Posted on 09/12/2013 3:43:31 PM PDT by markomalley
Sen. Mike Lee (R.-Utah), who has been a leading advocate for Congress to prohibit funding for Obamacare, told CNSNews.com on Thursday that it would be “morally unacceptable” for Congress to vote for the funding to allow Obamacare to continue to be implemented.
Lee also said he believes that Obamacare, as the administration is planning to implement it, violates the freedom of religion by forcing individuals to buy health insurance plans that cover abortion-inducing drugs even if doing so is against the teachings of their faith.
(video at link)
Lee’s assertion on funding Obamacare, and thus allowing the administration to continue to implement it, came in response to a question about whether he believed it was morally acceptable for Congress to vote to give the administration the money to implement an Obamacare regulation that will force Christians and other Americans to buy coverage for abortion-inducing drugs or to provide Americans with subsidies they can use to buy health plans that cover abortions.
“Do you think it is morally acceptable for members of Congress to vote to give money to the administration to force Christians to act against their faith by providing abortion coverage and to force all Americans to subsidize abortions through insurance plans? Is that morally acceptable?” CNSNews.com asked.
“No,” said Lee. “No, and for a whole host of reasons. It is morally unacceptable, and unacceptable as a matter of public policy, to allow this law to continue to be implemented.”
The continuing resolution (CR) that is now funding the government will expire on Sept. 30, the last day of the fiscal year. For the government to be funded after that date, Congress must pass a new CR or other appropriations legislation. Lee has called for the Republican-majority House to include language in that new funding legislation to prohibit the implementation of Obamacare.
In an interview in July, Lee told CNSNews.com that he was drafting an amendment to attach to the CR when it came to the Senate that would in fact do that.
Here is the transcript from the part of Lee’s interview today with CNSNews.com in which he explained why he believes it would be “morally unacceptable” to vote to fund Obamacare:
Jeffrey: I want to ask a question about the morality of this. A lot of people talk about the public policy. I want to ask a question about the morality.
As you know, there is a regulation—the preventive services regulation—under Obamacare, issued by HHS, that says virtually all health-care plans in the United States must cover artificial contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs, which many Christians and people of other religious denominations just think are immoral—to pay for abortion-inducing drugs. Catholics also believe that sterilizations and contraceptives are immoral.
In addition to that, Obamacare will allow people to take federal subsidies, if they earn under 400 percent of the poverty level, go into the government-run exchanges and purchase health insurance plans that in fact cover abortion and quite literally pay abortionists to perform abortion.
Do you think it is morally acceptable for members of Congress to vote to give money to the administration to force Christians to act against their faith by providing abortion coverage and to force all Americans to subsidize abortions through insurance plans? Is that morally acceptable?
Lee: No. No. No, and for a whole host of reasons. It is morally unacceptable, and unacceptable as a matter of public policy, to allow this law to continue to be implemented.
I mean, look, from the Independent Payment and Advisory Board being given basically legislative authority that it may exercise without Congress’s assent, making all kinds of decisions, turning itself into what some have characterized as a death panel, to the contraceptive and abortifacient mandates that you referred to, this law and its implementing regulations are just chock-full of all kinds of things that the American people have problems with.
And, I should tell you, this should not be surprising to us. This is just what happens when government gets too big, when government gets too expensive, when the American people find that too much of the power of government has been delegated to people who are neither elected by voters nor accountable to the voters at any point.
These are the kinds of things that happen when the American people lose control of their government. And, I can tell you, if Obamacare kicks in, we will to an increasing degree start to lose control of our government.
Jeffrey: The Catholic bishops of the United States last year unanimously approved a statement that called that particular preventive services regulation an “unjust and illegal mandate” and a “violation of personal civil rights.” Do you agree that Obamacare, as it is going to be implemented, will violate both the free exercise of religion and the right to life?
Lee: “In many, many circumstances as it’s applied I think it could well do that.
Jeffrey: It could well or it does?
Lee: [Inaudible]
Jeffrey: If you force Christians to act against their faith and purchase a health-care plan that covers abortion-inducing drugs, does that violate their free exercise of religion?
Lee: Yes, I think it does, particularly in light of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as it applies to the actions of the federal government is still intact, notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s holding in City of Boerne vs. Flores. And what the Religious Freedom Restoration Act says is that actions like that that interfere with somebody’s free exercise of religion are proscribed, even if they are in the form of a general applicable religiously neutral law like--
Jeffrey: Here you have the federal government expressly forcing an individual to act against the explicit teachings of his faith.
Lee: Right, and if you don’t provide an exception there then you have violated that person’s religious freedom. And that’s a problem.
Jeffrey: And because this regulation is in place, and the element that is enforced on individuals has not been modified in anyway, members of Congress who vote for implementing this and funding this are voting to give the government money to violate the freedom of religion of Americans. Is that correct?
