Obama Defies Hobby Lobby Ruling
Following the defeat of their contraceptive coverage provision by the Supreme Court, the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats announced that they will move forward on a new entitlement program to provide contraceptives to those whose employers opt out on religious grounds. The new program will be administered by Medicare, but will not be subject to age or income requirements. Any individual who is denied contraceptive coverage by an employer will be eligible to enroll in the program. To fund the new program a special corporate tax will be created. The tax will apply only to employers who choose to opt out of contraceptive coverage requirements for religious reasons. The Obama administration has announced that the new âReproductive Health Taxâ will be based on a cost plus formula. This means that administrators of the new entitlement will estimate the cost of reproductive healthcare being denied by individual corporations. These numbers will be utilized to issue a special tax that will recoup from corporations the cost of contraceptive coverage, the cost of administering the new entitlement and additional amounts which will be used for a fund that promotes science based education about reproductive health and human sexuality. The Obama administration has brushed off criticism that this program will circumvent the Supreme Court decision by forcing businesses Â to cover medical care they find religiously offensive. âNo requirements will be made that forces any business to cover medical care that goes against their deeply held religious beliefs,â stated Obama spokesman Dan Woodward. âThe Federal Government will be providing coverage to citizens effected by this issue. And those businesses that have created the expense for the Â Federal Program will be required to compensate the Treasury and the tax payer. â Another Supreme Court decision, the ruling that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) could proceed on the basis of it being a tax, has created a strong legal precedent for programs of this nature. Analysis at the National Report by our house legal experts state that a program of this nature is all but guaranteed to be ruled constitutional. Â And the way that the proposal is structured, tax burden under the new entitlement could be upwards of ten times the Â cost that contraceptive cost would normally be. The R.NC.issued a statement upon hearing word of the Presidents new proposal. âPresident Obama is once again acting in an illegal and unconstitutional manner. Seeking to use technicalities of legal precedent to overthrow the laws of our land and the decisions of our highest court. The Republican Party will fight him tooth and nail every step of the way over this infringement on religious freedom .â Â