May 2, 2012 -- 2:06PM, Yavanna wrote:

May 2, 2012 -- 9:19AM, Ironhold wrote:

May 2, 2012 -- 1:32AM, solfeggio wrote:

Or is this what that Obamacare that we've read about is supposed to do?

Actually, the ultimate goal of Obamacare was to force as many people on to the government dole as possible. 

You see, the core of the law is that all Americans would be legally required to have insurance or else be directly punished in the form of an annual fine.

Not many people can actually afford full-on insurance like what the government requires, and so they'd have to wind up on the government's insurance programs.

Pretty much everything else about the law was meant to make it as difficult as possible for people and companies to escape it.

Suffice to say I don't see the Supreme Court allowing it to stand as written.

No, they just let the laws that require us to have auto insurance stand because that's totally different.

It's different in several ways, but the most important is that 1. it's mandated at the state level and not the federal level and 2. one is only required to have auto insurance if one makes the CHOICE to drive and/or own a car. The mandate for health insurance is 1. from the federal gov't and likely oversteps their power and 2. is mandated just because one happens to be alive, i.e., there is no way for one to get around it.

All Obama had to do to make the mandate constitutional is acknowledge that it's a tax (his admin is now arguing it is in the Supreme Court hearings), which the federal gov't is allowed to impose on us. The fact that he, from the start, stressed that it was a mandate and not a tax and set it up as such is what's put the whole act in trouble.

May 2, 2012 -- 2:31PM, farragut wrote:

Even more important, I think, GC, is that the required auto insurance is only liability insurance. You are not required to have your own damages insured, only those whom you victimize.

Quite true.

In fact the requirement for insurance higher than liability comes from one's bank if one has taken out a loan to pay for the car and as such is an agreement between you and the bank that is voluntary.

May 2, 2012 -- 9:19AM, Ironhold wrote:

Actually, the ultimate goal of Obamacare was to force as many people on to the government dole as possible.

Which is an unsupportable, and blatantly absurd, claim.

You see, the core of the law is that all Americans would be legally required to have insurance or else be directly punished in the form of an annual fine.

Which was a compromise the REPUBLICANS demanded be added to the reform package. Now the Republicans are whining about something they demanded. The sad part is that those that claim to be "conservative" are too naive to see they're being played like a fool.

Not many people can actually afford full-on insurance like what the government requires, and so they'd have to wind up on the government's insurance programs.

Good. Every person in the country should be part of the government paid insurance program called MediCare. That would be the only civilized thing to do. But, no, the Regressives would rather see inhumane insurance companies make huge profits.

Suffice to say I don't see the Supreme Court allowing it to stand as written.

I have no doubt that 5 of the SC "justices" will find that Obama is a Democrat and vote against anything he has done - even if it were good for the country. They only care about making Obama look bad so that a Regressive can get back in the WHITE House.

May 2, 2012 -- 10:09PM, mountain_man wrote:

A difference that makes no sense. It is still a government "forcing" you to pay.

It's called "division of powers".

The states have the right to require automobile insurance, but there's no precedent for a national health insurance requirement.

Even Romney himself, who Obama claims he got the idea from, says he never intended his policy to extend beyond Mass.' borders.

Which is a non sequitur. Everyone contributing to a health insurance pool spreads the cost out making it cheaper for everyone. That's what the Republicans that wanted the "mandate" said.

The GOP also wanted people to be able to buy insurance across state lines and a whole host of other items that would have supplemented this.

The DNC never let them have it.

"Inclusio unius est exclusio alterius."

The Constitution was written and ratified only AFTER the Preamble to the Bill of Rights and the first 10 Amendments were added; any honest reading of that Preamble and the 9th and 10th make it clear that only the SPECIFIC NAMED POWERS are delegated, and arrogant arrogation of powers not delegated is usurpation, plain and simple, "precedent" or no precedent.

The Constitution is clear: few and defined powers.

With goodwill to all the People-

Hatman