Lee: Yes, I think that is a fair statement.
Jeffrey: And do you think it is morally acceptable for members of any party in Congress to vote to fund the government to attack the freedom of religion of Americans?
Lee: No, and so this is one of many, many reasons why I think we should vote to fund government, fund everything else in government, but not Obamacare.
Watch CNSNews.com's entire interview with Sen. Lee here:
(video at link)
“Law”? or Law?
ObamaCARE/RomneyCARE is ONLY for suckers
who are not Moslems or in Congress or married to them
or their staff.
How about it is morally unacceptable for government to force people into contracts with other parties that they don’t want to do business with, forcing people at penalty of fines and jail to buy a product they do not want to buy?
No Republican voted for obamacare. Therefore why should they fund it?
Only registered RATs and those who vote democrat and their dependents should be subjected to Obamacare.
And everyone in the country will be happy.
0bamacare’s destruction of America’s private sector has already begun, as intended. It will not be stopped, either.
krauthammer hates us folks... I could see it in his eyes. kraut is a full on beltway party drone... bright but he is a drone. He is not conservative... he is not limited government... he is not a Constitutionalist... in fact... he is a progressive that loves military conflict and socialist/populist big government programs.
I am ready for the Freedom Party that Mark Levin and Sarah Palin promised to start if the republicans don't start fighting obama on immigration and other major problems. I cannot tell you how little we matter to the gop/e and krauthammer is a card carrying comrade of the progressive rockefeller wing of the blue blood, brahman, British loyalist wing of the republican party. I despise these people as much as I do obama, reid and PIGlosi.
LLS
Morality as we used to know it is now a luxury.
Well we can go Eeyore all day or we can stump for something even better than “morality.”
Americans could beat this if we stick together.
Refuse to pay taxes. Just do not submit the forms.
They cannot hang us all. They cannot put 100 Million people in jail.
But of course we could never get the people to do that.
We just need to show these bastards that we are not just a small percentage of their party. If they are not Conservative republicans then we primary them. If we knock off mcconnell and boehner... that would shift the party to the right in a way that is needed right now. A message like that shifts all dynamics.
The Tea Party action in Colorado should wake a few of them up.
It’s time they found out it is not THEIR party, but ours. Time we took it back. RINO’s need to crap or get up off the pot.
I agree. I posted this in another thread but I think that you might find it interesting. The gop/e do not think that we are a threat and they are not going to do what we want them to do. The solution is to retire people like cantor, boehner, cornyn and mcconnell.
From another post:
I forced myself to watch the fox all stars tonight and I am not kidding about the following. After a session of krauthammer blasting obama and Putin and then letting just a tad of his inner neo-con show.... the next round shifted to obamacare and all the back room deals that were floated. krauthammer basically called Conservatives who demand that obamacare be defunded... he called us all deluded and insane for thinking that obamacare can be stopped. He said we really need to get over it... that two years ago was when we should have fought it. He said that we are being extremists and are harming the party. All three panelists... including racist imbecile juan williams... stated that they agreed about this and that we are just a very tiny number of Conservative representatives in the House... and it is these few that are causing all of this “disaster”.
krauthammer hates us folks... I could see it in his eyes. kraut is a full on beltway party drone... bright but he is a drone. He is not conservative... he is not limited government... he is not a Constitutionalist... in fact... he is a progressive that loves military conflict and socialist/populist big government programs.
I am ready for the Freedom Party that Mark Levin and Sarah Palin promised to start if the republicans don’t start fighting obama on immigration and other major problems. I cannot tell you how little we matter to the gop/e and krauthammer is a card carrying comrade of the progressive rockefeller wing of the blue blood, brahman, British loyalist wing of the republican party. I despise these people as much as I do obama, reid and PIGlosi.
LLS
Two years ago the only thing that would have stopped it was armed insurrection. I guess we'll know better next time.
krauthammer was just throwing feces against the wall hoping some of it would stick. You are correct.
LLS
I am subject to believing that Krauthammer doesn’t like anyone who can still walk.
Perhaps his crippled body has also crippled his thinking.
We tried two years ago to defeat Obamacare, but then we had these promises of how wonderful it was, and we had people pushing it who are now beginning to awaken to it’s potential.
It’s potential to bankrupt us while destroying our medical system, It’s potential to put our medical history in the hands of Government and hackers, and insurance companies who sell us life insurance.
It’s potential to make Doctors out of reach of normal citizens and it’s death panel potential.
Yes we tried two years ago, but then we were at a disadvantage. As more information comes forward we ,even Krauthammer, should be able to see that this thing has the potential to destroy America’s health care.
Far from giving everyone health care it will deprive the older Americans of health care and make health care for the poor totally unavailable, as Emergency rooms and Hospitals close down or are jammed.
Very well stated my friend and dead on right!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.