Quote Of The Day

June 28th, 2012

"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."

-- Martin Luther King Jr.

Revoking The Church's Tax Exemption?

Feb 12th, 2012

A few days ago, I quipped that if we are to conflate churches with businesses then we ought to reexamine the tax exempt status of the former. I was being facetious at the time. Today, PoliticsUSA actually makes a strong argument to do just that:

"It was reported in this column that the USCCB sent out letters to be read in parishes around the country informing Catholics of the Obama Administration’s alleged “war on religious liberty.” When parish priests read the letter to their congregations, they politicized the pulpit and violated their tax-exempt status as a religious organization. Senator Rubio is complicit in not reporting the violation to the IRS, and for following the bishops’ orders and drafting legislation imposing the Vatican’s ban on contraception. It is time to revoke tax-exempt status from all Catholic churches and end their taxpayer-funded entitlements once and for all. There is no doubt the USCCB violated their agreement with the IRS and Rubio’s statement that he directed his staff to draft legislation after an officiant read a letter from the Catholic archdiocese opposing the administration’s decision proves it. Rubio claims he was ignorant of the issue prior to hearing the archdiocese’s letter and his willingness to obey the USCCB precludes him from serving as a U.S. Senator. Either Rubio follows Vatican law, or he follows U.S. law and the Constitution; he cannot do both."

Agreed.

The GOP War On The Separation Clause

Feb 8th, 2012
by F. Grey Parker

I regard myself as a Christian. I believe in the Gospels. I generally keep it to myself and out of my writing because I have the right to do so. In America, no one may tell me what, how, when or where to worship.

I am protected from litmus tests or societal demands to prove my faith by the Constitution. That's what the separation clause provides for.

What I am not guaranteed is special status to impose my religion when I participate in public markets. I am also (supposed to be) Constitutionally disallowed access to taxpayer monies while simultaneously demanding the right to implement policies driven by a theological agenda in those markets.

Period.

Contrary to popular GOP propaganda, there is no war on religion in the United States. That is absurd. What we do have currently is a coordinated effort to attack the bedrock principle of separation. Nothing illustrates this more than the current brouhaha over the Obama Administration's new birth control guidelines.

If Only Life DID Imitate Art

Jan 13th, 2012

Spencer Tracy as a contender for President in the 1948 film "State Of The Union."

Big Time Republican Flip Flops

Sept 24th, 2011

Yesterday, Joshua Holland shined some light on nine issues about which the Republican party has gone through the looking glass altogether over the last few decades, most notably, the concept of a health care "mandate."

"Late last year, when a federal judge ruled against the mandate (two other courts disagreed, and the Supreme Court will end up deciding the question), Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, rejoiced. "Today is a great day for liberty," he said. "Congress must obey the Constitution rather than make it up as we go along." It was an odd testament to freedom, given that Hatch himself co-sponsored a health-care reform bill built around an individual mandate in the late 1990s.

Journalist Steve Benen noted that while "the record here may be inconvenient for the right ... it's also unambiguous: the mandate Republicans currently hate was their idea."

It was championed by the Heritage Foundation ... Nixon embraced it in the 1970s, and George H.W. Bush kept it going in the 1980s. For years, it was touted by the likes of John McCain, Mitt Romney, Scott Brown, Chuck Grassley, Bob Bennett, Tommy Thompson, Lamar Alexander, Lindsey Graham, John Thune, Judd Gregg, and many other ... notable GOP officials.

According to NPR, the mandate was the Right's response to progressive proposals to establish a single-payer system. Mark Pauly, the conservative economist widely credited with the idea, explained that "a group of economists and health policy people, market-oriented, sat down and said, 'Let's see if we can come up with a health reform proposal that would preserve a role for markets but would also achieve universal coverage.'"

Yup. I am sure they were secret-communists all.

The Growing Numbers They Would Let Die

Sept 20th, 2011

At the last Republican debate, every single hopeful candidate made the promise to end "Obamacare." There was also the issue of their base cheering the prospect of letting the uninsured die. Let's look at just how many more of us would be at their mercy compared to a decade ago.

Via CBPP

Medicaid should be expanded into a full single payer system.

Period.

There should be no substantial profit incentive in the delivery of medicine.

Period.

And politicians who stay silent while their constituents cry out in bloodlust should be disallowed all power.

Period.

Quote Of The Day - Here and Now Edition

May 13th, 2011

Ah, the flip-flop. It's one of those thing that political junkies such as myself can never get enough of. Whether they are from ideological friend or foe, they are always good fun. This, however, rises to the level of the colossal. 

It is that most delightful of things, the single sentence logical collapse.

"Our plan was a state solution to a state problem and his was a power grab by the federal government." 

-- Mitt Romney attempting to differentiate between his health care plan the Affordable Care Act.