We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
If you don't pay your taxes, you're subject to imprisonment. If you don't pay your SS tax, if you don't pay your medicare tax, if you don't pay your state income tax, you are subject to prosecution and to imprisonment. Where's the beef?
There are plenty of good reasons to oppose any number of features of this Brave New Healthcare system that we're getting shoved down our throats (or up our butts, if you're so inclined). There are good reasons to oppose the individual "mandate" (which doesn't seem like a mandate to me but a targeted tax). But, the simple fact is that if our government is going to enact healthcare legislation which requires certain behavior (like paying a tax) then it has to allow for some method of enforcement and ultimately the only method of enforcement that the government has is the threat of incarceration.
I'm not a fan of the individual mandate, but if we're going to mostly keep the current system of financing private insurance and we're going to outlaw exclusions based on pre-existing conditions and basically, outlaw risk based premiums, there has to be some method to maximize individual participation. Or tax contribution in lieu of. If you don't do that, healthcare insurance prices will explode and you're setting yourself up for a single payer federal government power grab to take over the entire system -- that's the worst possible outcome.
It's a great question, but this is what it is all about.
From the WSJ...........
NOVEMBER 10, 2009
Confessions of an ObamaCare Backer
A liberal explains the political calculus.
The typical argument for ObamaCare is that it will offer better medical care for everyone and cost less to do it, but occasionally a supporter lets the mask slip and reveals the real political motivation. So let's give credit to John Cassidy, part of the left-wing stable at the New Yorker, who wrote last week on its Web site that "it's important to be clear about what the reform amounts to."
Mr. Cassidy is more honest than the politicians whose dishonesty he supports. "The U.S. government is making a costly and open-ended commitment," he writes. "Let's not pretend that it isn't a big deal, or that it will be self-financing, or that it will work out exactly as planned. It won't. What is really unfolding, I suspect, is the scenario that many conservatives feared. The Obama Administration . . . is creating a new entitlement program, which, once established, will be virtually impossible to rescind."
Why are they doing it? Because, according to Mr. Cassidy, ObamaCare serves the twin goals of "making the United States a more equitable country" and furthering the Democrats' "political calculus." In other words, the purpose is to further redistribute income by putting health care further under government control, and in the process making the middle class more dependent on government. As the party of government, Democrats will benefit over the long run.
This explains why Nancy Pelosi is willing to risk the seats of so many Blue Dog Democrats by forcing such an unpopular bill through Congress on a narrow, partisan vote: You have to break a few eggs to make a permanent welfare state. As Mr. Cassidy concludes, "Putting on my amateur historian's cap, I might even claim that some subterfuge is historically necessary to get great reforms enacted."
No wonder many Americans are upset. They know they are being lied to about ObamaCare, and they know they are going to be stuck with the bill. ________
It’s about power and control.
Let me know if you like being a serf on the Obama plantation.
Of course, redistribution of wealth via taxes is too obvious. The socialists/Marxists need less obvious ways to turn the citizenry into slaves. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you. It may be disgusting gruel, but its your gruel.
If you have not done so, I suggest that you read The Road to Serfdom.