Free Republic

Regardless of how important birth control may be for you personally, it has all of the health necessity of a cough drop. Mandating that insurance providers pay for cough drops sounds ridiculous, and it is. But what’s the difference between paying for that and paying for birth control, which can be cheaply purchased in its most common form and provides an equally non-essential service to overall health? (Krugman, let me save you the trouble of catching my subliminal messaging: Halls, the GOP militia is coming for you next.)

As the recent battle for a proper understanding of religious liberty shows, our culture and many of our government leaders and organizations are becoming increasingly secularized and hostile to religion and religious practice.Yet another example of this is a recent rule change in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). According to this program, a person who has been engaged in Public Service employment for ten years, can have the remainder of their Student Loan form the government forgiven, presuming they have faithfully been paying it up till then.However, a recent rule change now excludes those who are involved in any...

Give him points for cleverness. President Obama’s birth control “accommodation” was as politically successful as it was morally meaningless. It was nothing but an accounting trick that still forces Catholic (and other religious) institutions to provide medical insurance that guarantees free birth control, tubal ligation and morning-after abortifacients — all of which violate church doctrine on the sanctity of life. The trick is that these birth control/abortion services will supposedly be provided independently and free of charge by the religious institution’s insurance company. But this changes none of the moral calculus. Holy Cross Hospital, for example, is still required by...

A leading group of U.S. doctors is trying to tackle the costly problem of excessive medical testing, hoping to avoid more government intervention in how they practice. The American College of Physicians (ACP), the largest U.S. medical specialty group, is rolling out guidelines to help doctors better identify when patients should screen for specific diseases and when they can be spared the cost, and potentially invasive procedures that follow. Many individual U.S. medical centers have launched their own efforts to build a protocol of patient care in fields such as diabetes or obstetrics, but the ACP effort has the potential...

The recent Obama mandate for universal birth control gave the Republicans an opportunity to fight for individual liberty -- and they missed it by a mile. Instead of attacking government-imposed health care as a violation of liberty, they only selected a minute fraction of the leviathan and subjected it to very narrow criteria. This was an opportunity to aim for the heart of ObamaCare, but critics asked for only a minor adjustment -- and that's all they got. Government-mandated health care violates individual rights. The objection of Catholics to the funding of contraceptives is just one example of forcing people...

"This constitutional trifecta — the state invading the autonomy of religious institutions, private companies and the individual citizen — should not surprise. It is what happens when the state takes over one-sixth of the economy."

If requiring Catholic universities and hospitals to cover contraception for employees ends up hurting President Obama with Catholic voters, then Wisconsin is one place to keep an eye on. That’s because it’s one of the most Catholic of the presidential swing states. Among this year’s likely electoral battlegrounds, only New Hampshire (38%) and New Mexico (36%) had a higher percentage of Catholic voters than Wisconsin (33%) in 2008, according to exit polls: An Administration decision not to exempt religious employers from a mandate to cover contraception has sparked an outcry among church officials and leading Republicans. (Churches are exempt from...

From Miami, Florida to Seattle, Washington– Every single Roman Catholic bishop in the United States has condemned in public the Obamacare HHS mandate — all 180 bishops who lead dioceses in the U.S. have spoken. This is a simply incredible, unified, universal Catholic witness on this critical issue of religious freedom.(To those wondering about my methodology, it is now negative instead of positive — I am no longer able to find a single Roman Catholic bishop who has NOT spoken out against the mandate publicly. It is also my presumption that this conclusion applies to all Eastern Rite and Sui...

The logic of the Obama Administration is that out of its sense of fairness, it will provide what America lacks. Not merely a chicken in every pot, but a condom, an insurance plan and any other convenience of modern life needed by those who otherwise might have to do without – or, perish the thought, have to fend for themselves. It’s quite incidental to the Equalizer-in-Chief that these acts of governmental “fairness” to balance all of life’s scales of inequity must come at someone’s expense, which tilts another scale out of balance. But, as we said, that’s incidental...

Obama administration concludes healthcare law waiver reviewBy Julian Pecquet - 02/16/12 04:12 PM ET The Obama administration on Thursday denied Wisconsin's request for a waiver from the healthcare law's medical loss ratio, while partially approving North Carolina's. With the two decisions, the Department of Health and Human Services has concluded its review of the 17 states that have requested a waiver from the law's requirement that individual market insurance plans spend at least 80 percent of premiums on medical care or give customers rebates. HHS has rejected 10 requests and approved modified applications from seven states. Wisconsin wanted a lower...

