Interview with the President: Jail Time for Those without Health Care Insurance?

Tapper: Do you think it is appropriate to threaten people who do not buy into the health care program with jail time.
Obama: Hella yeah! Fellas is hella jealous of my swagger. Shout out to the peeps in Oz because of the man! What what…

Clarification. I’m not voting for him. He has gone way too far to the right.

its going to be a long 8 yrs for most of you. Prez BO we have your back.

Ugh. This jugeared facist is getting caught up in his lies- good catch, Jake.

If Obamacare is so great, how come they have to threaten you with prison if you don’t sign up?

If Obama care is so great why is congress refusing to convert to it????
WAKE UP.
I’m a product of the 60′s and I find it so hard to believe that our young people are not questioning this authority. They seem to gullible yet cynical at the same time. What happened? Where did we fail them?

So how’s that hopey-changey thing working for you?

“Note they aren’t responding to the facts, but rather mocking and belittling the opposition – debate by volume rather than reason.”
You mean like when Pelosi called regular Americans opposed to her policies Nazis? That kind of reason?

Ok, let me get this straight. In the primaries Hillary said “Everyone would have to be in the Universal Healthcare System ,and those who refuse would have to pay a fine”. Obama said “Not everyone will have to be required to be in the Universal Healthcare syst and there would be no fines.” So much for “Yes We Can! “

You mean like when Pelosi called regular Americans opposed to her policies Nazis? That kind of reason?
Mary | Nov 9, 2009 8:04:45 PM
You are lying. Please provide THE REAL QUOTE OF HER CALLING ANYONE NAZIS. She – accurately as photographic evidence has shown – accused people of waving swastikas and pictures of Hitler while shouting down health care reform. SHE DID NOT SAY THEY WERE NAZIS. And pictures and videos support the truth of what she did say.
Find the quote of her calling people Nazis, retract your slander, or just let it stand as another lie from the side that appears to be too lazy to debate with facts.

I’ll remember you said that when Sarah Palin is kicking obama’s you know what in the 2012 primaries.
Jenny | Nov 9, 2009 8:21:19 PM
Palin is running in the Democrat’s primary in 2012? And how does Mrs Palin have even tangential relevance to the arguments I put forth?

Some facts for jhw539:
- Job loss continues and we have no positive job creation to lead us out of the recession.
- We will need positive job creation at record breaking levels for 60 months just to break even.
- The real economy is therefore not growing at all, but remains severely depressed.
- Retail sales are down year over year. The consumer is not coming back any time soon.
- Credit to small business shrunk by 25% since last year.
- New business startups are down 14%
- Credit has contracted by $1.25 trillion in the last 24 months.
- 10% of all credit card accounts have been canceled.
- Excess capacity in manufacturing is now over 60%
- Shipping is idled all over the world with indexes at all time lows.
- Production is down in double digit numbers in all the world’s major manufacturing sectors.
- 32% of mortgaged U.S. housing is now “underwater.”
- In states like CA, FL, AZ, NV as many as 75% of housing is “underwater.”
- More than half a million house owners simply defaulted and walked away last year.
- There are 3.6 million unsold homes and another 7 million foreclosures held off market.
- There is now a 25 month supply of unsold homes in the U.S.
- The US housing market is NOT recovering. Prices are continuing to erode.
- 7 million foreclosures are being held off the market by banks. When they hit the market prices will fall again.
- $685 Billion in new mortgages were issued this year thru August. (Now look at the next point)
- The Fed bought $722 billion in mortgage paper thru August—in effect it backstops the whole RE market!
- Loan default rates at banks have reached an average of 14%
- Loan losses in the commercial sector are just getting started.
- Alt-A and Option ARM loans are facing a huge wave of problems as loans reset to higher payments.
- Delinquency rates are now at all time highs, and getting worse each month.
- New car sales fell 36% in September after “Cash For Clunkers” expired.
- Credit card default/delinquency rates exceed 10%
- More credit line cuts are on the way as banks get ready for new regulations.
- Personal bankruptcy filings exceeded 1.4 million in the first 9 months of 2009.
- September ‘09 bankruptcy filings were 41% higher than those in Sept ‘08.
- Debt remain catastrophically high at every level of our society—Government, States, Cities, Banks, Families and Individuals.

“I should have a choice whether I want to self insure or buy any other plan.”
Jason | Nov 9, 2009 8:15:02 PM
The currently proposed bills would not deny you the option to buy any other plan, as long as the plan met the reasonable requirements. The ‘public option’ will be quite small and limited, the majority of insurance will continue to be private.
And a “plan” that sends you the ER to sop off of taxpayers for anything more than a papercut doesn’t cut it. As for self-insuring, it should require placing a bond equal to the top quartile costs of ER treatment (those that require extended ICU care to stabilize), or again you are just sopping off those responsible enough to pay for the ER care everyone receives as a citizen of a first world nation.

You mean when Pelosi (and her lapdog Steny Hoyer) belittled House Democratic leaders and protesters, that kind of reason? (We can do this all night if you want.)
“House Democratic leaders and protesters waving McCain signs had a war of words Tuesday at a press event outside an old train station. The demonstrators interrupted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with chants of “Drill here! Drill now!”
“Pelosi paused and asked the group, “Right here?”
“Seeming to enjoy the back and forth, she followed with another question: “Can we drill your brains?”
“She went on to refer to the protesters, who continued to chant sporadically, as “handmaidens of Big Oil.” Arguing that increased offshore drilling would reduce gas prices by only a couple of pennies a decade from now, she referred to the demonstrators as the “2-cents-in-10-years-crowd.”
“Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer swiped at the demonstrators, too, saying that “sophomoric chanting” won’t solve the energy crisis and that “all thinking Americans know” — stressing the word “thinking” and looking at the crowd — that America doesn’t have a quarter of the word’s fossil fuels yet uses a quarter of the world’s energy.”

If so, please cite a source where she and you denounced those signs.
jennifert7 | Nov 9, 2009 8:52:43 PM
Just as soon as you cite all the Republicans denouncing the posters of Obama as Hitler.

Cheney was right.
Posted by: Weak Liberals | Nov 9, 2009 8:52:28 PM
Which why the White House is desperate to make this just a shooting.

10 months into Obama’s first term and we already have had the largest terrorist attack on our soil since 9/11.
Cheny was right.
______________________________________
Something like 3000 got killed on Cheney’s watch 9 months into his term.
I wouldn’t be bragging too much if I was you – or Cheney.

“The American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, D.C., and the Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history.” – Nancy Pelosi, November 2006
This just in… The feds are currently pursuing a record 30-year prison term for convicted felon and former Democrat Representative William Jefferson, Lousiana.

“10 months into Obama’s first term and we already have had the largest terrorist attack on our soil since 9/11.”
And this after Obama spent the first six months traveling around the world apologizing for American arrogance. Guess terrorists, especially those of the Islamic extremist variety, don’t care.

China has rebound growth with excessive gov spending on infrastructure and energy investments. Brazil is building a transamazon hwy and the Olympic stadiums to stimulate growth. All we here in this country is ‘cut taxes’ ‘stop gov spending’ from the high priests of capitalism. Fed rates are 0-0.25%, there are no tax breaks to give and the private sector is not spending.
Our system dictates a co-equal gov of executive, judiciary and congress. Obama has laid his plan, GDP is recovering and job losses has slowed. What is congress plans on saving the economy and investing on long term growth except obstruction?

“was twisted by an unethical politician to make them sound crazy, unhinged and dangerous when they were expressing their freedom of speech.”
Visualize Whirled Peas | Nov 9, 2009 9:12:22 PM
No twisting was required for most people and her words were accurate in fact and spirit. She wasn’t calling them Nazis, not by any common English comprehension standard. She was pointing out that these nuts are comparing a lukewarm increase in health insurance regulation to the Holocaust. They ARE unhinged. If you’ve been online long enough, I’m sure you’ve heard of Godwins law.

ALL IT HAS DONE SO FAR IS TO AWAKENED A SLEEPING GIANT
__________________________________
Seems a bit delusional.
Voters had a chance to vote Democrats OUT of Congress within the past week – to show their disapproval of the Democrats in Congress and the President. What did they do?
They voted Democrats back INTO Congress in both Congressional elections and showed their support for the Democrats, their policies and the President on a national level.
And they booted the Republicans out of one seat they previously held, and put in a Democrat.
You right wingers are way out of touch with mainstream America – most find you offensive, extremist whiners.

“Protecting the country’s security is “a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business,” he said. “These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.” ”
Got it now?
Visualize Whirled Peas | Nov 9, 2009 9:26:39 PM
Obama is closing Gitmo, not Bagrahm. He has doubled the troops in Afghanistan. Assassination of terrorist leaders by remote piloted drones is at an all time high. Somalia pirates who kidnapped and held an American citizen were shot in the head while standard practice by other nations was to pay them off.
Do you get it now? Or did you buy the absurd “empty suit” line the Republicans tried to sell during the election?

I did google it – all I found were a large number of Jewish organizations and respected figures like Elie Wiesel condemning the trivialization of the Holocaust.
jhw539 | Nov 9, 2009 9:29:34 PM
Oh, I also found dozens of quotes from those same organizations and the ‘liberal’ mainstream media condemning an entry in a Moveon.org make-an-ad contest that compared Bush to Hitler. Oddly, Obama has received no such defense:
“The whole moveon.org controversy involving that ad, making the comparison an ugly comparison between the president of the United States and Adolf Hitler has caused a big stir.” Blitzer, CNN
“I went in public on television immediately and said it was disgraceful, disgusting and take it down.” Mcauliffe
“SCARBOROUGH: And political hate speech. An activist group posts political ads that compare our president to Adolf Hitler.”
“CHRIS MATHEWS: John Fund, how are the Democrats going to hide this sort of crazy lady in the attic now they’ve got, this Hitler ad? Because it reminds me of the Lou Schwartz ad.”

You mean like when Pelosi called regular Americans opposed to her policies Nazis?
Posted by: Mary | Nov 9, 2009 8:04:45 PM
_______________________________________
Dear lord Mary, do some real research.
Pelosi did not call anybody Nazis. She commented on how offensive it was people showed up using Nazi symbols on their protest signs.
“They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare.”
The same Nazi symbols showed up at the recent protest on Capital Hill.
Pelosi finds it offensive – so do most Americans.
——————————
Mary’s comment is sadly typical of what passes for ‘truth’ in the hands of right wing extremists.
And yes, most americans do find the holocaust and Nazi comparisons very offensive.
The right wing continues to marginalize itself – you’re way out of the mainstream of America.

It’s really too bad Pelosicare will never become law. I would love to see the national reaction as Medicare is slashed, premiums skyrocket and coverage is curtailed.
And when the first American goes to prison for refusal to sign up or pay the fine, at least we can be sure that Fox News will cover the story. The other watchdogs of the Fourth Estate, not so much.

“The right wing continues to marginalize itself – you’re way out of the mainstream of America.”
The losses to Democrats in 2010 will be devastating.

