Free Republic

Bookies are making bets on whether some version of ObamaCare will pass this year, but with five bills floating around, there is no betting on what it will look like. The threat of a "public option" has generated the hottest protest with voters understanding that the unfair competition of a government plan will quickly destroy the private health insurance system. By contrast some conservatives have expressed support for Senate Finance Committee proposal requiring that everyone must purchase insurance. After all, they reason, isn't it just a matter of fairness to expect everyone to bear responsibility for their own care? In...

Just about all of us want some kind of health care reform. But different people want different things from that reform. One trouble with crafting legislation that would make some people happy is that it would make other people unhappy. But the proposals put forth so far by Democrats, and supported by President Obama, have the unique gift of satisfying virtually no one. ObamaCare, inasmuch as there is such a thing, is bound to disappoint you, no matter what you'd like to see in health care reform.

Peter Fleckenstein spent a huge amount of time reading H.R. 3200 and found hundreds of provisions that do nothing less than give government complete control of our very lives. This is a stark list that should frighten any freedom loving American from any support for this anti-American president and his socialist Congressional majority. Aside from this frightening list, Fleckenstein has more at his site http://blog.flecksoflife.com. Read on and be afraid… be very afraid of Obama’s un-American plans to control your life: Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

It has been estimated that employer mandates forced on businesses by H.R. 3200 and the other legislation barreling through Congress will cost America’s businesses $49 billion a year if passed. According to the Heritage Foundation the mandates in the bills now under consideration will force employers to buy healthcare insurance for their employees or pay a per head tax to the federal government. This could affect between 95 million to 105 million workers and about 1 million small businesses. What will this mean to America’s business community? Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

Federal Powers: Where in the U.S. Constitution does it say the government can force people to buy health insurance? And by what authority does it prohibit the purchasing of insurance across state lines?A key part of the administration's plan to reform health care is what is called the "individual mandate" — a requirement that everyone must have health insurance either through his or her employer or purchased individually. A good chunk of the uninsured are that way of their own volition. They are young and healthy and feel they have better things to do with their money at this point...

Analysis Finds Baucus Health Care Bill Contains Abortion Subsidies, Mandates Washington, DC -- An analysis from the National Right to Life Committee of the new bill Senator Max Baucus unveiled today finds massive abortion subsidies and mandates. The bill comes as an attempt to find compromise but hasn't earned Republican support in part because of the abortion funding. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5476.html

(CNSNews.com) – Restaurant chains with 20 or more stores would be required to display nutrition information, including calorie counts and “suggested daily caloric intake” on their menus, under a mandate contained in the health-care reform bill drafted by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

'I'm personally very concerned about the cost issue," said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, referring to Congress' health-care plans. It's "the mother of all unfunded mandates," fumed Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen. That's just the Democratic governors. Indeed, nearly everone from both parties at last weekend's National Governors Association conference was sounding alarms, fretting that the states will be stuck with much of the bill for "reform." Welcome aboard, governors. With each passing day, it seems, another voice is heard from. Last week, the Congressional Budget Office warned that reforms would fuel government costs. The governors, in particular, fear that their...

Governor vetoes climate change curriculum California public students will stick to reading, writing and arithmetic, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger decided as he vetoed a bill late Friday that would have required climate change be added to schools' curriculum. The measure, sponsored by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, also would have required future science textbooks to include climate change as a subject. In January, the state Senate approved the bill, SB 908, by a 26-13 vote. Only two Republicans supported the proposal. In his veto statement, Schwarzenegger said he supported education that spotlights the dangers of climate change. However, the Republican...

Hiding behind the mesmerizing power of identity politics, in this case multiplied by two, the left is about to capture America by stealth. Senators Clinton and Obama are the perfect agents.... In addition to public ownership, which doesn't work, and the Democrats' standard formula of higher taxes and spending, which is destructive, the inevitable next step is to add a system of "mandates." Under this mutation, government allows for the continuation of private property and businesses, but only in modified form. Government selectively intervenes to direct how property is used or a business is run — and, to the extent...

Top execs say it might be tough to provide enough digital converters. Two top CE retail executives yesterday expressed deep concern over the nation's planned switch to Digital TV. On February 17, 2009, all local broadcasters must switch their analog signals to digital which means viewers will need a Digital TV, a digital converter box or a pay TV subscription to watch television. The federal government has begun taking applications for $40 coupons for the digital converters, which will enable analog TVs to display the new digital signals. But Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson said yesterday that he's "very nervous"...