Candidates often say things when polling in the single digits that come back to haunt them when they start leading the polls. Last October, Rick Santorum gave an interview with an Evangelical blog called Caffeinated Thoughts, in which he said contraception is “not okay,” and that this would be a public policy issue he would tackle as President. In particular, he said he would “get rid of any idea that you have to have abortion coverage or contraceptive coverage” as a government policy.

Missouri Synod President tells House Committee: LCMS ‘religiously opposed to supporting abortion-causing drugs’ST. LOUIS—February 16, 2012—The Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, president of the St. Louis-based Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, was one of several witnesses to give testimony today during the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s hearing, “Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?” Following are Harrison’s comments to the committee: “Mr. Chairman, it’s a pleasure to be here. The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod is a body of some 6,200 congregations and 2.3 million members across the...

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/02/15/time-for-a-new-approach-to-alcohol/ "Material from independent.co.uk cannot be posted to FR per publisher’s copyright complaint," but see link. In Firefox you can select url and right click choose "Open in new tab." It is very relevant to the Nat. health care mandate

... A child’s mother sent the kid, a preschooler mind you, to school with a turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips and apple juice. Is there any conceivable grounds here for government intervention? No? Think again. Bauer reports that the lunch from home “failed the mandatory lunch inspection”...

KIRKWOOD, Missouri, February 9, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The President of the Missouri Lutheran Synod added his voice to the growing chorus of religious leaders from across denominational lines who are objecting to the HHS mandate requiring employers to cover sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs in their healthcare plans. “The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod objects to the use of drugs and procedures that are used to take the lives of unborn children, who are persons in the sight of God from the time of conception,” wrote Rev. Dr. Matthew Harrison, in a statement issued February 3rd. “Increasingly we are suffering overzealous...

LCMS reacts to contraceptive mandate 'accommodation' Missouri Synod president says church remains ‘deeply concerned’ about health plan mandate despite White House statement ST. LOUIS—February 14, 2012—The Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, issued a statement today in response to President Obama’s health plan “accommodation” for religious groups, which was announced last week: “In response to President Obama’s announcement Friday concerning an ‘accommodation’ to a previous mandate that health plans must cover all forms of birth control (even those that can kill the unborn), The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) remains deeply concerned. We strongly object to...

LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison will take part in a Capitol Hill hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in Washington, D. C., on Thursday, Feb. 16. The hearing will focus on the issues of freedom of religion and freedom of conscience in relation to the Obama administration's recent health-care ruling regarding contraceptives. The panel also will include Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist and Jewish leaders. The Rev. John T. Pless, who teaches theological ethics and is an assistant professor of Pastoral Ministry and missions at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, and Ann Stillman, vice-president and general...

Offended by President Obama's decision to force health insurers to pay for contraception and surgical sterilization? It gets worse: In the future, thanks to ObamaCare, the government will issue such health edicts on a routine basis—and largely insulated from public view. This goes beyond contraception to cancer screenings, the use of common drugs like aspirin, and much more. Under ObamaCare, a single committee—the United States Preventative Services Task Force—is empowered to evaluate preventive health services and decide which will be covered by health-insurance plans. The task force already rates services with letter grades of "A" through "D" (or "I," if...

One of life's minor annoyances occurs when someone receives preferential treatment because of his wealth or perceived power. Many people have experienced this firsthand when a "VIP" comes into a restaurant and jumps ahead while they've been waiting for a table. This offends most Americans because it is contrary to our sense of fair play. It divides people into elites and everyone else. This is where we are heading with health care. Don't think so? Well, on October 11, 2011, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) declared that PSA screening for prostate cancer in healthy men was no longer...

ROME (CNS) -- Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan of New York said Feb. 13 that President Barack Obama's proposed revision to the contraceptive mandate in the health reform law did nothing to change the U.S. bishops' opposition to what they regard as an unconstitutional infringement on religious liberty. "We bishops are pastors, we're not politicians, and you can't compromise on principle," said Cardinal-designate Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "And the goal posts haven't moved and I don't think there's a 50-yard line compromise here," he added. "We're in the business of reconciliation, so it's not that we...

COMMUNISM BY INSURANCE MANDATEFebruary 15, 2012 One theory for why Barack Obama pushed the contraception mandate right now is that it helps Rick Santorum. Others theorize it's because Obama is an anti-religious bigot with a left-wing agenda. Reasonable minds can disagree on this. But it may end up helping Mitt Romney by reminding people that the "individual mandate" is the least of the problems with ObamaCare. (The "individual mandate" is simply the legal argument for why ObamaCare is unconstitutional in a country that has accepted Social Security and Medicare as constitutional.) This isn't a Catholic issue or even a...