The right wing continues to marginalize itself – you’re way out of the mainstream of America.
Posted by: tierra | Nov 9, 2009 9:48:21 PM
It must be true. I keep saying it.
When 1Q 2010 is over and companies have had another 5 months of trickling incomes, they’ll have a good look at their bottom lines and you’ll see another round of layoffs. Then we’ll see what mainstream America looks like. The crowds are already restless.
There’s no way the government can spend their way out of this and poor people never hired anyone so trickle up economics will be blown out of the water.

Playing high and mighty with this incident at Ft. Hood doesn’t become you.
Posted by: tierra | Nov 9, 2009 11:00:09 PM
Cheney was right and he was UNDENIABLY mocked for it.
“”We’ve seen this movie before,” said Ben Armbruster in Think Progress. For years Cheney has tried to scare Americans into letting him have his way. Now he’s using the same tired tactic to salvage his tattered reputation, and conscience.”
This terrorist act on our soil must be fully investigated if we are to enjoy the transparency promised by the media-crowned ‘most prepared President ever.’
From Fox – “Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, announced Monday that he’s asked the heads of the FBI, NSA and CIA to “preserve” all documents and material connected to the attack at Fort Hood last week that killed 13 and injured 29. “

Cheney was right
Posted by: Visualize Whirled Peas | Nov 9, 2009 11:13:33 PM
__________________________________
Cheney (and Bush) were wrong when it really counted in 2001 when 9/11 happened on their watch.
In fact President Bush had just returned from (as it turns out one of his many vacations) a 3-week vacation in Texas just in time to be caught totally off guard by 9/11.
Those events happened – as you so eloquently put it – right under Bush and Cheney’s noses. Basically the first major attack on U.S. soil in history. And they had been well warned that attacks were in the works.
Playing high and mighty with this incident at Ft. Hood doesn’t become you.

“They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare.”
The same Nazi symbols showed up at the recent protest on Capital Hill.
Pelosi finds it offensive – so do most Americans.
Posted by: tierra | Nov 9, 2009 9:48:21 PM
——————————————–
I’m thinking back to the previous presidency. Who knew all that Bushitler-nazi stuff was so offensive to Democrats and the left wing?!

Contrast that with 9 months into the Bush administration, after a contested election, where you say that 9/11 is Bush’s fault, (not allowed to blame that on his predessor) not Clinton (liberal think, which I don’t buy any of it, for the record) and his approval rating goes up nearly 40 pts
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“Yes, Democrats are Americans first and in the wake of the terrorist attack of 9/11 did not point fingers but rallied around the office of the President. I wonder if Republicans would have done the same, or if they would eagerly seize a terrorist attack for partisan political gain.” jhw

Ah, the difference, and what honest people know-Bush didn’t spend all,or any his time blaming Clinton for what he “inherited” with the 9/11 attacks. They didn’t plan the attacks in 9 months, we know that. No, he acted as a leader. I never ONCE heard Bush say Clinton should have done a better job of preventing 9/11 although all the evidence was there. I never once heard him say you have to give me more time because Bill Clinton ignored all the signs. It didn’t matter. He was a leader. As a leader you have to act with the hand you’re dealt. Obama is NOT a leader. He’s a “I wanna win this game” guy. He has no idea what to do. He’s been found out and his approval ratings reflect that.

” I wonder if Republicans would have done the same, or if they would eagerly seize a terrorist attack for partisan political gain.”
How long did it take Obama to use the tragedy to garner votes on his healthcare bill? 1 day? 2 days?

“Yes, Democrats are Americans first and in the wake of the terrorist attack of 9/11 did not point fingers but rallied around the office of the President. I wonder if Republicans would have done the same, or if they would eagerly seize a terrorist attack for partisan political gain.” jhw
____________________________________
By gosh, they’re already doing it! What a surprise. Right wingers . ..

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 32% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -8.

“Even as the House of Representatives passed its version of health care reform, most Americans continue to oppose the plan working its way through Congress.”
–Rasmussen Reports, November 9, 2009

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of likely voters say it is at least somewhat likely the next president of the United States will be a Republican, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
The number has been trending in this direction since Democrat Barack Obama took office in January and is up 14 points since then.

“Yes, Democrats are Americans first and in the wake of the terrorist attack of 9/11 did not point fingers but rallied around the office of the President. I wonder if Republicans would have done the same, or if they would eagerly seize a terrorist attack for partisan political gain.” jhw
Using a horrible tragedy like 9/11 to smear Republicans. Shameful.
Posted by: Visualize Whirled Peas | Nov 10, 2009 12:14:45 AM
I kinda dig it! I wonder the exact same thing, jhw– it’s a good question. My gut says no way, they would not have done the same thing. Post Atwater-Rove-Gingrich-Limbaugh, they’ve been a party chock full o’ mean-spirited nutjobs with a handful of exceptions but, seriously, I can count them off on my fingers and come up short.
Anywho…
Per the handy presidential tracker at USA Today that lets you compare gallup poll presidential approval ratings, both Reagan and Clinton suffered much worse approval ratings in their first terms. As for good ole W (I thought we weren’t supposed to mention him!) Bush’s approval rating was 50 or 51 % on 9/10 and jumped dramatically to 90% by 9/21.
Democrats are such good patriots.
George HW Bush enjoyed greater approval ratings in his first term, but we all know what that got him when it came to re-election time.
Nada.

“Yes, Democrats are Americans first and in the wake of the terrorist attack of 9/11 did not point fingers but rallied around the office of the President. I wonder if Republicans would have done the same, or if they would eagerly seize a terrorist attack for partisan political gain.” jhw
Using a horrible tragedy like 9/11 to smear Republicans. Shameful.
Posted by: Visualize Whirled Peas | Nov 10, 2009 12:14:45 AM
I kinda dig it! I wonder the exact same thing, jhw– it’s a good question. My gut says no way, they would not have done the same thing. Post Atwater-Rove-Gingrich-Limbaugh, they’ve been a party chock full o’ mean-spirited nutjobs with a handful of exceptions but, seriously, I can count them off on my fingers and come up short.
_______________________________
The EAGER reaction to attack the President after the recent ‘terrorist’ situation would certainly support your opinion Olivia.

“Rasmussen claimed the Republicans were going to take the Congressional vote last week in New York 23.
He was wrong on that too . ..”
_________________________________
All of this is exactly accurate. He expressed his opinion that the Republicans were going to win New York 23 (based on whatever he chose to base it on) – and he was wrong.

I choose not to participate in health insurance, therefore I am a criminal? Are you now FREE to go after citizens with threats and the power of all three branches of your special interest fueled government? Is this what Obama means by Freedom? Which country is Obama the president of? Cuba? This is the United States of America. Can you spell CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC? What are the crimes for those who swore to uphold the Constitution, but fail to do so? Why don’t you ask that question next time Jakeepoo? Maybe you were too young to remember Nixon and his cavilier attitude toward our founders document.

I choose not to participate in health insurance, therefore I am a criminal? Are you now FREE to go after citizens with threats and the power of all three branches of your special interest fueled government? Is this what Obama means by Freedom?
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Not sure this will help you rick go, but in all the other industrialized western nations – health care insurance is obligatory too – it’s just that it’s covered in your taxes.
You of course can chose not to pay your taxes, but you’ll also face legal consequences for that as well.
That’s the way it works in free democracies.

So the IRS audits us, decides we can “afford” the meanly mouthed health care plan, and if we are on a fixed income and can’t afford it
_____________________________________
I think it works a lot easier in a single payer system – like in a selection of the other western industrialized nations. Health insurance is simply included in everybody’s taxes.
If you don’t pay your taxes you suffer legal consequences.
This plan is not single payer – therefor people are allowed to ‘shop’ for insurance.
But as with other western industrialized nations with ‘universal’ coverage – yes, you will be required to have health insurance.
To some degree, how much you pay will be scaled to your income.
That’s my understanding of it – probably should have gone with single payer, but the political flack from the right would have made it very difficult.

Tierra, I don’t think that you understand that the USA is a constitutional republic and not a mob ruled democracy. This constitution gives the government the power from the people to lay and collect taxes– not decide which marketplace that I purchace insurance from. Forcing me to buy from a list of “approved” partners or threaten my participation with criminal sanctions, bankruptcy or a lifetime in debtors prison is un American. If the people choose to amend the constitution and compell me to buy something, then there are procedures for amending. The federal governments clearly has exceeded its constitutional bounds on this issue. If it is just a tax increase, then why all the smoke and mirrors? If it is a “single payer system that they desire” why does the payer have to be the government– unless it is a quest for absolute power of the government over　its citizens.

HOW MANY PEOPLE FROM THE USA DO YOU SEE RUNNING TO CANADA FOR MEDICAL PROCEDURES? NO DOUBT YOU WILL SEE PLENTY AFTER OBAMACARE GOES THROUGH.

Bush’s approval rating was 50 or 51 % on 9/10 and jumped dramatically to 90% by 9/21.
Democrats are such good patriots.
Posted by: Olivia | Nov 10, 2009 12:33:16 AM
Yea, his approval ratings jumped that high because Democrats are such good patriots. That must be it. It had nothing to do with the fact that Bush was handling the crisis so well – along with Gulianni, another Republican. (rolls eyes)
I often wonder what a mess it would have been if Al Gore was the President when 9/11 happened. What would he have done? How would he have handled it? Would he have acted as courageously as President Bush? I wonder…

Excerpts from the Heritage Foundation:
“To this day, so many years after the American Revolution, our first principles—proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the United States Constitution—still define us as a nation and inspire us as a people.
“Our first principles—Liberty first and foremost, Equality, Natural Rights, The Consent of the Governed, Private Property, Religious Freedom, The Rule of Law, Constitutionalism, Self-Government, and Independence…”
Hmmm. ‘Consent of the Governed.’ Now there’s an interesting concept.

I read a comment on another ABC page that said employment agencies that hire contractors and temporary workers will have to provide health care options to these workers. Currently they receive no benefits although I recall being able to pick it up where I’m contracting now.
Regardless, I see possible problems with extra costs for employment agencies that may have to eat the cost, pass it on to the company that wants the worker, give a lower rate to the contractor, or ???
Any comments or clarifications?

>>>>>The President said that he didn’t think the question over the appropriateness of possible jail time is the “biggest question” the House and Senate are facing right now.
This administration’s relentless chipping away at our freedoms certainly IS the biggest question Congress is facing. Does Obama ask himself each night, “WWFD”? What would Fidel do, indeed.

I agree, no free ride, get rid of Welfare and all the illegal immigrants.

If the guy without health insurance turns out to be a Muslim terrorist, Obama will change his mind about jail time

Does this mean that illegal aliens / undocumented persons will be thrown in jail not for residency issues but for a lack of health coverage?

Jail to those who Free Ride the health care system? What about all of the other who “free ride” the welfare system, the college/school system, the tax system What about the tax “free riders” in his own administration? This is unbelievable stuff folks…can we really spell “hope and change”?

once they control healthcare, they will try and control EVERY aspect of our lives.. When challenged, they will reply “it is for the common good and helps bring down costs…”
You drive this! …it will benefit healthcare You eat this! …it will benefit healthcare! Own a gun? Insurance higher, it’s unsafe.. Get my point!

Another broken campaign promise.
If the government can make you buy something, it can make you do anything.
And if someone is wealthy enough to pay for their own medical care, they *still* have to buy health insurance.
So stupid.

