO The Corner ^ | 3/15/10 | KJ Lopez
In a piece to be released later this morning, Catholic archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver comes out swinging against the health-care push in Washington this week. He writes, in part:
Groups, trade associations and publications describing themselves as Catholic or prolife that endorse the Senate version whatever their intentions are doing a serious disservice to the nation and to the Church, undermining the witness of the Catholic community; and ensuring the failure of genuine, ethical health-care reform. By their public actions, they create confusion at exactly the moment Catholics need to think clearly about the remaining issues in the health-care debate. They also provide the illusion of moral cover for an unethical piece of legislation.
Do not be misled, in other words, by a Speakers lies or by anyone claiming to speak for the Catholic Church telling you a Catholics conscience will be clear if he supports this legislation.
Chaput concludes:
The long, unpleasant and too often dishonest national health-care debate is now in its last days. Its most painful feature has been those Catholic groups that by their eagerness for some kind of deal undercut the witness of the Catholic community and help advance a bad bill into a bad law. Their flawed judgment could now have damaging consequences for all of us.
Do not be misled. The Senate version of health-care reform currently being pushed ahead by congressional leaders and the White House despite public resistance and numerous moral concerns is bad law; and not simply bad, but dangerous. It does not deserve, nor does it have, the support of the Catholic bishops in our country, who speak for the believing Catholic community. In its current content, the Senate version of health-care legislation is not reform. Catholics and other persons of good will concerned about the foundations of human dignity should oppose it.
And he adds words of praise for Bart Stupak, among others:
...the health-care reform debate has never been merely a matter of party politics. Nor is it now. Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak and a number of his Democratic colleagues have shown extraordinary character in pushing for good health-care reform while resisting attempts to poison it with abortion-related entitlements and other bad ideas that have nothing to do with real health care. Many Republicans share the goal of decent health-care reform, even if their solutions would differ dramatically. To put it another way, few persons seriously oppose making adequate health services available for all Americans. But God, or the devil, is in the details and by that measure, the current Senate version of health-care reform is not merely defective, but also a dangerous mistake.
Gratitude! And clarity! This is what you call shepherding (and hes not new to any of this, and specifically on health care). And leadership. Someone else to say thank you to when you have the chance.
Obamacare: Shortcut to Dictatorship
While it might be a good description of current healthcare problems, he advocates going with a single payer system which is the worst thing to do.
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