Point: Obamacare

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Created on Thursday, 26 April 2012 15:51

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Juan Jaimez and Jed Hackett debate about ObamaCare. (Photo by Sheng Lor/April 26, 2012)

Opinion

By Juan Jaimez

In my opinion, President Barack Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are unconstitutional and should be halted before the November elections.

The United States government should not force individual citizens to purchase health insurance. The only people that should buy health insurance are the ones who can afford it. Due to the present economic standings, lowering the income eligibility (up to 133% below national poverty level) for Medicaid and healthcare is ridiculous, not to mention naive. We cannot afford to allow even more people who will not be able to fully pay for their healthcare to be eligible for healthcare.

Passing the PPACA would put the country even further in debt. Is the current debt of over $15 trillion dollars not enough for the American people? If the mandate is found unconstitutional, little children will not shrivel up and die due to a lack of health insurance.

According to CNN, if the healthcare mandate is struck down in the Supreme Court, children can still be on their parent's insurance until they become 26. The senior citizens have Social Security. That alone should suffice to enough socialism in capitalistic America.

If the healthcare is not opposed in the Supreme Court and not deemed unconstitutional, every individual will be required to purchase some sort of health insurance by 2014. The individuals who do not acquire health insurance by the deadline will be penalized with a monetary fine.

This fee is in no way a tax, therefore, the mandate cannot qualify for the protection of the Anti-Injunction Act of 1867 which does not allow for any sort modification of a tax before a tax is collected. If it were so, the Supreme Court would be able to nudge this issue away until 2015 when the healthcare's fees would be collected.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's 27,000 page document does not call the fees "taxes" but simply a "penalty". Failure to see that the mandate's fees are not intended to create any kind of revenue is irrational.

What would Jesus Christ think about the healthcare? If Jesus were alive, he would not favor the healthcare plan. Yes, he does symbolize good will and charity, such as helping the ill and protecting the young and elderly, but he believed that one should have faith with one another instead of putting all of their faith in a government.

Carl Raschke, a religious study professor at the University of Denver, said to CNN "...Jesus was against strictly political or economic solutions because he thought they were too easy when it comes to the real challenges of human life...Writing checks won’t solve social problems, one has to get involved."

Jesus despised any sort of mechanism, such as the Roman Empire, that tried to control individual's lives. He believed that when dilemmas occurred in one's life, a government is useless. To find the solution to one's own problems would be through a firm belief in one's self, strong faith, and much hope.

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To read the Point article on Obamacare, click here.

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Anti-injuction Act of 1867

Social Security Agency

Editor: Evan Hackett

Posted by: Luis Felix

Final Editor: Vanessa Felix