What ever happened to “land of the free”? If I don’t want to be a part of a government-run system why am I being forced to do so? Same goes for Social Security, Medicare, etc…
The government needs to stop forcing us to pay into systems they feel are good for us.

Does everyone not remember the Democratic primaries in the debates when Obama was ripping Hillary apart for proposing the same thing?

Everyone HAS to have auto insurance? There is NO law that requires that everyone MUST have auto insurance. It is only required if you are going to own and operate a car on a public road. There is nothing that requires you have auto insurance if you choose to not drive.
For the analogy to work, choosing not to live in order to avoid healthcare insurance would have to be a viable option. Last I checked, that wasn’t the case.
This bill is unconstitutional

Doesn’t Obumble understand that you can choose not to drive and not pay auto insurance. So, the choice he is giving you is pay the tax, go to jail, or die? Nice choice.

>>>>>The President said that he didn’t think the question over the appropriateness of possible jail time is the “biggest question” the House and Senate are facing right now.
H did not answer the question, did he? Once again, we don’t know what H believes, except that the officer that arrested the nutty professor acted “stupidly”, and that abortion through all 9 months (and then some) is OK.

What I think is appropriate is that in the same way that everybody has to get a job and if you don’t, you’re subject to not paying your bills, that in this situation, if you have the ability to get a job, you’re not crippled, and you choose to ride the welfare/money train, forcing you and me and everybody else to subsidize you, you know, there’s a thousand dollar hidden tax that families all across America are — are burdened by because of the fact that people don’t have jobs, you know, there’s nothing wrong with a penalty.
Or does this particular sword, much like the muslim terrorism sword only cut to the left?

It’s ridiculous that someone else gets to decide whether I can “afford” anything. I just want to scream, “shut up!” every time I hear this man speak.

You DO NOT need auto insurance.
In Virginia, you can pay a $400 uninsured motorist fee.

Whoa there sweetie! Let’s not jump to conclusions.

Maybe we could build a special prison in Alaska for them an force them to work all day at a menial job until there sentence was up, does anyone else see a bit of communism in this situation?

Go to jail for not having a healthcare insurance policy, but when you get to jail, you get free health care while in custody? Huh?
Sounds like a new Yogi Berra Aflack insurance commercial.

It is just a matter of time until the government tells us we have to take certain medicines, take abusive medical treatments, this is our future thanks to obummer and his minions. This is not just about taking over health care, it is about taking over our free will.

Of course illegal aliens technically have ZERO income because they all cheat on their taxes. So Illegal Aliens automatically get free public subsidies for health insurance. YOU on the other hand go to jail if you refuse to pay into the system. Elders get rationed care. There will be two giant sucking sounds. 1) The sound of everyone needing chemotherapy sneaking into the USA for free medical care. 2) The sound of our sovereignty being transferred to our communist masters in Beijing as we go deeper in debt.

So we have a President that is so ignorant he doesn’t understand the difference between auto liability and comprehensive insurance. Liability is required by law for protection for others that might be injured by a driver. Comprehensive is only required by loan holders (not the state) to make sure that a car retains reasonable value. The comparison to health insurance is ridiculous. Is he suggesting that we should have health insurance in case we infect someone?

I’ve never read such a casual disregard for personal freedoms from a US president.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just say “You work for us and your fired” instead of waiting for up to 4 years to get rid of the vermin?

The President said that he didn’t think the question over the appropriateness of possible jail time is the “biggest question” the House and Senate are facing right now.
Posted by: Ferd | Nov 10, 2009 10:14:49 AM
He also didn’t think we wanted to watch even after he promised to let us watch… business as usual politician = broken promises. (His last sentence should be bronzed on a placque somewhere.)
July 23, 2009 HC Press Conference:
Christi Parsons: Thank you. During the campaign you promised that health care negotiations would take place on C-SPAN, and that hasn’t happened.
THE PRESIDENT: With respect to all the negotiations not being on C-SPAN, you will recall in this very room that our kickoff event was here on C-SPAN, and at a certain point you start getting into all kinds of different meetings — Senate Finance is having a meeting, the House is having a meeting. If they wanted those to be on C-SPAN then I would welcome it. I don’t think there are a lot of secrets going on in there.

how about we find some jail time for people who “game” the welfare system… like Obama’s illegal alien aunt?

How much more of this nonsense to do we have to take from these idiots. When 2010 comes. Votes the dems OUT and make Obama a LAME DUCK! Save America!

DC NEVER does anything efficiently or cost effectively! This is Congress overstepping it’s Constitutional authority! Let each state decide what health care it wants or doesn’t want. Enough of the “Nanny State”! We need to act like adults and stand on our own! You KNOW they’ll have dietary restrictions, mandatory vaccinations etc… . Ad nausem! If you don’t comply you’ll be forced through coercion. I.E. rejection of health care claims, fines, imprisonment etc… . Don’t fall for this America!

So what if i dont have insurance but i dont go to the doctor (havent been to one in 8 years, i am healthy). And if i have to go to the hospital for an emergency, i pay the bill directly will i still go to jail? I wonder if they will permit conscientious objector status to paying insurance premiums that go to fund abortions.

It is UNCONSTITUTIONAL to force people to pay for a service they don’t want or need.
If you don’t want car insurance, don’t own a car. Pretty simple.
Obama and the Dems have violated their oaths to keep and hold the constitution by passing a law that not only violates your civil rights (forcing you to buy something or you go to jail) but also common sense.
If this bill passes, lock my happy white arse up because I’m NOT going to comply. PERIOD.

Hey Barack Castro, take me to jail and lose me forever!! Signed white male

To the “How would Gore have reacted to 9/11″ question posted above:
I think we all know what would have happened. We would have had 4-8 years of Gore blaming President Bush Sr. for kicking Iraq out of Kuwait and how that sparked all of the hatred for America.
He would have investigated what happened, delivered tough, powerful speeches about going after al qaeda… and then done nothing. Clinton did it after the 1st WTC attack and look at the result.
Anyone placing bets about the next landmark we’ll lose due to Obama’s weakness? Of course, THAT one will be Bush 43′s fault.

Um, and just where do they propose to build those new prisons?

CAN WE ALL SAY FASCISM!

The ONLY car insurance you are required to buy is liability. You ARE NOT required to insure yourself or your own vehicle EVEN IF you own and operate a vehicle. The analogy falls far shorter than people here are giving it credit for.

Umm, so wait. I thought 2012 WASN’T going to be a disaster year…but I’m thinking when Obama sees himself 20 points behind in ever poll, he’s going launch nukes at middle America and jet off to Saudi Arabia. :(

How did we manage to live in the past without medical insurance?

Our affirmative action president is a moron.
First. In several states you can legally drive a car without insurance (NH is one).
Second. Insurance is to pay to damage to 3rd parties, not yourself.
Third. No state requires you to purchase auto insurance if you are NOT driving.
Fourth. You can drive anothers insured car in most states without you having insurance.
Essentially the Commie from Kenya is a MORON and so is everyone that has voted for him.

Listen up freeloaders! My guess is the threshold for being considered unable to buy insurance will be set to a ridiculously low income. For example if you make $14,000 a year and are single guess what might happen? You get the new and improved jacked up overpriced worthless insurance plan that you have to pay for. Obama never said he was going to give away free health care. He just said he was going to make it available to everyone.

This is an interesting statement from Obama. If he doesn’t want the American people to be burdened by this “tax” that previous legislation that states everybody has to be taken care of at a hospital, let’s work on correcting that legislation and make people more responsible for themselves (i.e. the american freedom clause). But that isn’t what he wants to do… He wants to force people to have insurance. Notice the difference between government correcting mistakes that take away from other’s freedom (i.e. money they earned) versus forcing people to do something.

“What I think is appropriate is that in the same way that everybody has to get auto insurance and if you don’t, you’re subject to some penalty…”
I get so tired of people using this analogy. There’s a big difference between forcing people to buy auto insurance and medical insurance. The only thing that I am “forced” to buy in auto insurance is liability insurance. This protects you from me in case I do something to cause you harm. Now, is Obama saying that I have to buy health insurance in case I sneeze on you and you get sick, you will be covered? The man clearly doesn’t know what he is talking about, much less doing.

“I think the general broad principle is simply that people who are paying for their health insurance aren’t subsidizing folks who simply choose not to until they get sick and then suddenly they expect free health insurance. That’s — that’s basic concept of responsibility that I think most Americans abide by,”
But isnt this EXACTLY what the illegal aliens are doing?
YES!! IT IS!!

Somebody needs to explain to the president that the requirement for auto insurance is STATE law, NOT federal. Somebody needs to explain to the president that the Constitution does NOT authorize him to be involved in health care. Somebody needs to explain to the president that he HAS a limited set of powers and authority. Somebody needs to advise of his oath of office which REQUIRES him to follow the Constitution.

Come & get me! This is a perfect situation for the Oathkeepers organization. Law enforcement members of all types should and must refuse to take anyone to jail for not having insurance. Prosecutors should and must refuse to prosecute anyone either.

Fascism. You’re seeing it start now, under the guise of “taking care of you.”
Thomas Jefferson told us, if government is big enough to give you everything you need, it’s big enough to take away everything you have– INCLUDING FREEDOM.
Obama is a marxist to the core. We warned you before the election, you didn’t listen… and now we’re paying for it.

This is stupid. If you can’t afford health insurance, how would you come up with $15,000 fine? Also, this would probably help the economony because of all the prisons that would have to be built and all the support the prisoners would need, e.g. food, medical treatment,etc. Hey, we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto!

When they can tax us no more, and when they’ve cut services and treatment to the bare bones (at a huge cost to seniors), they will still not have enough money to run the system because of the SEIU union jobs that Obama has promised as payback for the campaign money and labor, the 111 new bureaucracy’s the House bill creates, the increased fraud, waste, and abuse, and the fact that they aren’t going to “save” a half a trillion dollars by cutting the fraud-it’s never happened before. So, at that point, they’ll be coming for you and your behaviors. They will review everything that we eat, drink, and do against good health practices and then they will legislate to eliminate or otherwise control anything that could adversly affect our health. The state will tell us that it’s for the “good of the people” and they will advertise heavily against certain behaviors to turn us against each other too, like they did with cigarettes. This time, it’s going to be your burgers and shakes. It’s Animal Farm!

You folks here are all cooked up over this health care bill.
THAT AIN’T NOTHING!
Wait till tax and cap gets in Congress. You ain’t seen nothing yet! They’ll be tossing your backside into jail for farting too much AND for not having health insurance.
ANYONE OUT THERE GAME FOR A REVOLT?

Its a fairly disingenuous analogy. Not everybody has to have auto insurance. Only those that choose to drive their cars on public roads, and only those that do not live here in New Hampshire. It is a state issue and not a Federal issue.

So If the president wants to liken paying a penalty because he and everyone else would have to subsidize someone without insurance. How does the President square that idea/concept of fairness with the idea that the Democrats want to take money from people who earn more based on their income? How is the concept of the progressive tax system any different from the concept of people paying a penalty (TAX) for not carrying insurance. Either way someone is subsidizing someone else’s standard of living. The hypocrisy is really astounding.