BOSTON (CBS) – The national health care reform law requires insurance companies to cover 100% of the cost of screening tests for dozens of potentially deadly diseases. But thousands of patients are finding out the hard way that free doesn’t always mean free. When Jim Dungee had his first colonoscopy, doctors found several polyps, which are a precursor to colon cancer. “Therefore, I had to come back in three years,” he said. The three year mark was back in December. Knowing the test could save his life, Jim did not hesitate to make an appointment. He even called his insurance...

RUSH: Obama's budget director. What's this guy's name? (interruption) What? No, no, no. That's the chief of staff. This guy's name is Zients, Z-i-e-n-t-s. Anyway, he was being questioned by a Republican congressman from New Jersey today Scott Garrett, on C-SPAN3 and he's being asked questions about Obama's budget. And, for example, Scott Garrett says (paraphrased exchange): "Will there be a tax increase on those making under $200,000 in Obama's budget?" The budget director says, "No." Then Scott Garrett says, "Well, if it's a tax when a family doesn't buy a health insurance policy as mandated by Obamacare and they...

As physicians and Members of Congress we were deeply disappointed in President Obama’s new so-called “contraception mandate,” including his decision to coerce employers into providing coverage for medications that terminate human life.

Testifying before Congress this morning, President Obama's acting budget director Jeffrey Zients directly undercut one of the administration's key legal defenses of its national health care law as it nears a hearing before the Supreme Court. In a hearing of the House Budget Committee Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., pressed Zients on whether the penalty that the health care law imposes on individuals who do not purchase health insurance constitutes a tax. Eventually, Zients said it did not. Snip Now the administration is making both arguments simultaneously. Before Congress, Zients is arguing that it is not a tax. But before the...

Gallup polled small-business owners (value under $20M) about their expansion plans in early January, which for some strange reason didn’t get reported until today. Among those who do not plan to hire — 85% of the entire sample — almost half of all such businesses cited expected costs from health care coverage and government regulation: U.S. small-business owners who aren’t hiring — 85% of those surveyed — are most likely to say the reasons they are not doing so include not needing additional employees; worries about weak business conditions, including revenues; cash flow; and the overall U.S. economy. Additionally, nearly...

As the liberal website Slate has explained about Obamacare, President Obama's signature legislation "combine[s] an express mandatory insurance requirement with tax penalties . . . for noncompliance." Which is why the Obama "administration’s lawyers have cited . . . the tax . . . power in support of the mandate," and that remains a central tenet of the administration's Supreme Court case in defending Obamacare. It is not the White House is mandating care, they are telling the Supreme Court, but it's that one will be taxed if he does not get health care. But today on Capitol Hill, acting...

President Obama released his FY 2013 budget [Monday] morning. By his own numbers, his budget raises net taxes over the next decade by $1.56 trillion (Table S-9, page 225). As a percentage of the economy, tax revenues would rise all the way to 20.1% of GDP in 2022, far higher than the historical tax revenue average of 18.3% of GDP (Table S-1, page 205). Here are some of the tax lowlights: All 20 of the new or higher taxes in Obamacare are assumed to take place. That means that there will be a 3.8 percentage point surtax on investment income....

A poll taken Feb 1 – 5 shows that by a 58/ 37 margin “Catholics” support a government mandate requiring all employers who provide health care plans for their workers to include abortion and/or birth control coverage at no cost. Nevertheless, in spite of this 21 point edge some high profile “Catholic” Democrats are walking away from Obama on this issue. This begs an important question: Why would these CINO (Catholic In Name Only) abortion supporting Democrats be afraid to stand with Obama ? The PROOF that Catholics DON’T care is right there in black and white! It’s twenty one...

PRINCETON, NJ -- U.S. small-business owners who aren't hiring -- 85% of those surveyed -- are most likely to say the reasons they are not doing so include not needing additional employees; worries about weak business conditions, including revenues; cash flow; and the overall U.S. economy. Additionally, nearly half of small-business owners point to potential healthcare costs (48%) and government regulations (46%) as reasons. One in four are not hiring because they worry they may not be in business in 12 months. Companies typically hold back on hiring when the economy is weak and when their operating environment is not...

President Obama firmly placed one foot into a political quagmire by supporting Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ decision to renege on the “conscience exception” to Obamacare. This allowed religious organizations to opt out of providing health care coverage for contraception and sterilization. Sebelius’ decision placed Catholic employers squarely on the horns of a dilemma. They could either violate their religious beliefs or pay a huge fine to HHS. When the president offered a compromise in response to mounting public outcry, instead of backing away from the controversy, he planted his other foot into the muck.

