Posted on 07/26/2012 4:38:10 PM PDT by chessplayer
(CNSNews.com) - The Justice Department last week presented the Newland family of Colorado--who own Hercules Industries, a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning business--with what amounted to an ultimatum: Give up your religion or your business.
“Hercules Industries has ‘made no showing of a religious belief which requires that [it] engage in the [HVAC] business,” the Justice Department said in a formal filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.
The Newlands currently run a self-insurance plan, providing their employees with generous health-care coverage that is consistent with the teachings of the Newlands' church in that it does not cover sterilizations, contraception and abortifacients. They are precisely among the class of people that the unanimous Catholic bishops said have “no conscience protection at all” under Sebelius's regulation.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
FMCDH(BITS)
Does anyone realize how difficult it is to grow a business from nothing and make it profitable and employ hundreds of people?
The Obama Administration wants to put the company out of business and have the employees thrown out into the street. The Obama Administration is destroying small businesses. They are destroying the economy. They are destroying America.
You just have to wonder when the Catholic hierarchy are going to come out from under their collective altars and excommunicate the likes of Sebillius (who claims to be a Catholic). And that goes for all the Kennedy’s and Pelosi too.
And while I’m on the subject, the Mormons need to excommunicate Harry Reid. He doesn’t come close to adhering to his church’s teachings.
January 20th seems so far away at moments like this.
One thing I don’t understand (although I sympathize). The article states that if they dump their employees on the government insurance plan, they’ll have to pay $2000 per employee per year. But, if they are already giving the employees a generous (if noncompliant because of lack of abortion coverage) plan, it has to cost them more than this. Why not dump the employees, give them a bonus that is the difference between their current costs and the penalty, and call it a day?
And Obama claims he is a Christian. More like the Anti-Christ, if you ask me, and I’m Jewish.
Holder has no religion other than Mamon and power. He is pure evil and a racist par excellence. A legal “StoneKiller”, if you will. Souless, heartless, hate-filled. Gee, the ultimate Obamite, like the Good Germans of WW2.
This is ridiculous. Someone wanna mail em the First Amendment?
Obama and his leftie pals want to make everyone in America pay for abortions collectively, so that nobody will have a clean conscience in the matter. Maybe they think that fewer people will speak out if we all have blood on our hands, or maybe they just think that they will feel less guilty if everyone else is guilty too.
Behind the scenes though, they are just doing the bidding of another master, who would be well pleased if we were forced to betray our conscience in order to do business:
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
For the last 3 1/2 years we are witnessing the death of private business.
Yup. Remember when he said when he was in the private sector he was working behind enemy lines? Something to the effect. He considers private businesses as enemies of the state that need to be eradicated.
I’m guessing because they see the self-insured plan as a benefit that keeps their employees happy. How happy would they be to be dumped into a crappy government health plan?
bkmk
Simple solution: Pay The Jizyah.
A lot harder than it is to become president of the USA.
I would love to see a baptism record in addition to the long list of other missing documents he can't seem to produce
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
I hope they take a risk on the second option. "Justice" Roberts wrote: p. 42 (page numbers on printed copy, which does not match pdf file page numbers) "Second, Congress's ability to use its taxing power to influence conduct is not without limits. A few of our cases policed these limits aggressively, invalidating punitive exactions obviously designed to regulate behavior regarded at the time as beyond federal authority . . . there comes a time in the extension of the penalizing features of the so-called tax when it loses its character as such and becomes a mere penalty with the characteristics of regulation and punishment."
and p. 58:
"In this case, however, it is reasonable to construe what Congress has done as increasing taxes on those who have a certain amount of income but choose to go without health insurance. Such legislation is within Congress's power to tax."
I would love to see Hercules v. Sebelius (this case if these good Christians stand up to evil) go to the Supremes and overturn the entire nightmare of ObamaCare. With a punitive fine of $9M per year, Roberts could play "good boy" who tried to be bipartisan, but Obama's power-hungry socialists overstepped in their power grab so that even Roberts was unable to twist the law into any form that looked constitutional, even by his disgustingly generous standards. Roberts wanted to play nice, but the bureaucrats grabbed for more and stepped across the line he had specifically drawn in the sand in the decision that gave Obama, Pelosi, and Reid their victory over the Constitution. This regulation is clearly punitive and thus not permissible under the power to tax.
