Posted on 02/17/2011 12:53:23 PM PST by jazusamo
Complete title: Obamacares Penalty for Not Buying Insurance Isnt Penalty Because Penalty is Punishment, Says Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee
Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D.-Texas) told the House Judiciary Committee yesterday that the penalty that the health-care law enacted last year by Congress imposes on individuals who do not buy health insurance is not in fact a penalty.
The law itself states: If an applicable individual fails to meet the requirement of subsection (a) [having a government-approved health-insurance policy] there is hereby imposed a penalty with respect to the individual.
Elsewhere, in a section entitled Payment of Penalty, it says that individuals failing to carry a government-approved health insurance policy must pay a maximum penalty of $750.
In Rep. Jackson-Lees view, however, this language does not actually impose a penalty.
I would make the argument, one, that instead it is an incentive to do right--that it is not penalizing because penalty is punishment, Jackson-Lee told the Judiciary Committee.
VIDEO 1:38 minutes
Youre not punished if you have health insurance, in fact. And so you are, in fact, incentivized to have health insurance, rather than take the negative which is to suggest that because we have a penalty you are being punished, Rep. Jackson-Lee said.
I am helping you. I am helping you not to have 26 percent un-insurance in the state of Texas. Im helping children be insured. Im helping diverse minorities be insured, said Rep. Jackon-Lee. And I know during the civil rights argument--even though we were arguing under the Constitution--there were many policy statements being made: Do we want to live in a nation that discriminates against a person because of the color of their skin? In addition to the constitutional argument, do we want to live in a nation where there are people being uninsured causing catastrophic costs unto the nation and others have to pay. I think that is the question that needs to be considered by the courts.
But I also need to say whether or not it is more an incentive than it is a punishment, said Rep. Jackson-Lee. I am more inspired by incentive. And I welcome it being a parking ticket. We get parking tickets all the time, and no one complains about being required to do the right thing.
Looks like she still hasn't read it, but then maybe she can't read.
You got that right. Having no brains at all places her at the extreme low end of the scale...
‘Sheila is no mental giant.’
Neither is the electorate of her district, a pack of drooling imbeciles.
I wouldn’t say she’s as dumb as dog sh!t because that’s an insult to dog sh!t. I’d say she’s a lot dumber.
“Solving the healthcare crisis by making people buy health care insurance is like eliminating homelessness by passing a law that says everyone must buy a house.” -Senator Barak Obama
Wasn’t she the BEM (Booger Eating Moron) who when at a NASA function for a Mars robotic lander, asked if they could go to where the astronauts planted the US flag on Mars?
Mark
LOL!
That was Sheila. It was a committee meeting and she asked a NASA person if it photograped the flag left there.
That was rich, he’s probably the the biggest filp-flopper in our lifetimes, as well as liar.
If she told the boyz in her District hood they had to buy health insurance or face a penalty of any kind I can tell you what they’d be holding in their left hand while giving her the proverbial finger with their right!
Guess they’ll be exempt too.
Ya might want to think about that before posting next time. There are a lot of people in her district who have voted against her, supported candidates against her, listened to Michael Berry lampoon her daily and who are disgusted by her.
Like me.
I feel for you. I recently moved from MO to KS, and when I was in MO, I was in the 5th congressional district. Seriously gerrymandered district. For as long as I can remember, I'd vote against Alan Wheat, then against Carolyn McCarthy, and most recently, against "the reverend" Manny Cleaver (who famously said, while mayor of KC, "You have to tolerate a certain level of corruption in government.")
Mark
Theres no doubt there are people in her district who have a functioning brain. However, she wasn’t elected by a minority was she.
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