Rep. Scott Garrett (R., N.J.) had a nice gambit just now in a hearing with President Obama’s acting OMB director Jeffrey Zients. First he asked Zients if the Obama budget imposes any new taxes on Americans making less than $200,000. When Zients answered that it did not, Garrett followed up by asking if an individual making less than $200,000 a year opted not to carry health insurance, in contravention of the Affordable Care Act, is the fine associated with that decision a tax? After some hemming and hawing, Zients answered that the fine did not constitute an tax.

from JillStanek.com Call your senator NOW: Reid to allow vote on repeal of contraceptive mandateLast week Democrat pseudo-pro-life Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blocked a vote on a bill sponsored by Republican pro-life Senator Roy Blunt to repeal President Obama’s contraception/abortifacient/sterilization mandate. Word this afternoon is Reid will allow the measure – #1520, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act – to be voted on, as soon as today. These senators are said to be on the fence and need a call asap: Casey (PA) Conrad (ND) Johnson (SD) Landrieu (LA) Lieberman (CT) McCaskill (MO) Nelson (FL) Pryor (AR) Tester...

‘It’s not about contraception,” thundered GOP presidential contender Rick Santorum. “It’s about economic liberty. It’s about freedom of speech. It’s about freedom of religion. It’s about government control of your lives. And it’s got to stop!” He was talking, of course, about the Obama administration’s recent decisions first to force large religious employers to pay for birth control and “preventive services” (including sterilization and abortifacient drugs), and then to demand that the relevant insurance companies provide it for “free” instead. The “accommodation” — the White House rightly refuses to call it a compromise — is a farce. If you’re paying...

Obamacare -- Just Another Democrat Brick in the 2012 WallBy Patricia Campion 9 hrs ago **SNIP** When the dust settled, Democrats staggered from the election rubble to realize they had received the worst political drubbing in 70 years. On the brighter side, considering the flaccid economy, a growing record deficit, the first credit rating downgrade in United States history, continued stagnant unemployment, having a record number of Americans living below poverty level and dependent on government assistance, a growing list of Solyndra-esque failures, Fast and Furious, the tenuous state of Obama's foreign policy, gas prices rising 83 percent during Obama's...

First, he came for the General Motors bondholders, but the religious leaders were not GM bondholders, so they did not speak up. Then he came for the oil companies, but they were not oil company executives, and again they did not speak up. Next, he came for control of the nation’s health care system, and again they saw no threat — in fact, many of them supported his plan. We were told we had to pass the plan to could find out what was in it. Then he came for our freedom of religion, and we found out what was...

Desperate to win re-election, President Obama is taking inspiration from a tactic used by China’s Chairman Mao during so-called "Cultural Revolution."In order to spread his ideology, he creates his own army of brainwashed propagandists who are supposed to popularize talking points sent to them directly from the White House. Modern days hongweibings (Chinese for red guards) are called the Truth Team, and if everything goes as planned, the president will have an army of over two million Americans on his side.The Obama administration unveiled on Monday a campaign created to crush the GOP competition come November, a mission that...

RUSH: I want to move on to this Dick Morris business and the attack on the Catholic Church last week by Obama. I want to ask you, if you remember back in January there was a presidential debate, a Republican debate in Manchester. Do you remember -- 'cause this is a setup for what's coming -- do you remember, we were all perplexed here. George Stephanopoulos kept hounding Romney on contraception. It had not come up, nobody had said anything about it, and we were all confused, as was Romney, what the deal was. Well, it is Dick Morris' theorem...

Fewer Americans received health insurance from their employer in 2011, continuing a trend that has seen the figure decline over the past three years. According to Gallup, 44.6 percent of Americans received health insurance from an employer in 2011, compared with 45.8 percent in 2010. In 2008, 49.2 percent of Americans received their insurance from their employer. ,,,, Meanwhile, the number of Americans without any insurance has increased, climbing to 17.1 percent this year, compared with 14.8 percent in 2008.

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 13, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Within weeks, the top lawyers in a dozen states may file a federal lawsuit against the Obama administration’s controversial requirement that all insurance plans include access to abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization, the attorney general of Nebraska told LifeSiteNews. Jon Bruning told LifeSiteNews.com that 12 states had signed onto a scathing critique of the mandate and were preparing to take more serious action. Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning On Friday, ten state attorneys general addressed a scathing letter to President Obama, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis....

From San Francisco, the controversy over the White House decision to require religious-affiliated employers to provide contraception in their employee health care benefits has felt like an argument about the barn door being open years after the horse got out of the barn. In 1996, San Francisco effectively forced Catholic Charities to offer domestic-partner benefits for same-sex couples (without calling them domestic-partner benefits) in order to receive city funds to care for the sick. A 1999 law made California one of 28 states that now require employers to include contraception in health-care plans that cover prescriptions. Yet the Obama administration...