“The President said that he didn’t think the question over the appropriateness of possible jail time is the “biggest question” the House and Senate are facing right now.”———Standard Obama dodge. If he question he’s uncomfortable with, his response is always something along the lines of “well, I think there are more important things we should be dealing with right now.” This question is about using the government’s coercive power to force people, under penalty of imprisonment, to do something they may not want (or need to do.) THAT’S IMPORTANT, MR. PRESIDENT! (is it 2012 yet?)

The problem I have is the government forcing to buy something I may not want. If I don’t want to buy auto insurance then I don’t drive. The thought of the government saying “you will” buy something violates my pursuit of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If this passed I wonder if it will stnad the Constitutionality test? Or will the liberals on the court strip us all of individual choice??

Everybody does not “have” to get auto insurance. Only those that choose to own an automobile. If I choose public transportation or taxi cabs I do not have to get insurance. What is happening to our freedoms?

It’s unconstitutional. Remember, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ?
The only certain things in life are death, taxes, and REVOLUTION.

So if I don’t get Healthcare you’ll end up spending more money on me in jail. sigh. government…..

It’s wonderful to look forward to a soviet style government that punishes its citizens because they don’t want to bow to the dictates of their government, but instead are standing up to freedom. It’s time for pitch forks to swarm the palace and vote all these bums out before it’s too late. Once freedoms are lost, it’s hard to get them back…
http://cooperscopy.blogspot.com/

Not only will I not pay the fine, when I want help i will do what all the Illegals do…
…Show up at the ER, provide a false name and address and let them chase their tails for payment before getting reimbursed through Medicade/Medicare
At least my personal information will not be loaded in their government mandated database records… Good luck finding me.

This a gangster style shake down.
Auto insurance is a shake down also. But, at least you get a choice to drive or not.
The B.O. Care shake down is aimed at every living human from coast to coast.
It time we the people shake these blood sucking ticks off us.

If the provison survives, IF a bill passes, IF someone is fined, then the enitre provision can be taken to the supreme court to test the constitutionality of the provision. IF the supremes agree that it is ok, then we are finished as the cvountry we once knew. To compare this to auto insurance is dumb because if I do not own a car, I do not have to buy insurance. And dumber and dumber doesnot know that even with a car in NH, I am not required to have auto insurance if I am a safe driver (read healthy individual) and I can prove I am financialy stable (Read pay my mediacl bills in cash on time).
This entire health care bill is nothing more than a way to control 100% of everyone’s lives by those “Who know best” and who think their stuff does not stink.
Could it be time for some Jeffersonian politics?

In jail, the person would get free health care. So the key is, if you have a health problem, commit a crime that would have a minimum sentence, once sentenced get your health problem fixed and then finish your time.

Mr. Obama said, “penalties are appropriate for people who try to free ride the system and force others to pay for their health insurance.”
Hmmm…. So our leader is worried about those who pay their way being taken advantage by those who don’t. Well then what about the 50% of amerikans who pay zero income tax? How is that “fair” to the other 50% who do?

Where in the constitution does it say that the federal government shall have the power to force people to buy something if they don’t want it? I can’t imagine the Supremem Court being comfortable with this. But then, I suppose thug Obama could arrange an “accident” or two…….

The analogy of comparing automobile insurance and health insurance is flawed. You DO NOT have to purchase automobile insurance if you can show financial responsibility. Further more automobile insurance is not to protect YOU it is to protect others in the event you damage their property.
one would think as smart as Barrack Hussein Obama claims to be he would know these details.

I agree with President Obama. Those irresponsible people who choose not to carry insurance cost the rest of us responsible citizens god knows how much. Obama is forcing people to do something… thats true… but he is forcing them to be responsible. Is that so terrible?

There are many things about this healthcare reform bill that are preposterous. Requiring people to get health insurance is not one of them. The alternative to that is to tell all those who could afford to buy insurance but choose not to, to shut the f… up when they get sick or injured and end up spending their life savings for the care they receive.

Then why should Obama force working people into subsidize health care for low income people?
Didn’t Obama say in the debates “ZERO FINES”?
We said he was a liar then and we know he’s a liar now…..

Well the car insurance / health insurance analogy is either not a good one or this bill is worthless. There are many who drive wo/ car insurance and never pay the piper … jail time or other.

Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but…
You need auto insurance in case you HIT SOMEONE ELSE! You are not required to insure your own car for damage. Last I checked, I will not hurt anyone else by NOT having health insurance. The Auto analogy doesn’t fit!

Obama makes George Bush look like a genius. The automobile comparison is pathetic; there are millions of Americans who are able to, but choose not to own an automobile. Hasn’t this idiot ever been to San Francisco or any other large city where public transportation rules?

These people are idiots. I can easily opt out of car insurance — I can choose not to drive a car! I cannot “opt-out” of health insurance under this crazy scheme! How about people PAY for health care! How about we let people OPT OUT of Medicare and keep their own money!

This character Obama is REALLY scary. Does he realize that LIVING, unlike driving, is a RIGHT. Our fundamental rights are not granted to us by the government (or by “The One”). He should read the Constitution, the Declaration, and in particular the Bill of Rights. This character talks about human rights all the time and then he wants to force us to give our money to private, for-profit corporations?!? This is “change”. What company will Obama force us to give money to next? Or will he simply nationalize the insurance racket and so ALL our money will be going into his pockets for his use to dole out to core constituencies and organizers, foreigners, supporters, international banksters, or warmakers?

Someone tell me why I have to pay into the uninsured motorist fund. Who are these uninsured motorists? Most insurance companies offer a variety of insurances including auto, home, life, and health, and most people I know use one company for all their ins. needs. The insurance companies should reward the people who have been accident free and have made no claims. Give them money back or the option to open a health ins. acct. and use the reward as payment into that acct.

Is Obama and the Lords and Ladies in the Senate and Congress forced into this health care plan ? Don’t count on it, it is only for us little people.

Here’s another thing – I have no insurance. I pay 100% of my medical bills. I even get a discount for paying at the time of service! If B. Hussein Obamanation truly wants to save us money on healthcare he should be focusing on HSA & catastrophic insurance and tort reform. Medical malpractice insurance for doctors accounts for the largest cost of doing business for them. If the Obamanation wants “competition” how about making it so we can buy a policy from anywhere in the country? Insurance companies do operate across state lines – as separate companies. If you have an employee that lives in another state (we are close to the state border) their insurance is a separate policy from your company’s policy!

I cannot “opt-out” of health insurance under this crazy scheme!
Posted by: Educate Politicians Coalition | Nov 10, 2009 11:00:18 AM
Well there is one way but I wouldn’t recommend it.

The key to killing this bill is to tell everybody who makes enough money (according to the goverment) that they have to to pay premiums to the goverment for the public health insurance. The amount has been about $6,000 to 15,000 and if they don’t buy it they may go to jail and/or pay heavy fines. Nobody that is favor of this bill knows about this.

This is part of Obama jobs plan…Build more jails

Completely sophist analogy.
If we chose to drive, we are legally required to get auto insurance – but only to cover damages we cause to the other guy’s car and body if we hit them.
We are not forced to buy auto insurance to cover our own losses.
Does Obama not understand what “optional comprehensive coverage” means on an auto policy?
If we chose not to buy it, and we total our own car all by ourselves, then we have to replace the totaled car all by ourselves. But that does not impact on any one else’s lifestyle or expense.
These guys are writing 2,000 pages to tell us how the world is going to work?

Just curious… What penalty does Congress and the President get for thwarting the constitution, when their jobs is to be in compliance, uphold and protect the constitution? What is the penalty for this? I’m concerned about SCOTUS. I’m more concerned with the violation of executive duties. He knows it goes against the constitution, but is for this and will sign it anyway. What does this mean?
Also- God bless all you guys with your eyes open. You’ve made my day that you guys see this and are paying attention. Forget provisions, fines, etc. It’s flat out illegal for them to do this. Where’s their penalty? Whre is their jail for thwarting our constitution?

Dear Comrade Obama;
You better start letting the felons out of prison now to make room for us who can not afford a $15,000 insurance policy. Due to the economic down turn which is now your responsibility I will be lucky to make $28,000 Gross this year. I guess that is what you mean by redistributing the wealth and why you are attacking small businesses like mine.
Welcome to the Wizard of ODDZ staring Barack Obama as the Cowardly LIE-ON, Nancy Pelosi as the Wicked witch of the west, and Scary Harry Reid as the scare Crow. The wizard? oh yeah – Rohm Emanuel.
Follow the deficit road and we will end up with bankrupt country – Nikita Khrushchev was right they will bury us, and our own president is handling the shovel.

When liberals say “health care is a right,” what they really mean is “health insurance is a requirement.”
Corporatist much, Democrats?
The French system would be far superior to the fascist mess this CONgress wants to shove shove down our collective throats.
I suppose the Democrats will be finding GITMO quite useful as well, not only for Islamicists, but to house physician “health care terrorists” who have the unmitigated gall to treat their patients outside the Fed Health Board’s guidelines, as well as for US citizens who dare refuse to buy a commercial product constructed and mandated by the government.
FYI, Barry. Your car insurance analogy fails. No one is forced to drive. Even though I’m sure it would tickle you pink if you could force Americans to buy your crappy Government Motors cars!

As flawed as the automobile insurance analogy is, one should note that approximately 30-40% of inner city drivers do not carry auto insurance in violation of the law. Yet nothing is done to prosecute these “freeloaders.” Is is so difficult for the DMV to tie their computers to the insurance computers and revoke the plates of those who cancel their insurance immediately after renewing their plates? But no, the responsible citizen pays again for these freeloaders in the form of uninsured and underinsured drivers. Hey, Pres. Obama, how about enforcing the laws we currently have, i.e. immigration, mandatory car insurance, etc. before you start adding more.

Never in my life have I seen such awful stress, rage and angst in EVERY SECTOR of this society & economy. BO, Reid and Pelosi all need to sit down as their “solo is over”. America is strong and (just as occurred in NJ and Va last week’s elections) will toss out these dopes in their time. Their great damage will be reversed and we will prevail in one way or another. Peace thru the pen & firepower. Uh, uh, uh..I’m gonna puke

Hey, Mr. President, I don’t have dental insurance. I go to the dentist when necessary. When I receive dental care, I receive a bill and I pay for it. I don’t free ride off anybody, Barry! Wake up! That’s the way businesses operate. Goods and services are sold and a bill is presented. Not everybody who doesn’t have health insurance mooches off someone else. That’s what Democrats do. I’m a Republican and I pay my own way! And I help others who need a hand when I can. Barry, I don’t appreciate the government telling me that I have to buy something. Here’s a little slogan for you, Barry. It goes like this: Dump the Dem in 2010! Elephants remember.

I am self employed. I pay for my own health insurance. I am fortunate to be very healthy. I now spend $7,000 per year to have health insurance with a very high deductable. Do you know how much money I would have in the bank if I just paid my way each time I went to the doctors and had bloodwork, an exam, an MRI or CAT Scan? I do NOT abuse the system by runnig to the doctor or emergency room every time I have a sniffle.
I want the option of NOT having health insurance and pay my own way. Oh, I forgot- I have to pay for everyone else including those who abuse the system. Guess I will go to jail.

