Congress must reject intrusive health care bill
By
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Dear Editor:
I read with great interest Gary Lewis’ column about the proposed “Obamacare” health care reform bill in the Sept.12 edition of The Highland County Press.
As we celebrate Constitution Week (Sept.14-18), I think it is only appropriate that the inherent unconstitutionality of the aforementioned proposed legislation be exposed and debated.
The health care bill is a wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing. The ridiculous assertion that free Americans should not be afforded the choice of opting out of universal health insurance without fear of financial penalty or some other type of reprisal, is concomitantly laughable and frightening.
Moreover,it points to a sinister harbinger of things to come:in what other ways will our federal and state government choose to attempt to intrude into our lives, homes, care of our children, personal choices, and lifestyles?
We haven’t merely become a police state or a welfare state, we’ve become a kindergarten state. The federal government ensures that we all have a mandatory, federally supported education,but likewise presumes us too ignorant to make choices regarding our own health care or that of our children. Big Brother is rapidly appearing, telling us it’s too cold to go outside without a sweater, and if we do, we’re gonna lose our allowance.
The bill in question drones on ad nauseam for about 1,018 pages. By the time you’re done reading it, you just might need to see a doctor and/or a psychiatrist to deal with your reaction to some of the more deceptively sinister aspects of it.
Had I not read Mr.Lewis’ column, I may not have been prompted to do so, but in perusing some sections of the bill, I am struck by what I call The Audacity of Scope. In the outwardly noble quest of preserving and protecting our citizens’ health, the proposed legislation would potentially inflict a fatal blow to our Fourth Amendment rights, which were already developing a bit of a rash. To wit, cleverly hidden on P. 838 of the health care reform bill, appropriately shielded under the heading miscellaneous, a subpart in this section appropriates an annually incrementing fund of between $50 million and $250 million to pay for “voluntary home visits” to homes with young children in poor neighborhoods,presumably with the goal of preventing child maltreatment. One wonders why low-income families should be persuaded to allow voluntary home visits by social service workers if the real intent of the bill is to facilitate court or child welfare intervention in the lives of low-income disadvantaged parents in some sort of child dependency fishing expedition that those parents’ Fourth Amendment rights would normally have protected. One is prompted to wonder how such a program would be implemented, and if the massive amount of tax dollars for such a plan would be better applied toward substantive social program such as drug treatment or affordable housing solutions, rather than the euphemistically coined “home visits,” which may amount to nothing more than government spying.
The health care bill has the potential to intrude on our lives in ways the founding fathers could never have imagined. Those who fought to found this country didn’t just sacrifice their health for our freedom, they died for it. Please do not allow their efforts to be in vain. Do not allow our legislators to sell this nation’s spine for a bottle of pills and an MRI.
Sincerely,
Juliane A. Cartaino
Hillsboro[[In-content Ad]]
I read with great interest Gary Lewis’ column about the proposed “Obamacare” health care reform bill in the Sept.12 edition of The Highland County Press.
As we celebrate Constitution Week (Sept.14-18), I think it is only appropriate that the inherent unconstitutionality of the aforementioned proposed legislation be exposed and debated.
The health care bill is a wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing. The ridiculous assertion that free Americans should not be afforded the choice of opting out of universal health insurance without fear of financial penalty or some other type of reprisal, is concomitantly laughable and frightening.
Moreover,it points to a sinister harbinger of things to come:in what other ways will our federal and state government choose to attempt to intrude into our lives, homes, care of our children, personal choices, and lifestyles?
We haven’t merely become a police state or a welfare state, we’ve become a kindergarten state. The federal government ensures that we all have a mandatory, federally supported education,but likewise presumes us too ignorant to make choices regarding our own health care or that of our children. Big Brother is rapidly appearing, telling us it’s too cold to go outside without a sweater, and if we do, we’re gonna lose our allowance.
The bill in question drones on ad nauseam for about 1,018 pages. By the time you’re done reading it, you just might need to see a doctor and/or a psychiatrist to deal with your reaction to some of the more deceptively sinister aspects of it.
Had I not read Mr.Lewis’ column, I may not have been prompted to do so, but in perusing some sections of the bill, I am struck by what I call The Audacity of Scope. In the outwardly noble quest of preserving and protecting our citizens’ health, the proposed legislation would potentially inflict a fatal blow to our Fourth Amendment rights, which were already developing a bit of a rash. To wit, cleverly hidden on P. 838 of the health care reform bill, appropriately shielded under the heading miscellaneous, a subpart in this section appropriates an annually incrementing fund of between $50 million and $250 million to pay for “voluntary home visits” to homes with young children in poor neighborhoods,presumably with the goal of preventing child maltreatment. One wonders why low-income families should be persuaded to allow voluntary home visits by social service workers if the real intent of the bill is to facilitate court or child welfare intervention in the lives of low-income disadvantaged parents in some sort of child dependency fishing expedition that those parents’ Fourth Amendment rights would normally have protected. One is prompted to wonder how such a program would be implemented, and if the massive amount of tax dollars for such a plan would be better applied toward substantive social program such as drug treatment or affordable housing solutions, rather than the euphemistically coined “home visits,” which may amount to nothing more than government spying.
The health care bill has the potential to intrude on our lives in ways the founding fathers could never have imagined. Those who fought to found this country didn’t just sacrifice their health for our freedom, they died for it. Please do not allow their efforts to be in vain. Do not allow our legislators to sell this nation’s spine for a bottle of pills and an MRI.
Sincerely,
Juliane A. Cartaino
Hillsboro[[In-content Ad]]