Painting the Catholic Church as "out of touch" is like shooting fish in a barrel, what with the funny hats and gilded churches. And nothing makes it easier than the Church's stance against contraception. Many people (including our editor) are wondering why the Catholic Church doesn't just ditch this requirement. They note that most Catholics ignore it, and that most everyone else finds it divisive, or "outdated." C'mon! It's the 21st century, they say! Don't they SEE that it's STUPID, they scream. Here's the thing, though: the Catholic Church is the world's biggest and oldest organization. It has buried all...

Rush Limbaugh has said many times that President Barack Hussein Obama views the US Constitution as an impediment, as an obstacle to be circumvented, to be worked around. Limbaugh said, "...The Constitution is Obama's obstacle." The latest Obama "accommodation" drove home the point that Obama really does see the US Constitution as an obstacle to tyrannical rule that he, and many liberals, want to impose. For some insight into his current thinking, Obama, while in the Illinois senate, in a 2001 interview, said that the Chief Justice Earl Warren court failed to "break free from the essential constraints" in...

The Obama administration proposed a sharp increase in spending at the agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid – and the reason why might surprise you. Monday’s budget calls for spending $4.82 billion on administrative costs at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for fiscal 2013, a 25.9% increase in the previous year’s estimated budget of $3.83 billion. That doesn’t include the much larger sums the agency spends on its actual programs, which provide insurance to seniors, the disabled and the poor. A chunk of Baby Boomers will turn age 65 this year and become eligible for Medicare, but that...

The great and powerful Oz has spoken, 'negotiation' time is over, time for you to ditch your silly religious beliefs and do what we say.Obama chief of staff: No more compromise, contraceptive rule is done deal Despite renewed statements of concern by Catholic leaders, the Obama administration is done negotiating and will finalize its plan requiring insurance companies to provide free contraception to women working and studying at religious institutions, President Obama's chief of staff said Sunday. Jacob Lew told "Fox News Sunday" that the compromise offered last week to address objections by the Catholic Church is clear and...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: In that sense, as the program unfolds today, we're gonna go back and revisit this whole contraception, abortion, Catholic Church business. There was a piece called to my attention over the weekend at Ricochet, it's a website started by a good friend of mine Peter Robinson. Peter Robinson took over the equivalent of Firing Line, hosted by William Buckley when Buckley gave that show up. Peter's out at Stanford at Palo Alto and he started the website Ricochet, and it's a highbrow place, highbrow conservatives. Paul Rahe (r-a-h-e), a professor at Hillsdale College, wrote a brilliant piece...

...But if Leviathan is to be confronted, and defeated, in his attempt to impose the sexual revolution by brute state power, a critical mass of morally serious minds have got to get clear on one crucial point: The invention of the oral contraceptive was, with the splitting of the atom and the unraveling of the DNA double helix, one of the three world-historical scientific developments of the last century — scientific accomplishments that have within themselves the capacity to change culture and history in fundamental ways. By effectively sundering sexual expression from procreation, modern contraceptives have done something their less-effective...

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, February 8, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) — One of the most influential evangelical leaders in the United States says Christians should go to jail rather than comply with the Obama administration’s mandate to provide all contraception, including abortion-inducing drugs, in their health care plans. Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), told LifeSiteNews.com "we will not comply" with the Dept. of Health and Human Services’ mandate requiring religious institutions to cover abortifacient products such as Plan B, Ella, and the IUD. "We want the law changed, or else we’re going to write...

Barack Obama may have just lost the election. He has foolishly gone to war in an election year with tens of millions of Catholics, Protestants and Jews – Democrat, Republican and independent alike. He has thrown down a radical feminist gauntlet and dared the Church to pick it up. They’ve picked it up. From running up trillions in debt and deficit, to the vast expansion of the size and scope of federal bureaucracy, Mr. Obama has done more in three years to supplant our 236 year-old Constitutional Republic with a Euro-style socialist autocracy – than a lesser Marxist could have...

Forcing us to buy health insurance and pay for abortions whether our conscience will allow it or not are not the only dangerous elements of Obamacare. Americans for Prosperity (AFP) has examined the bill …….. Here are the AFP’s observations. It’s partially true that healthcare will be rationed. Cost limitations are mandated and will be enforced. It is true that a committee of government bureaucrats will decide what treatments you can receive with no appeals accepted. Despite doubletalk to the contrary healthcare costs for ACORN the SEIU the UAW and other unions WILL be subsidized by you. And remember the...