The key to killing this bill is to tell everybody who makes enough money (according to the goverment) that they have to to pay premiums to the goverment for the public health insurance. The amount has been about $6,000 to 15,000 and if they don’t buy it they may go to jail and/or pay heavy fines. Nobody that is favor of this bill knows about this.

Can’t wait to see all the Obama voters faces when there being hauled off to Jail saying B B But Obama said he would give us free health care?
SUCKERS

Not only is driving a car a privelage you can opt out of (unlike breathing), you are only required to buy LIABILITY insurance. It purpose is to protect OTHER people YOU might injure. But if Barry wants to draw comparisons between healthcare takeover and car insurance, a better one is that I can’t total my car in a wreck AND THEN buy a policy to cover the damages. The idiot Dems were calling that scenario “discrimination” on Saturday; for insurance companies to deny a policy to someone with lung cancer. They know that no “insurance” company can stay in business with their policies in place without driving everyone’s premiums astronomically high. But that’s exactly what they want, so everyone will be forced to crawl to the government for their health care. The government doesn’t have any money except what we give them, so it’s not as if it will be any cheaper; but they think that when you are paying for it in taxes instead of premiums, you’ll feel better about it. But Obama’s-not-my-Mama!

Food is way more important than health care, how about we go to “single payer” on that also.

So since I am currently subsidizing people who refuse to work, shouldn’t they go to jail?

BO is a Marxist plain and simple.

No one HAS to purchase car insurance. That is total BS. If I own a car and want to drive it on the roads, maybe. But if I don’t drive, and many people don’t, they are not forced, at the point of a gun, to pay for insurance.
What a lame comparison. I expected better.

Typical government screw up. You don’t buy health insurance so the government puts you in jail where you get free health care. That sounds like a plan.

I am really creeped out by the fact that under this bill, the government is going to be the one that determines what commodities I can and can’t afford. Yes folks, health care is a commodity, not a right!
When Obama is deciding who can and can’t afford his government run bullshi*, is he going to factor in cost of living depending on what state we reside in? Is he going to factor in inflation? Is he going to factor in student loans? Is he going to factor in number of children? Is he going to look at how many cars we own? How far we drive and how much we pay for gas? Where we grocery shop and how much we spend? How many credit cards we own and what the balances are? Where we took our last vacation and how much we spent?
Think about the intrusion folks…this is Nanny State on steroids!

The nice thing about going to jail for not buying insurance is that you get free heath coverage while you in jail.

I smell smoke

I wonder who pays the health insurance premiums for ACORN workers?

If a US citizen does not buy a product/service forced on it by the US government they can go to jail.
Oppression by Big Brother government.
What will be the next product or service that is mandatory by the Government and must be purchased or go to jail?

The car insurance comparison is bogus not just because you don’t have to own a car, but because it is truly insurance an only liability at that. Insurance is for catastrophes say like dying so you don’t leave your family in a lurch! Like have a car crash so you can pay to get it fixed and the other person’s as well if you are at fault.
“Health Care insurance” is not insurance at all, but just a THIRD party paying your bills. There is NO comparison to real insurance.
If you want medical insurance then get a catastrophic plan with whatever deductible you want then pay as you go. If you want more coverage for everyday things then you pay a higher yearly premium. If you only want big things covered then you pay less each year. This is not rocket science.

ANY health insurance mandate is tyrannical, unconstitutional, and a scarlet letter branded upon the usurpers. We need to take these aliens out.

I don’t have a car, why does Obama think I need car insurance…that’s just crazy.

We will put Americans in jail for not having insurance but will not enforce the laws that illegal break.

Sounds like Government mandated racial profiling to me…

I am glad that human rights were extended to the unborn humans. We have that and that’s great. A blow for liberals but a win for human rights.
Health insurance reform is not health care reform. I hope we’re all clear on that. I hope that the Dems don’t see this as a victory. The cost of health care will still increase. Even more so. Now we’ll have millions more going to their dr for a day off work. People just don’t realize that when you pay your $30 copay, everyone else is paying the other $100.
If we’re going to jail people for not paying their insurance premiums then we need to jail people for collecting food stamps and unemployment benefits.

Posted by: Jim | Nov 10, 2009 11:13:24 AM
………………
“The middle class has become the true victim class. Rich and poor, it is we who must bail them out.”
–Unknown

Right now I have healthcare. I don’t have to worry about any fines. But later, after my insurance is no longer offered because my husband’s company quits offering it, I’ll be in a bind. Buy what they offer or pay fines/go to jail. We are screwing all of America to get a small percentage of people healthcare coverage that CAN’T get it now. How many people out there CHOOSE to have a better car, cable, etc. over healthcare. Personal choice will go by the wayside here. Scary…

Planning healthcare reform must give Obama a big boner because he is OBSESSED with it. I think there are a few more important things he needs to concentrate his energies on… Has he seen the unemployment numbers? I wish he cared about unemployment as much as he cares about looting the American people of their freedoms

Comparing auto insurance to health insurance is ridiculous. People have a choice when it comes to buying and driving a car. If you don’t want to pay for auto insurance you can use public transportation. Health insurance is a completely different story. Obama needs to go back to community organizing whatever the hell that is.

Can’t wait to get TFO of this dump of a country soon. Geez the liberals want to destroy a good thing in pursuit of their facist dreams. Anyone read the Declaration of Independance much? How about the constitution?????????????????

This is self contradictory. The libruls have been maintaining for some time that health care is a right. Now they are saying it is a crime not to pay for this “right”. Will they soon charge people to vote, and fine or jail non-voters?

The president said the following
“What I think is appropriate is that in the same way that everybody has to get auto insurance and if you don’t, you’re subject to some penalty, that in this situation, if you have the ability to buy insurance, it’s affordable and you choose not to do so, forcing you and me and everybody else to subsidize you, you know, there’s a thousand dollar hidden tax that families all across America are — are burdened by because of the fact that people don’t have health insurance, you know, there’s nothing wrong with a penalty.”
So, by his logic. Shouldn’t the president demand the senate/house write into the legislation that all illegals and US citizens without insurance will not have the luxury of getting free health services in an emergency room setting? I mean if the president is really serious about looking out for the taxpayer by making sure everyone pays their fair share.
What a joke…

will someone please address the constitutionality of these penalties? this goes way beyond the authority granted in the commerce clause.

Don’t fret about this too much. Next news cycle he (or one of his minions) will say exactly the opposite thing.
Film at 11:00.

Why will no one ask these idiot politicians one question: “Will YOU subscribe to this health bill?”

Seems King George tried something very similar to this called the “Stamp Tax”. That didnt ended really well for the kings government and all his men if I recall.

The Politburo is running amock! You idiots on the left complained that George Bush wiretapped phonecalls to and from Afghanistan and now we’re being threatened with jailtime for not having health insurance? It’s not even constitutional in the first place. Hope those of you, the looters, who are so pro-steal-from-your-neighbors-to-pay-for-my-health-insurance, end up in the klink.

And what happens with the $1,000.00 “hidden tax” when everyone is forced to pay for insurance. He’ll give it back right????? Yeah, RIGHT!

You cannot be consistent in opposing mandated health care insurance and at the same time be in favor of mandated auto insurance. This is the problem with allowing the government to take over control of a resource, whether it be the roads or the health care industry. Once it has control of that resource it can enact whatever arbitrary conditions the legislature and the voters decide they want, without regard to anyone’s actual rights. The government is not your father, and driving should not be a privilege that it can grant or revoke. Roads should be privately owned and the conditions of their usage should be determined entirely by their owners, just as health care resources should all be privately owned, and their usage should be determined entirely by the free exchange of value between their owners and those who seek to obtain their services.

The problem with arguing like it is auto insurance is that STATES decide that we need auto insurance not the federal government. Let states pass this law individually otherwise it’s unconstitutional. Make sure you don’t vote anybody back into office in the upcoming elections. Obama was right about one thing. It is time for change.

Cool – nobody pay, then everybody goes to jail, then everyone gets free health care while in jail!
Problem solved.

From brian at Nov 10, 2009 10:57:19 AM | Okay Brian, it’s quite evident you are in the rainbow and unicorn part of our population. You just proved in your quote why this ENTIRE healthcare bill under consideration is wrong “Obama is forcing people to do something” SINCE WHEN DO GOVT OFFICIALS GET TO FORCE YOU TO DO ANYTHING?!?! A rebellion is coming… the people will not stand for this type of invasion in their lives. We are not Europe. If you like Europe’s system, well, purchase a visa and don’t let the door to the airplane hit you on your way out of America

JAIL FOR THOSE WHO CAN NOT PAY FOR HEALTH INSURANCE? WOW – NOW THIS IS CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN -

His promises are made to be broken, his analogies are designed to obfuscate, and his policies are designed to take money from working people so he can buy votes from the organized welfare class.

ok you only need auto insurance if you want to drive… thats fine… So Obama is not contradicting anything. Just like you need auto insurance to drive and in the same light you have to have medical insurance if you want to live. What is contradictory about that?

You don’t have to have auto insurance if you don’t drive a car. And, you don’t need auto insurance to take a cab.
Sso why would you need to be fined or ggo to jail if you don’t have health insurance and pay your own way?

So if Congress does not purchase this health care plan, they will be penalized or wind up in jail, right????

Having to deal with this health care plan should be penalty enough.

Don’t worry about the health-care police tossing people in jail…Jails are for murderers, child molesters, etc.
They’ll just set up labor camps so that those scofflaws will be able to work off their debt to society and the Obama-worshipping underclass that Democrats love so well and to whom they cater.
After all, isn’t that the Communist way???!!!

A penalty for not getting health insurance is not like getting car insurance. It is a penalty for existing!Auto insurance protects individuals directly involved in an accident. Driving is a priveledge.
The penalties for not having health insurance should be waiting in line for a handout, big bills, and bankruptcy. You still get care and we STILL LIVE IN A FREE COUNTRY!!!

My state, the state of New York is approaching bankruptcy. The Federal government is bankrupt (pretty much) – we are printing money we don’t have and we owe our souls to China. So, who exactly is going to pay for this healthcare criminal action? This bill is unConstitutional and we need constitutional lawyers to step up to the plate and help save our country.

Wow, the comments being posted now are very different from those being posted in October 2008. I wonder how many people against this health care scam voted for that Marxist in the White House?

Just like auto insurance? Not quite.. If a person doesn’t want to pay for auto insurance than they just don’t own a car.. What the alternative to not wanting to pay for health insurance? Stop living?

Volt: “Will they soon charge people to vote, and fine or jail non-voters?”
Volt, don’t say that too loudly. Some liberal will hear it, and think it is a good idea.

I find it funny that he is supposedly this super smart lawyer, yet he doesn’t understand the basic principle of car insurance? You don’t have to have it unless you own a car, liability with high deductible is all that is mandatory, and you only get fined if you are caught without it – most fines are minimal and after that you court ordered to buy insurance (I guess jail time is better, at least healthcare would be free then)…
This isn’t rocket science and you would think a state legislator would understand insurance principles since they regulate that industry – oh wait he just voted present!