With the end of the year fast approaching, uninsured Massachusetts residents are scrambling to sign up for health care plans and avoid being among the first to face tax penalties for failing to get insurance before Dec. 31. It's a deadline with practical and political implications. For the still-uninsured, failure to meet the deadline could translate into a loss of their personal exemption when they file their 2007 state income tax returns in April -- a $219 hit. For Mitt Romney the political hit could be far bigger. The specter of residents in his home state being penalized for not...

Parents believe they have the right to decide what medical treatments are best for their children. But state lawmakers think otherwise because of a disease that has become both a feminist and a public health cause celebre. Across America lawmakers want to compel young girls to be inoculated against human papillomavirus (HPV) years before most become sexually active because there is a chance it can cause cervical cancer. Is replacing parental judgment with mandates by lawmakers and courts good for society?...... Legislators in at least 41 states and the District of Columbia have introduced legislation to require, fund or educate...

Here we go again. HillaryCare is back, and its apparent that Sen. Clinton has learned little since the American people overwhelmingly rejected her last attempt to overhaul the U.S. health care system. Once again her plan, which would cost $110 billion per year in new taxes, calls for greater government control over American health care. If her plan were to pass this time, it would mean higher taxes, lost jobs, less patient choice, and poorer quality health care. Among the worst features of her proposal: An individual mandate. Sen. Clinton would require every American to purchase health insurance or face...

If you have any doubts government-mandated minimum-wage laws kill jobs for the poor rather than lift them out of poverty, just take a look at what is happening right now in American Samoa. The latest minimum-wage law passed by Congress calls specifically for hikes in the U.S. territory – 50 cents a year annually until the continental rate of $7.25 is reached. This Washington-knows-best, one-size-fits-all approach is killing jobs in Samoa already – just days after it was signed into law by President Bush last Friday. StarKist had planned to expand its tuna production next month by hiring some 200-300...

School districts and local governments are entitled to be repaid for the cost of running programs the state Legislature requires them to operate, a Sacramento County Superior Court judge ruled in a decision published Monday. The California School Boards Association, the city of Newport Beach, Sweetwater Union High School District in San Diego County and the counties of Fresno and Los Angeles sued the state over a bill passed in 2005. They objected because it allowed the state to avoid reimbursing school districts for the costs associated with operating state mandated-programs. In a ruling dated March 13 but published Monday,...

A decision by major insurance and business groups to support legislation requiring health insurers to treat mental illnesses the same way as physical ailments could mean better mental-health coverage, at least for many who already receive it. A bill introduced by a bipartisan group of senators -- Pete Domenici (R., N.M.), Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.) and Mike Enzi (R., Wyo.) -- doesn't mandate that group health plans cover mental illness. Instead, it requires that plans, if they cover both mental and physical illnesses, treat both with "parity," or similar benefits, such as deductibles, co-payments and treatment limitations. Employers with fewer...

Four Republican legislators called today for a gas tax "holiday" that would cut gasoline prices in Minnesota by 20 cents a gallon from July through December. But the proposal is loaded down with conditions that might mean it never will become law. The plan is conditioned on House members, who already voted to provide about $317 million in property tax rebates and income tax relief for married couples, changing their minds and voting to provide the gas tax relief, instead. And, like the property tax rebates and income tax cuts for married people, the gas tax relief would also be...

Never say Congress isn't willing to accept blame -- as long as it can assign it to someone else. Having mandated the use of the fuel additive MTBE, the Members now want to shake down the companies foolish enough to have made the product. This is the real story behind the debate over MTBE, which has once again become the sticking point in the House-Senate conference over the energy bill. The House has passed modest liability protection for MTBE makers, while Senate Democrats are threatening a filibuster if there's any such thing in the final bill. If we're lucky, the...

Republicans haven't been getting much credit on the health policy front, despite their misguided 2003 drug entitlement masquerading as Medicare "reform." That could change soon. Last week the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved a bill that could dramatically reduce the ranks of the uninsured and spur general economic growth--all without costing a dime to the Treasury. The idea... is disarmingly simple: Allow Americans to buy health insurance from vendors in any one of the 50 states. Right now Americans who aren't lucky enough to get insurance from large employers or poor enough to qualify for Medicaid find themselves at...