Posted on 12/02/2013 5:13:21 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
(CNSNews.com) - Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a liberal Democrat, says decisions about health care should rest with the federal government, not with individual employers who pay for their workers' health insurance.
"So, you know, this is one country," Dean told CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley on Sunday. "We all have to live by a set of things that are passed in Washington and agreed to by the court. We'll see what the court does, but I don't think a particular employer has a right to decide what kind of health care their employees are going to get. That's now in the hands of the federal government, and that's where it should be."
Dean was talking about the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to hear Hobby Lobby's challenge to the Affordable Care Act's birth control-abortion-sterilization mandate. The store's owners are devout Catholics who argue that the government cannot compel them to violate their deeply held religious beliefs.
Dean, a liberal Democrat, said he has "no idea" how the U.S. Supreme Court will rule: "They haven't been entirely favorable to women's ability to control their own reproductive lives. So I -- but I don't have any idea," Dean said.
"My view of that is we're a single country, and I don't think employers get to impose their religious beliefs on their employees or any other beliefs, for that matter. I mean, this idea that we can pick and choose what we're going to do is a tough idea. I was deeply opposed to the Vietnam War and I thought it was immoral because we were being lied to by our own government. I still paid my taxes and the people who didn't pay their taxes went to jail."
Former Sen. Rick Santorum, who appeared with Dean, said the federal government should not be making moral decisions for American citizens.
"I mean, the idea that the First Amendment stops after you walk out of a church, that it doesn't have anything to do with how you live the rest of your life, I don't know very many people of faith who believes that their religion ends with just worship. It ends in how you practice and live that faith.
"And now...what President Obama's saying, no, once you step outside that church door, then I get to impose my values on you. Your religious values don't matter anymore, it's my values that I can impose on you. I don't think that's what the First Amendment stands for and I don't think that's what the court will say."
I am more than ready. I really can’t stand living like this. I don’t think I’ll survive three more years.
Ditto. And we get the Constitution. The Dems aren’t using it anyway.
Well, yes!
We are one country after all, and if the majority speaks, he shouldn't have a problem with it.
Dean, you have the right to f*** off.
That is all.
Amen.
I wish we’d just get it over with. You know as well as I do where these tyrannical usurpations will eventually lead us.
I say we just go ahead and divide up the nation as peacefully as possible now; because the alternative will be horrifically bloody.
Does this braying jackass really not understand that this is not about "what kind of health care" someone's employees are going to get, but what are the characteristics and dimensions of the insurance benefits to be provided to employees by an employer. Not the same thing. Not at all.
That being said, Dr. Dean, evidently a low-information voter, is unsurprisingly clueless to the reality that the states have never delegated to Congress, via the Constitution, the specific power to regulate, tax and spend for public healthcare purposes. But if Mr. Dean wises up to the federal government's constitutionally limited powers, he will understand that he needs to do the following if he wants a constitutionally compliant national healthcare program.
He needs to work with his federal and state lawmakers to propose a healthcare amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification. And if the states chose to ratify the amendment, then the USA would have a constitutionally compliant national healthcare program and Dr. Dean would be a hero.
the preamble to employer provided healthcare getting dropped next year..knock employer provided healthcare from now until it gets dropped. All democrats will no doubt be singing the same tune on every freakin’ show they appear on.
Let’s take a poll... We’ll sample heavily from Districts that watch Duck Dynasty or have Ted Nugent “liked” on their Facebook accounts.
That’s at least as fair as them sampling downtown New Yorkers right?
you and me both..be lucky to survive the next 3 months...
Hey Howie!
Health Insurance is a “benefit” employers CHOOSE to offer employees.
It is NOT a “Right”!
It is NOT a commodity the government has the CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY to DEMAND employers provide.
Neither are the details or the nature of the coverage, the purview of the government.
If an employee doesn’t like the healthcare offered by his/her employer they have two options, 1) Waive insurance coverage and get your own or 2) go to work at a place that offers a plan you like.
It’s either that...or Syrian Style.
When Dean criticized the IPAB (and validated Governor Palin’s point about “Death Panels”), I was hoping he’d come around and maybe go after Obamacare from the left.
Because there is only one party now.
FMCDH(BITS)
Thanks for the ping!
Thanks Tolerance Sucks Rocks.
Typical leftist.
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