Morning Bell: Obamacare Awakens a Sleeping Giant

It is a rare moment indeed when faith denominations of all stripes unite together in common cause, and it is rarer still when that cause is a political one, with a sole piece of legislation as its principal target. But when that law eviscerates the very foundation of religious liberty in America as protected under the First Amendment, it should not be surprising that Catholics and Jews, evangelical Christians, and mainline Lutherans alike find common cause in defense of their liberties.

Such is the case with the firestorm of opposition to Obamacare and the Obama Administration’s attack on religious liberty. Under a new Obamacare mandate issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the White House is mandating that virtually all religious employers, with the exception of churches, provide health care coverage for contraception — including abortion-inducing drugs — thereby trampling upon their constitutionally guaranteed free exercise of religion. And it is this mandate that has caused a vehement response in churches and synagogues across the country.

Yesterday, the head of the Catholic League, Bill Donohue, warned that the nation’s 70 million Catholics are ready to go to war with the Administration’s dictates, saying “Never before, unprecedented in American history, for the federal government to line up against the Roman Catholic Church. This is going to be fought out with lawsuits, with court decisions, and, dare I say it, maybe even in the streets.”

Donohue’s remarks follow those of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and at least 153 Catholic bishops across the country who have weighed in with opposition to the mandate. “We Catholics will be compelled to either violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees and suffer the penalties for doing so,” wrote Bishop Alexander Sample of Marquette, Michigan. Those penalties include fines imposed by the federal government that could cost larger organizations millions of dollars per year.

The Obama Administration is beginning to feel the pressure. On Sunday, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius authored an op-ed in USA Today defending the Obama Administration’s actions, claiming that a very narrow exemption to the mandate is evidence that the White House is “working to strike the right balance between respecting religious beliefs and increasing women’s access to critical preventive health services.” That exemption, though, does not apply to institutions like religious schools and hospitals. Sebelius might claim the Administration is offering grace to people of faith, but in fact it is not. In an editorial that ran the same day as Sebelius,’ USA Today agreed with those standing on the side of religious liberty, writing that “in drawing up the rules that will govern health care reform” the Obama Administration “galloped over” the line and violated the “simple proposition that the government should steer away from meddling in church affairs.”

The Obama Administration’s actions, though entirely counter to the freedom of religion, should not be surprising given the nature of the President’s health care law. Obamacare has given the federal government broad power over one-sixth of the American economy and thereby purports to grant Washington the power to force religious institutions to take actions contrary to their faith. Addington writes that this kind of concentration of power “has proved to be a drastic and dangerous experiment.” America’s religious leaders and the faithful have awoken to this wolf at their door and are lashing out in defense of their freedoms. Congress, too, should act now by repealing Obamacare and restoring the religious liberty that is so central to our way of life.

I wouldn’t discount the possibility that this is all a big bait and switch, and that in a few months Obama is going to magnanimously reverse what he will call “Sebelius’s overreach” or something, and reinstate the conscience exception clause to Obamacare. The press will spin it as showing how deeply Obama cares about Catholics and other people of faith, et cetera., and all will be forgiven and the RC Bishops will endorse Obama for President again.

Or am I too cynical?

I said a similar thing on an earlier post, but I didn't ax whether I was too cynical.

With this communist, halfrican, mooselimb low life prick, there is nothing that he wouldn't do to keep his personal servants and his female companion's free rides {his male companion, reggie love, went back to chicago}.

When GWB was President, I never could understand how libs could say that Bush wasn't their President, I now understand now concur, this communist prick isn't my President.

"Or am I too cynical?"

I don't think you're being "too cynical", Barry is totally capable of the sort of thing you suggest. However, in this case, I'm not so sure Barry was focused on dealing specifically with Catholics as much as he was focused on making BarryCare look more like RomneyCare by the time the Republicans officially have Bishop Romney as their candidate. Whenever you look at something Barry does that relates in any way impacts religion, you have to look at what Barry has gobbled up about Jooooz and Catholics for his entire life. Rev. Wright would periodically go on rants about the Jooooz running the world and equally as often go on long rants right out of the Mooze Lame book of lies about the Catholic Church. Wright is solidly among the anti-Catholic conspiracy theorists who believe the Catholic Church has billions and trillions tucked away in Swiss bank accounts along with an unlimited ability to wring money out of parishioners. Looking at the "insights" into the Catholic Church from Rev. Wright Barry's belief that the State can dictate to religion just as it does in totalitarian Iz Lame Ick countries, and I think Barry and his "Catholic" HHS pals would just see dollar signs when they looked at the Catholic Church. They figured they had the perfect way to infuse a ton of money into BarryCare which would, on paper, make it seem closer to solvent as well as providing benefits "everyone wants and deserves". They looked at the balance sheet for RomneyCare and figured they could match it if they bled enough money out of the Catholic Church and any other religious group they thought they could count on to pay the penalties rather than providing the benefits.

Since Barry was so successful in attracting Catholics in Name Only and has the full support of the "Catholics" like Nasty Pelosi, he thought that US Bishops wouldn't resist this and wouldn't listen to Rome. Instead, he figured they'd just dig into that mythical pile of money they have to pay the penalty for each employee, and in doing so, go a long way to making BarryCare look just as "solvent" as RomneyCare. Considering the number of nominally Catholic Hospitals Barry figured it was a slam dunk way to pour money into BarryCare and after the Church announced it would not comply and would instead pay the fines, Barry could easily defend BarryCare as being every bit as "practical" as RomneyCare.

Narcissists don't think in terms of "bait and switch" politics except in fairly desperate cases where they've rationalized doing so into not being an admission that they needed help from a particular person or group. That's exactly why Barry remained aloof from all the wheeling and dealing to get BarryCare passed. He doesn't see himself as someone who has to lower himself to bargaining. Someone may convince him he should modify his position prior to the election, but now that the Church is actively resisting him, it's going to be touch and go to sell a reversal to him and anything else is going to be so clearly a scam no one is going to buy it.

Once there are Catholics who publicly agree with him rather than the Pope and US Bishops, the ego rush Barry gets from looking at how many Catholics prefer him to the Church is going to be hard for him to give up. He may well back down prior to the election if practical political considerations prevail, but now that even US Bishops have gone on the warpath against him, backing down would do him more harm with the left than it would help him among Catholics. No one will believe that anything he says will stick beyond election day.

The only thing you can ever really count on with Barry is that he'll do whatever feeds his narcissistic bubble and keeps him from having to face reality. His "in crowd" knows this and at this point will only make a change if they can sell it to Barry in a way that feeds his ego.

JMHO

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