This is insane. Absolutely insane. Basically, the government will FORCE us to carry and pay for life insurance from the day we’re born until the day we die. Please, I hope someone somewhere can prove that this is unconstitutional.
And, I wish he’d stop with the car insurance comparisons. First, you’re only required to carry LIABILITY insurance to cover you if you cause damage to someone else. And, second, not everyone is required to carry auto insurance; you only need it if you drive, so you have a choice. With his health insurance plan, you’re required to pay just for breathing – and the only way to get out of it is if you die.

Would ABC ask just where in the Constitution does it say the government can force you to buy insurance or anything else?
The press from the “FORTH ESTATE” would have been all over this…but that is a concept that has long been lost.

….and they think the prisions are overcrowded now. They better start building, ’cause there are a couple of million new inmates a-coming…

Can anyone say “Fascist”?

So all I have to do is make sure I don’t make enough money and then you’ll subsidize me with no penalties? Awesome. Being a leech to society has never been better. Time to turn on the TV and check out.
Posted by: Tinz | Nov 10, 2009 11:12:47 AM
Now you are getting it.
That is the whole idea, get as many people as possible to checkout and they simply become wards of the state.
To obama the more the merrier because the more they have in the system the more these people will vote in democrats to sustain the system.
Once this goes through the two party system is dead for generations.
I can hear it already, a vote for republicans is a vote to eliminate your healthcare entitlement.
This is ALL about power power power….

You got what you voted for a socialist.
How’s that “hope and change” working for you now America?

So, let me see if I understand this correctly. Simply by the fact that I am alive, I have to buy health insurance?
Where exactly in the Constitution is that power granted to the government?
Has anyone thought of the philosphical principles in the movie “The Matrix”? Humans were imprisoned in little pods to provide electrical energy to the alien machine species. Humans were lulled and decieved by mind control to believe that their lives were normal. Humans were born to be a source of energy for the machines until death.
How is that any different than what our government is becoming now? Americans just by virtue of living must pay homage to the government. Even if you lived on public land and grew your own food and somehow never had the use for money, you would still owe. Somehow you would be taxed. And you would have to buy health insurance.
Things with our government have gone very wrong. And it’s not democrat or republican. It both of them. They have all failed us and they only scramble to keep their hands on the reins of power for their own good. No sacrifices have they ever made.
This country needs an enema and it should start at the top. Socialism is not the answer, that system is even more corrupt. The answer is term limits on every elected public office. The answer is limiting how much lawmakers can make. The answer is life in prison for corrupt officials. The answer is ELIMINATING lobbyists.

What is wrong with this Man? Since when do we have to be penalized for something we don’t want? Going to jail? He is out of touch with what is sensible and
american.
This health care reform is a joke. and this penalty crap is a bigger joke.
Can’t anything stop this before we all go down the tubes?

What a dolt! Since when is everyone in the U.S. required to have auto insurance? Wisconsin, for example, has no such statutory requirement (which is one of the more liberal states in the union).

Is this guy for real? He goes up to the Hill and rallies Dems to vote for a bill that includes JAIL TIME FOR FAILING TO BUY INSURANCE and then he sits there and “stops short of endorsing jail time…” Ms. Miller – how do you stop short when you already endorsed jail time?

Since when do we have to have car insurance, the only time I had it was when I had a loan on a car. When I own the car I don’t need to insure the car.

The Obama presidency is getting scarier by the day. Will he stop at nothing? Will he only stop when we have nothing left?

The problem with the car insurance/health insurance analogy isn’t just that you choose to drive – it’s that the mandated coverage from most states is so minimal and only covers bodily injury and medical liability. And if you get caught driving without insurance you don’t go to jail, you merely get a ticket and a suspended license.

He’s worried about those getting a free ride??? How about all those welfare cheats who are getting a free ride on all the kids they can’t afford to raise?
Once again, those who are trying to do the right thing have to pay for those who believe applying for welfare is their full time job!

Except you can choose not to drive Mr. President and there is certainly no penalty for that.

please, someone tell me what country i live in

Since when was this President against us being burdened with hidden taxes?

John said “You don’t have to have it unless you own a car”
Shhhh….John…. don’t give them any ideas. Next we’ll have to pay auto insurance even if all you do is ride in one.

0 is a blantant liar. Auo insurance is not required in every state. In states that require auto insurance – you can buy a BOND, and not insurance. Even the people’s republic of Kennedy does not require “insurance”. If you’re from MA look at the back of you ‘registration’. You can buy a bond or put up cash.
Why would a person that has the money to pay for health needs buy health insurance, you ask…….so the gov can take control of your life and feed the welfare rats, once again restribution of someone else’s wealth……..we need a patriot!

Strictly speaking, automobile insurance is not required (at least in my state); “proof of financial responsibility” is what is required, and insurance is the usual way of providing that proof of financial responsibility. If you deposit a bond for a certain amount with the state, you do not require “insurance” to drive (in this state anyway).
The same could be said for hospitals. If you are a millionaire, why do you need “insurance” for anything at all?

Ah, the “Constitutional Law scholar” as president… We have Harvard to blame for this – they discriminated for so long and then they needed to prove that they weren’t a bunch of racists in a hurry, so they let this nitwit in and called him ‘editor’ of their law journal. This tragedy on the American people has been brought to you by Affirmative Action Academia.

Biden 2009

Don’t prisons “force others to pay” for health care?

When Hillary was campaigning for the nomination, she proposed a healthcare plan that included mandated insurance; and anyone who could not afford it would be subsidized, but everyone would be covered.
Obama went ballistic on her, said it was terrible to “require” people to buy healthcare insurance, that people didn’t neglect to buy insurance because they didn’t want it but because THEY COULDN’T AFFORD IT. (He said that over and over and over.)
Yes, that is what he said when he was trolling for votes.
But that was then, and this is now.
Now, Obama is willing to levy huge fines on people who cannot afford to pay the premiums, and he even seems reluctant to say that they won’t have to go to jail. He COULD say that if that is what he means, but as usual with him, he doesn’t want to be held responsible for anything.

He says “if you have the ability to buy insurance”. This is just a transfer of wealth. All of us who have gone to school, studied, worked hard and done the right thing will now have to pay for a bunch of freeloaders who don’t have the ability to pay because theya are….well, freeloaders. Watch and see.

P.S.: The government WILL have a right to start controlling your health-risky activities, food, behavior, even sleeping habits.

I am self employed and do not have health insurance, and I am no burden on anyone. I am sick of being considered a free loader for not having insurance. I make good money, and I pay my bills.
My wife has survived Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and yes those bills were expensive. But they were far less expensive than it would have been to carry full coverage for the last 20 years. We spend $1500 to $2000 a year for meds, tests and Dr. visits. (Family of 5)
Yes, we plan for more expensive care later in life, it’s called a savings account.
NOTE: Your family doctor will more than likely charge you far less per visit if he knows you will pay your full bill before leaving the office. They may charge $80-100 per visit if you have insurance, but that is not anywhere near what they get from the insurance companies. Let say you have a $25 copay, they get that plus maybe another $30 from the insurance. (Worse if you have an HMO) Our Doctor sees my family for $40 a visit. Most medications can be generic, and Walmart will dish them out for $4.00 for 30 days. If you are really worried about some hugh bill get hospitalization coverage maybe $200 a month.
Mandating health insurance is just a POWER GRAB nothing more. Even if it pass, I will be the first to file suit over it not being allowed under our Constitution.

Interesting question. WHy do they need to have penalties for people who don’t buy insurance? It has to do with the no denial for existing condition. Think aout it, if you are guaranteed coverage regardless,wouldn’t you not pay for insurance until you are sick??? Insurance is risk sharing, not a personal savings fund

Real numbers say that about 15 million US citizens do not have health insurance. That’s about 5% of our population. Pelosi says this HC bill covers 96% of the people in the US. The bill costs over a trillion bucks and covers almost the same amount of people. That’s REALLY reformed health care.
Not to mention, if illegal aliens are covered, wouldn’t that mean this HC bill covers everyone outside the US–meaning the whole world. Or would they redefine illegal aliens to something like “really, really super-duper illegal alien”.

People are stupid to believe this non-sense. We don;t have to have auto insurance to protect our cars. The auto insurance we have to buy is to protect other people’s cars. There is no caomparison. Where’s the real media? People are stupid, this proves it!

If the lowest cost family plan is 15000 a year then there are going to be a lot of people in trouble with the government. We cannot afford this huge government plan.

Illegal aliens don’t have to produce evidence of auto insurance.

Biden 2009

President Obama is so stupid he should wear a helmet.
Unfunded liabilities in the form of 2 wars, Social Security, Medicare Parts A & D, Medicaid, Stimulus, Bailout, Bailout future obligations and so on now top well over 100 trillion dollars.
This folks is on top of the 12 trillion of national debt.
Bottom line, we take in 2 trillion and spend 4 trillion. The interest on the debt is not pushing almost 1 trillion a year.
Unemployment, U3 and U6 is north of 22%.
When small companies, the golden egg of the economy are in hard times you don’t impose further costs on them.
Obama – you are an utter and absolute moron! The US is insolvent. Your stupid health care is adding to our insolvency. Any moron, other than yourself knows that when you are in a hole you stop digging.
And what do you do? Dig deeper. Utter and absolute moron mentality.
The Constitution forbids the government mandating its’ citizens purchase from a private company.
Also, Congress doesn’t have to play this health care insurance. So now we are on a path to have two classes, those who make the laws but don’t have to obey them and us who have to obey the laws the rulers make.
Utter and absolute morons up in DC!

Interesting situation. If you don’t buy health insurance and “free ride” the system, you go to jail. If you go to jail the health care is free. Isn’t this just a way of rewarding the “bad behavior?”
By the way Mr. Genius Because I went to an Ivy President — not all states make you buy auto insurance; and those that do, only require it if you happen to have a car. Those who don’t own cars don’t have to buy insurance in any state that I’m aware of.
Will someone stop these people before they get us totally screwed up?

Looks like we are once again going to have a thriving prison industry in the USA!
Great! Give me a vote on health care or let me be the first to volunteer to go into the newly erected prisons with great food, awesome health care, super education, a chance to rest, and best of all no longer have to work and pay for the upkeep of corruption from our government!
Might be a little safer in prison than it is getting to be on the streets. I have watched government headed down the road to ruins during the first half of my life. Now that I am headed to the end of my life, I feel sorry for all the future generations to come. You shall never know a true democracy in America.
What ever happened to one person, one vote?

Democrats lie in bed at night fantasizing about total control over the unwashed masses. Draining us financially and then piling on additional burdens (paying for other people’s healthcare), with possible imprisonment no less, fits the bill nicely. Sick. I pray we can hang on until mid-term elections.

I can’t believe this is happening in American.
How can the government force me to buy insurance..
Don’t I have a right to sit and die in my house without having to pay a healthcare tax?
Amazing…

Wow Obama says it unfair that you and I should have to subsidize Americans who are irresponsible. I wonder why this same logic doesnt apply to all the freeloaders who choose not to work and birth children they cannot financially support…therefore the hard-working taxpayer must SUBSIDIZE them. Oh yeah all those freeloaders voted for Obama and the rest of the democrats. If you are a democrat you are one of the three or all the following: an irresponsible loser who cannot provide for him/herself or his/her family, an uneducated idiot, or an idealistic, elitist who is out of touch with America. I am so disgusted with the direction this US Congress and Administration is moving our country.

