Jeremiah Wright's 20-year indoctrination of Obama produces yet another outrage in the proposed National Health Care Bill; Religious Discrimination.
It has been reported that the proposed healthcare bill being negotiated behind closed doors includes language that exempts the Amish from purchasing otherwise required health insurance. Exactly how such an exemption might be justified given our Constitution is beyond belief.
Related comments suggest that a large number of citizens will soon declare their loyalty to the Amish tradition, whatever that might include. The large number of scenarios on this theme might include 'continuing to attend a Baptist, or Methodist or Presbyterian Church because an Amish congregation is simply not available in my area'. Will this qualify for the exemption?
One may envision the IRS requiring documentation of such membership to qualify for the exemption: "I swear or affirm that I am a member of the Amish Faith", and thereby save oneself $10,000 to $20,000 a year. This exemption would work as well as the certification for earning the current tax credit, by which hundreds of thousands of children suddenly appear out of nowhere in American households.
Such legislative idiocy could only be cooked up in Washington, a cauldron of witches brews planted within a 2,700 page document. Clearly the products being produced in Washington, a formerly deliberative body, reveal that the patients are in charge of the asylum.
While the First Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion, the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits discrimination by securing "the equal protection of law". If the Amish are to be exempted from purchasing mandatory health insurance, the cost of their care will be transferred to all the other religious faiths. This is not equal protection, and amounts to preferential treatment. It is a takings of property on a discriminatory basis which is also forbidden by the constitution.
Any justification for exclusion of a specific religion should be based upon their core beliefs. If entitlement to health care is a right of citizenship, why should a specific group be excluded from this right.
One of the founding principles of this great country is its freedom of religion.