Holder’s henchmen are blatant hypocrites. All the company needs to do is point out that Obama had no difficulty providing his Muslim comrades an exemption from the entire Obamacare because it would offend their religious beliefs.
Hussein calls it perfecting America.
It’s one of the few campaign promises he’s kept, and his mindless freak fans want more of this “fundamentally transforming America” horseclinton.
Kulaks! Enemies of The State! Exterminate them like our beloved Stalin did!
Probably one of the saddest stories that I have read. My there be an double-toast high heat for members of the Zero administration on this one. In fact, eternal damnation is rally not strong enough...
Precisely.
They keep pushing - this will result in a blowback that will do no one good.
Would you want YOUR employer to cut your benefits, and be thrown into a government insurance plan that probably doesn’t even exist as of yet? (Remember, the “collectives” aren’t even up and running yet - and, they might never be...).
Also, what about the employers right to freedom of religion in that they shouldn’t have to pay for services that violate their conscience and beliefs? That’s probably more serious in this case, because it’s going to be this way for ALL employers who have a moral dilemma when it comes to abortion funding, and Birth Control funding. Do you really think it’s a good thing that the government can do this to anyone?
Why isn’t this business eligible for a waiver like the unions and other gigantic corporations that Obama has excluded from needing to pay for — like MUSLIM-OWNED businesses? Do you see a pattern? This is ONLY affecting devout Christians and Catholics because the others are getting exemptions.
Uhhhhh,no.....they donate enough to do as they please, don’t cha see?
Ok, one more time. The plural of a Kennedy is Kennedys - you add an S at.the end. Not Kennedy’s.
Fire your government.
>>This is ONLY affecting devout Christians and Catholics because the others are getting exemptions.<<
If the devout Christians and Catholics want to continue to bow and bend to this half breed then they deserve to lose everything they refuse to fight for.
First They Came for the Jews
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.~Pastor Martin Niemöller
Community and individuality are not opposites. People cannot survive on their own. When the odds are stacked against you, you must rally with the oppressed and hated.
When a growing oppressive regime is taking hold, you must act, otherwise you will soon face your enemy alone and hopeless.
Strength of community is a strength as much as individualism, as long you are willing to face weaknesses in your own community. Ignoring slacking values will mean that you will be rallied against by those you oppress.
Niemöller affirms we must rally against unhealthy organized regimes. We must also stay vigilant with those that appear to be good natured, as all organisation attracts corruption. Niemöller also warns us that if it is you who are corrupt, then you will face a stronger combined force of foe!
~Vexen Crabtree
Are they going to close down Chick Fil A which is run by a Baptist and has Bible verses in the bathrooms?
Whose 91 year old founder is still teaching a boys Sunday School Class
They can’t do this to Catholics unless they do it to Muslims, Jews, baptists,etc.
THIS IS INCREDIBLE.
Only one solution to this...obama needs to lose.
Shades of the 1930’s in Germany
Interesting, and disgusting. This isn’t America anymore under the current lot of thugs.
Mrs. RQSR made the interesting observation: “Curious as to who is using their influence with the Obama DOJ to eliminate competition in the HVAC industry”.
“Someone wanna mail em the First Amendment? ...”
If by “em” you mean Obama and his purple shirts, the entire Bill of Rights has no relevance.
Re your post 23:
I agree the situation sucks. It’s heavy handed and the application of exemptions to cronies is corrupt.
However, I don’t see the “or shut the business down” as a necessity. Look at it this way:
If the employees share the same values as the employer, they wouldn’t be forced to use the abortion services. Further, even if the government plan is crappy, the caring employer could provide extra funds (the difference between the fine and what they had been paying) for an HSA.
If this isn’t acceptable, one might say that the employer is imposing his religious beliefs on the employees—if his objection is that their coverage would then ALLOW them to use abortion services.
I don’t like the government’s interference here any more than you do, but I don’t think it has to be a “or shut down your business” situation.
That's a reasonable inference. They could probably keep their employees happy by taking the difference between what they are currently paying and the fine, and putting it into employee HSAs, which would probably pick up the care quality differential.
I actually did shut down my business, gradually after the Dems started their rapid government expansion in 2006 and getting rid of my last employees shortly after Obama's election. There is a time when that is the right option, and they might do far more good for America by shutting down over an abortion mandate that violates the First Amendment and their God-given rights than they would do by installing HVAC systems.
That’s a choice, though, not a forced decision.
I sold my business and retired during the last administration. There’s no way I’d roll the dice and start one now, under this one.
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