This way Obama can blame America’s uninsured if he makes more bad policy decisions; “Let me be clear, if everyone had ‘skin in the game’ and had paid their fine, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

House version of this trillion dollar health-care boondoggle will pay a fine of 2.5 percent of their yearly salary or face up to five years in prison.
Pelosi’s massive health legislation describes the penalties in section 7203; it is a misdemeanor to willfully fail to pay for health insurance and it is punishable by a fine of up to $25, 000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.
In section 7201 it will be a felony to willfully evade purchasing health insurance and it is punishable by five years in prison and/or $250,000 fine.
If American’s would like to pass on jail time, they will need to pony up some serious Benjamin’s by 2016. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that a family of four would have to pay $15,000 per year.

Does no one else see this will cause open revolt. Promise.

I resent being called a freeloader. We had no insurance when my wife became pregnant, and from pre-natal care up to and through delivery, I paid for everything myself. I didn’t freeload off of anybody. (Got better service too; being self-pay is a great way to go.)
To require that everyone carry health insurance is to require that everyone manage their lives in the same kind of way. May as well mandate that all Americans must watch between one and four hours of television a night, we must all read at least one James Patterson novel per year, and we must all must wear blue jeans on our day off.
On the other hand, mandatory health insurance is one way to ensure universal health care. We could solve unemployment and homelessness the same way, I suppose; you’ll be fined or jailed if you ever lose your lease or leave your job, because heaven forbid your life should ever have any turmoil in it. Throw out human freedom, and all of society’s problems will be solved.

“Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotism.” – Plato

I am sick and tired of the thieving, dishonest CRIMINAL politicians. I for one will be the first group that supports revolution.

Look at how he compares car insurance with a health insurance mandate and claims “there is some sort of penalty” We have tens of millions of illegals driving without insurance or even a driver’s license. There is no penalty, only for law abiding people like me. this guy is so out of touch with reality it is terrifying, not to mention his intentional dishonesty. our country won’t survive this guy.

so, when people start getting sent to prison for lack of health insurance, do you think the mainstream media will cover that story? hmmmm

Obama is purposely misleading Americans. There are millions of Americans who actually think that this legislation will provide FREE health care for EVERY American. Of course, the media has not covered the topic well enough to explain this legislation CLEARLY to the American people.
Media coverage reeks of “Obamaganda.”
If Obama were to clearly tell the American people that this legislation is the equivalent of FORCING UNDER PENALTY OF LAW for Americans to purchase their own health insurance (whether they want it or not), then the little support that it has would fade away.
The poor ALREADY HAVE “free” health insurance (in the form of Medicaid). It is the Middle Class who will SUFFER from this legislation’s attempt to FORCE US to purchase insurance.
Oddly enough, Obama and his wacky minions continue to mock the health insurance industry…but then want to force people to purchase health insurance (or, even more preferred by far-left radical liberals, force people to purchase insurance from the government).
The media has failed the American people by failing to explain this all too important legislation. I suspect that the Obama-thumping journalists realize that Americans would drop any support for this if they actually understood what it really means. Unfortunately, any semblance of “journalistic integrity” ceased to exist with the Bush Administration.
Obamaganda is the word of the day!

Constitutional moron Obama cannot understand the difference between requiring insurance to drive (which is a privilege) versus requiring insurance to breathe oxygen (which is a right).

“Gaming the system”! Come on. Every politician is master at that–money from lobbyists, corporations, insider trading, free health care, pensions, ETC.
Poor man’s game is jail. Gets health care in jail.(debatable) Out of jail, as a convicted felon can’t find a job and can’t buy health care so its subsidized.

Comparing required auto insurance with required health insurance misses a significant point. You can always choose not to drive or own a car. Short of suicide there is no effective way to opt-out of the health insurance requirement. The choice and hardship stuff are red herrings. The real question is given all the cost, legal penalties, destruction of an entire industry, and the certainty of diminished care, how can reasonable people even attempt to provide support for it.

I got an idea. We should seperate the people who like this plan and move them to one area of the country and build a great big wall to seperate them. If anyone tries to got from one side of the wall to the other we would have to give the guards orders to shoot on site. Sounds like a plan. We can hire some former East Berliners to sstreamline the process.
Wow what a concept!!!!

If I don’t buy healthcare and refuse to pay the fine I will go to prison (where health care is free.) ????

Oh how the worm has turned. Six months ago, the commentor’s all would have been raging, imbecilic uber-liberals spewing forth their uninformed, “if you don’t agree, you’re a racist, homophobe” oral diarrhea, but now the majority, if not all at this point, of the commentor’s are common-sense thinking people, regardless of their political ideology.
How refreshing it is that it took LESS then a year before his own voting bloc, save of course for the Pelosi types of uber-liberal, is realizaing that they were duped and lied to in a most egregious way, and to find that your “Messiah” is nothing but a false prophet with no regard to your best intentions at heart, is, well, heartbreaking.
Sad. Pathetic. But oh so very, VERY true.
Of course, if Mr. Tapper keeps up with being an actual journalist as opposed to the lapdog, Obama-bot sycophants that the MSM is lousy with, he may find himself out of a job and moving to a better, more ethical news organization and wouldn’t that be refreshing?
Kudos to Jake Tapper for keeping the powers that be honest.

Can we imprison people who choose not to participate in ObamaCare? YES WE CAN!! CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN!

Not everyone has to get car insurance. The Live Free or Die State, NH doesn’t require it. To responsibly drive without auto insurance here requires I actually set aside my own money to cover any accidents I get myself into. Not surprisingly, I’ve had no accidents since I started this personal policy in 1992.
I don’t want health insurance. I’ve not been seriously since 1983 (the flu.)
I realize having health insurance IS a good thing as is having car insurance. But why have it jammed down my throat by a govt. that asserts it knows best for me?
I recently picked up this motto regarding “compulsory help/we’ll help you dammit cuz we know best”. It’s:
“COMPASSION not COMPULSION”.

One thing for sure the US of AMERICA is still the best nation in the world. Healthcare bill or no healthcare bill!!!!!!

If this passes.
Im outta here as well as others will be moving overseas. Look for a huge exodus

By the way and for the record, the news organization I’m speaking of isn’t Fox News – there are many other journalistic outlets that are just as reputable and ethically honest in how they view the world and the United State’s place in it. Not that I’m anti-Fox News; I realize that they’re obviously a Right leaning organization, but when you’re the ONLY one out about 10, I don’t get why so many uninformed people allow themselves to be lied to as to the ethical standards that ONLY Fox News seems to be ahearing to.
And Jeffery Im(melt for Obama) STILL can’t figure out why his ratings for an entire day rate somewhere North of 125K viewers, period.

Uh…Mr. President…it IS legal to NOT have auto insurance. I for one live in NH, and my State (remember states rights Mr. Presidnt?) allows a liscenced driver to choose whether or not he or she wishes to have any insurance. We don’t really have any major problems and our insurance rates are pretty competitive…and, our State does not provide us with an insurance “option” either.

The threat of jail for not buying health insurance from the same government who refuses to enforce laws that would punish an illegal alien with five years in jail for using my social security number.
This is the Obama definition of “social justice.” November 2, 2010 is coming.

Auto insurance mandates are for liability only. You have to carry auto-insurance to cover the damage you may do to others in terms of property and injury. I am not required to carry insurance to fix my own car. In addition my auto insurance is for major unexpected damages or theft. It does not cover my car for oil changes and tire rotations.

Anyone notice how they did not use Tax fines and Obama Admin in the same sentence?

If Obama was so concerned about people being on the dole, why doesn’t he do something about his ACORN buddies. Our gov does nothing but reward bad behavior with it’s socialist programs like medicaid and Social Security, now he is concerned ? This bill gives assistance to families of four making up to 88K, isn’t that adding to the roles of those on the gov’t dime ?

What I don’t understand is the willingness to impose penalties on American citizens who don’t provide for their own health care but yet a great reluctance to limit free health care to those who are in the country illegally.
What I don’t understand is an eager willingness to impose penalties on American Citizens who don’t provide for thier own health care but an absolute unwillingness to limit the cash cow to the sacred tort lawyers.

If we choose to not drive a car, we don’t have to buy auto insurance. See the difference? The only way to avoid buying health insurance under Mr. Obama’s plan is for us to not live.
Forcing Americans to purchase a product is morally reprehensible, and I don’t see any possible way it can be considered constitutional. Imagine if the federal government mandated that every home had to buy a firearm, or a piece of exercise equipment, or a GM car. Would people accept that?
If folks want to not buy health insurance, they should be allowed to make that choice, and they should be made to accept the consequences of their decision. On the other hand, mandated health insurance with the prospect of jail time for non-compliance is tyranny dressed up with good intentions.

“everybody has to get auto insurance” –
Except, “everybody” doesn’t have to get auto insurance. Only the owner of a vehicle has to get auto insurance — and that insurance covers the vehicle, not the driver. It doesn’t matter who is driving the car – if there is an accident, the car is covered. Owning a car is a choice. We don’t all have to own a car (at least, so far, there is no law mandating that everyone buy a car, like we will all soon be mandated to buy insurance) so we don’t all need to buy auto insurance.
Lots of people have drivers licenses, they drive cars and they do not have to buy insurance. If they drive, they driver their parent’s car, their friend’s, their spouse’s car. Lots of people have drivers licenses and hardly ever drive a car (especially if they live in a city).
I wonder what Congress will mandate we buy next … solar panels, cable television, cell phones, you have to wonder where it will stop.

What a crock. He is so full of lies! Like he would actually deny coverage or put illegals and minorities in jail. His own quote implies it. “…if you have the ability to buy insurance, it’s affordable and you choose not to do so,…”

All I can say if this passes is “try and take your fine Mr. President”!

There are more people in this country that do not own a car and have no car insurance than are medically uninsured. It is just a fact. There are more than 13 million citizens in this country that rely solely on public transportation, so his analogy is pretty weak. Not to mention, if you do own a car, many states do not require insurance. So much for Harvard logic…

“free ride” Aren’t the majority of Obama supporters “free riders?”

The other day Pelosi said, “There is a cap on how much you pay, but no cap on how much you get”. How can there be no limits on benefits with a limit on how much is collected in premiums? I think the answer is that there is a cap on how much we will pay, but that cap will continue to rise as more benefits are paid out. There is no free lunch and there is no free healthcare. This looks like a costly disaster. Insurance is about statistics and no amount of political rhetoric will change that. None of this lowers any costs which should have been the goal of reform. We are paying 50% too much already.

If you don’t pay for medical insurance you are put in jail. If you are sick in jail don’t you get free medical care? Sounds like a waste of taxpayer money and court time to achieve the same result–free government medical care. This bill is like tearing down a house because of a hole in the roof. Fix the problems, don’t change the whole system!!!

Yes! Yes! Yes!
Let’s create a whole new class of criminals. Let’s inundate the criminal justice system(s) with more people to be housed in the already over burdened prison systems.
What will be the per capita cost to the government, and ultimately taxpayers, to incarcerate all uninsured criminals. If all these people are incarcerated the prison systems will be responsible for their health care expenses in addition to the housing and feeding expenses.
What will be the effects of all these new legal actions on the court systems?

