Health Care Mandate Applies to All -- Except the Amish

I rarely get called "inconsistent" but, hey, if you don't understand I can see how you might reach such a conclusion.

The law can not "respect" a particular religious sect because that's not Constitutional. You know that! This exception does just that because it singles out a religious sect - excludes them from paying taxes - and yet requires everyone else to do so regardless of their particular religious beliefs. It's wrong in principle and in fact. Either everyone has to pay or everyone should have the option not to pay.

 

Although drifting away from the original topic I will answer you question: What would the Supreme Court say about laws that prohibits a Mormon man from having multiple wives, or to a Christian Scientist parent that withholds medical care thier child, or that require a Muslim woman who refuses to remove her head covering for a driver license photo, or to a Muslim man who believes he has a god given right to kill his wife or child for certain offenses, or to a Christian who refuses to teach his child the theory of evolution, or to a Christian who refuses to fund abortions because it is murder, or perhaps to some African tribal member who believes cannibalism is okay, and so forth? Yes, the law does infringe on "religious" beliefs and, yes, it was modeled around a minimal set of Christian beliefs without preference to a particular sect of Christianity.

 

You're extrapolating for pending taxes for the new medical health care program to taxes in general. The issue is the exemption for the new taxes which, again, is a preference given to the Amish - and other selected groups - based on they being members of that group. It is wrong!

 

Mormons were permitted and encourage to have multiple wives by their religion. That was one of several examples where religious beliefs conflicted with the law of the land and the law won. It's valid as were all the others I mentioned.

This example was given to rebuke the theory that the Amish has a untouchable right to be exempt from the pending health care taxes just because their religious preference is to take care of their own.

It would be slightly more palatable if the law were to allow any religious group to form their own cooperative health care system and opt out of the government's taxes. Some, other than the Amiish, might want to do that.

But, of course, the best thing would be for the government to stay out of the health care business altogether. They have failed at every other social program they've ever tried. Such history should foretell what we can except from the pending bureaucratic dream.

 

This, then, is a Constitutional basis for the government not showing special favor to the Amish sect by excluding them for the obligation to pay taxes for the new health care programs that other citizens would be required to pay.

Maybe the "smart" layers will be wise enough to understand that. If not they will be generating a large window of opportunity for endless exceptions to our laws that will be used to impose ways upon us which we will deeply regret.

 

Many people don't "believe" in having insurance based on how they understand the Bible but they are not Amish. With this exemption, by a specific class, all except the Amish would be prohibited for exercising their belief and forced to participate. That's a violation of the principles of our Constitution.

What we should be concerned about is the freedom of all Americans to chose their medical providers, procedures, and insurance coverage.

What we should not want is more special classes of exceptions that opens the doors to even more in the future. We need to look way beyond this issue to what else will be on the table around the corner.

I don't care what the Amish do - insurance or not - and I respect their independent thinking. However, I don't think one should have to Amish to attain the same benefit. Such a quality was once considered to be an American virtue. This pending law will strip that from most Americans and generate yet another "special" group to be treated differently under the law.

 

Many people - not just Amish - don't believe in insurance and a whole lot more don't believe in the government taking over medical care and insurance.

The original point of this thread - as I intended it - was suppose to be that the government has selected certain groups - namely union workers, government workers, and the Amish and maybe others we haven't learned about yet from the secret work they're doing - to be excluded or deferred from paying the taxes that will be imposed on the rest of us.

These categories have nothing to do with the "goodness" of the bureaucrats that are writing these laws. They are simply political moves to avoid certain problem areas, to appease certain vocal groups, and to maintain voter support. The rest of us will pay that much more for their programs.

The Amish are just be played for the political gain - avoidance of conflict - so the plan can be forced upon the rest who might not have the unified support of a particular religious sect but believe just as strongly. That's wrong and it's a misuse of power by the government that's forbidden by our Constitution.

The unions have bought the government and robbed the non-union workers of their hard-earned wages and salaries with their typical strong-armed back room politics. You didn't see it on C-SPAN like the chief thief had promised us all albeit some of us never believed his empty promise.

What's happening now is that many people can not see that they are trading their liberty for the "security" of the state. Some I suppose like that and actually believe it will be better even though history has taught us many times other that it is not.

Remember Bismark did this in Germany over one hundred years ago with a wide area of previously unheard of social programs. The people bought it and gave up their liberty in the process. It's happened more than once and now, in my beloved homeland, we have lost our way and are falling for it heads over heals.