And
this is happening in Boston, my hometown, the birthplace of the revolution against taxation without representation?
Technically the last day to sign up for insurance in compliance with that mandate was November 15, though as a practical measure Massachusetts residents actually had until January 1, 2008. Those without insurance as of that date will lose their personal exemption for the state income tax when they file this spring. In 2009, the penalty will increase to 50 percent of the cost of a standard insurance policy.
Such a mandate was, of course, a significant infringement on individual choice and liberty. As the Congressional Budget Office noted, the mandate was "unprecedented," and represented the first time that a state has required that an individual, simply because they live in a state and for no other reason, must purchase a specific government- designated product.
It was also a failure.
There was a moment during the presidential debates when Obama and McCain were asked if healthcare was a "right" as an American whether they consider health care to be a commodity, a right, or something else.
Obama thought it was a right, McCain referred to it as a responsibility.
Your "rights" as an American are clearly detailed in the aptly named "
Bill Of Rights". Those rights include things that government can take away such as; speech, guns, legal representation via due process, private property and rights solely vested in each state. And more specifically, the Bill of Rights guarantees what about these precious commodities the government CAN'T TAKE AWAY.
None of them include anything about what a Government should GIVE you. Our current president believes that healthcare is a right, and this is in direct contradiction of what our Bill of Rights clearly lays forward.
And he's the one with the Harvard Law degree.
I ask you, who is interpreting the constitution more accurately: one who agrees that healthcare is a responsibility or the one who thinks it is a right?
Gonna be a rough four years I imagine.