We are already subsidizing illegals at our hospitals and schools and everywhere else. What is Obama doing about that? He wants to make them legal so the problem “goes away”!

The answer is to make those who free ride, PAY FOR THEIR CARE, or not get the care. The law should stated if you have access to health care and choose not to get it, you will not get care unless you pay for it.

I thought this was a free country? When did it change to become like the soviet block nations

I HOPE they’ll let me keep some CHANGE.

Take note members of Congress do not have to particpate in the Healthcare program they and Obama are shoving down our throat. Now waht is this crap about equality!

I for one welcome our new Health Insurance Overlords. LOL
We are all soooooo screwed!!!!

Meanwhile…
Unemployment continues to skyrocket while Obama continues to spread the propaganda regarding the jobs that he has “saved or created” by spending $700 Billion of our tax dollars.
How is it that the country lost MILLIONS of jobs, yet this idiot has the “audacity” to brag about jobs that he “saved or created?”
Obama is the worst thing to happen to America since Vietnam. The sissy president is waging war AGAINST a FREE MARKET, but has engaged in a propaganda campaign (with the help of the media) while our economy sits in the “stalemate” of mediocrity.
Stand up to OBAMAGANDA:
Don’t drink the Kool-Aid!

The uninsured should be required to pay some percentage of their bill when they go to the emergency room. Setting them up on a payment, similar to their car or house payment is very reasonable. Ending the free lunch will help reduce their utilization of the service. Also, the reason car insurance is mandated is to cover the damage done to another vehicle, or person. Obama is using faulty logic because we can not force people to buy a car, and thus buy car insurance. This is beside the point, the United States is bankrupt and does not have money to pay the over $50 trillion in social security and medicare unfunded liabilities. Rather than fix the more pressing problem, this idiot wants to create another massive entitlement program. Obama’s legacy will be the bankrupting of America. China is giving us enough rope to hang ourselves. The chicken will come home to roost, unfortunately our children and grandchildren will be paying for it. This is immoral!!

Sure, the millions and millions of illegal aliens that do not pay for health insurance but get the benefits (anchorbabies, included) will get tossed in jail. Yeah, sure, Obama.

“We lost our coverage when my husband had cancer and a heart attach.
I also have a thyroid condition which is treated with medication.
However we can not get any company to give us coverage.
Does that mean that my husband and I will both go to jail.
We can not afford to pay a find as every penny we make goes to medical expenses or medication”
Chin up Shirley….Barry’s “gonna” require insurers “ta” cover you and your husband anyway…regardless of your conditions….and by forcing these losses on insurers, Barry’s going to run them out of business….but not the gov’t “option”, it won’t be concerned with silly little profits…..it will cover EVERYBODY…and simply pay the providers less and less…how do you think that’s going to impact the quality of care? Should be great, huh?

All the more reason to legalize mary jane and let all those drug dealers out of prison, to make room for non-payers of the healthcare debacle. The better open up that cell as soon as he signs it, I’ll be the first to refuse paying. Mark the time, pass healthcare by Christmas, watch unemployment to go 5 million by Jan 31. Small business will shut down completely.

Well, “ChuckieCheese1″ calling for secession isn’t exactly Calhoun on the floor of the Senate, but, hey, okay. I’m in.

Go ahead and pass it. I’ll NEVER pay that fine. Come and get ME!!!

The difference:
Obamacare forces TAX PAYERS to pay for the insurance of those who already have “free” health care through Medicaid.
You don’t have to have have auto insurance if you can’t afford to own a car. Yet Obama wants to force people to buy insurance…and also pay for the health insurance of those who cannot or will not provide it for themselves.

EVERYBODY DOES GET SICK. You talk like a drunk driver with no license who believes he has no responsibility to the people he may hurt. The irresponsible lies people tell themselves in the name of personal freedom is unacceptable.
Posted by: William Hodge
William, Yes, everyone gets sick, but for for many young, single (even young families) people it makes more sense financially to pay for medical care in cash for those rare doctor visits (say $80 for two office visits a year versus $2,000 a year for a health insurance policy that still requires you to pay a $20 copay for each doctor visit — you do the math). Many folks who chose not to buy insurance do save money in a Health Savings Account for major things.
How each family handles their illnesses is a personal choice. Some people prefer to see the acupuncturist for their migraines, the chiropractor for their back pain or a doulah/midwife for maternal health care. Some people even prefer home births as opposed to a costly hospital stay.
People who prefer these alternatives tend to feel very strongly that they should at least have that choice. As long as they can pay cash for the major things that might involve a traditional doctor, why should it matter to you how they handle their finances? Why should they face jail time for their beliefs?
If the goal is to get more people health care, the simple solution is to raise the minimum requirements for Medicaid and increase funding to free clinics and hospitals. Forcing a product on someone who doesn’t want it does nothing productive.

OK BOYS AND GIRLS. WILL SOMEONE ASK THIS QUESTION . WHERE WILL THE MONEY THEY COLLECT FOR THE FIRST THREE YEARS GO.DO WE NEED TO CALL AL GORE FOR A LOCK BOX. BEFORE THEY SPEND EVERY CENT OF YOUR MONEY,WHAT A CON JOB THIS IS GOING TO BE. VOTE EVERYONE OF THEM OUT

It’s just wrong. I want to assign someone to kill me when I’m ready with no government intervention! Anyone want my liver when I’m done with it?

The man is an idiot. The bottom line is that such a plan to make you buy insurance is UNconstitutional. The reason is we are born with certain rights. To mkae every American citizen but insurance basically means we have to buy our citizenship and all the rights that go with it. The loong and short of it, this is basically a pol tax which was eliminated by the Supreme Court because it meant you had to pay for a basic right (voting). If this is the quality of people coming from Harvard I think people need to rethink the idea of where to send their children for an education.

So after the elitist, arrogant, liberal, fascists in Washington cram this down our thorats do you think they will have to live with this garbage? They mist certainly will not. They will all have extra special privileges. This was tried once and it was called the Politburo. Wake up America; time to toss these facists out on the street in 2010 so they can join the unemployment rolls. Time to take this country back, by whatever means are necessary……

I dont have auto insurance to take care of myself, I have it in case i injure someone else.

Obama’s comparison of mandatory auto insurance to mandatory health insurance is shallow and inaccurate to the point of deception.
If you don’t want auto insurance, then you don’t have to drive, I know lots of people who don’t believe in health insurance, what are they supposed to do?
Fact, in a free country the government shouldn’t make decisions for you.
Fact, if this is implimented we will have lost yet another grip of control on our own lives, in other words it would then be: “Death, Taxes, and Health Insurance”.
Had I known Obama would flip flop on this issue I would never have voted for him. What a crook.

What’s the crime in paying a doctor outright for his services? Obama and the Congress are trying to criminalize this behavior. Americans should not be compelled to pay for health insurance just because they want to see a doctor! This is not “free riding” at all. And requiring health insurance is *not* the same thing as requiring auto insurance for those who *choose* to drive a car.

Auto insurance is an inept and irrelevant comparison. Governments own the roads, so driving on them is a privilege that can be taxed and licensed. Federal involvement in interstate highways was based on the constitutional authority to provide for the common defense.
To me, fining or imprisoning people because they fail to buy a privately or publically provided product is much, much more of a constitutional stretch.
But then, that won’t stop liberals because the Constitution is an inconvenience for them.

Does Obama actually think he “can’t afford” to buy health insurance for himself and his family?? Yet under the Obama/Pelosi legislation, he will NOT be purchasing health insurance for himself. Will he too go to jail, like the rest of us Americans will?

Oh No!! I do not have auto insurance! I have a license, but rarely drive and do not own a car! Yikes, I’m breaking the law. According to the president, I should be “subject to some penalty.”

If you don’t have health care insurance and you need medical help, you go to prison where they have free health care. There’s a solution for you!!

Shouldn’t Government officials (President, White House staff, Members of Congress, etc.) also enroll in Government Healthcare?

Paper Tiger … paper president … graduate of the College of Community Organizers. LIE LIE LIE – OBAMA!
I often wonder laying in bed each night what it would be like if I were Obamaboy … and I ask myself, ‘What would Hitler do?’

If they get this Health Care passed through. I think
congress,senators and all including the President at
the White House, should be put in jail if they don’t
have the same coverage as we the people. If they think its good enough for us it’s good enough for them.. what you think???

PrezZero is wrong! (surprise…). If you don’t drive, you don’t have to buy auto insurance. What a maroon. Just wonderin – but – think he and the wife have car insurance?

I have good insurance currently, but under this plan I expect upon the first ‘change’ that it will be canceled or raised so high that I should be forced into a Govt Run plan.
Like many above I will not do that, nor will I pay any penalty on my taxes … and should my good “Uncle’ come after me I will gladly go to court to fight for a class action suit in that the Govt cannot ‘force’ anyone under our current constitutional system to buy anything … I cannot believe with jails full Eric Holder or anyone else is going to be able to enforce this … and if they do, look on the bright side – by law they have to give you really good health care while in! The Govt loses either way.

Forgot to HAPPY BIRTHDAY to any Marines out there.

Given that Barack Obama seems to have had the proverbial free ride for most of his life, and given that he seems to have sucked at some government’s teat for decades, then, of course, there’s nothing wrong with a penalty.
How about this? We tax all of his perks, including those non-essential trips he makes on Air Force 1 and Marine 1? His $100-per-pound-of-Kobe-beef parties for his friends and suckups?
Hey, how about he put his two girls into the public schools in D.C.?
The man is not just a megalomaniac but a Marxist/Maoist cold fish who, along with the Democrat Party, appear to be the clearest and most present danger our country faces.

Every one should have a choice:
1)private insurance
2)Congressional plan/some public option
3)No insurance – sign a waiver and submit to gov’t so they can’t get on public option just as soon as their health goes bad.

so now he’s worried about people getting free rides and milking the system?? oh by the way, Aunt Zeituni, where are you now????

OK folks… Here’s a little lesson. Obama is not stupid. Everyone gets wound around the axle on this health care thing and lose sight of the big picture. No, this isn’t going where you think it is. This is a well orchestrated, highly thought out long term plan to destroy this nation. Health care is just one huge piece of the puzzle. Does anyone remember the Bank bailouts?? When the banks tried to return the money, the government refused to accept it therefore allowing the government to continue to dictate to the banks who they were going to do business with and how. So let’s see, the US government now has their foot firmly entrenched it our private banking system, they are taking over some of the largest manufacturing industries that employee hundreds of thousands of people, and they’re taking over health care which is about one sixth of our total economy. Between these three things, they control money (the nations collective wealth), literally have the destiny of a large segement of our society in the palm of their hands (support us or we’ll decide to shut down your production plant) and can threaten your life (healthcare reform). If they don’t like you or the things you say, your forms get lost at the hospital and you don’t get the surgery that you need to save your life.
This is not paranoia. You need to stop being emotional about this and see it for what it is. This is a nation being systematically ripped apart and put back together in the long standing vision of the president and the people that he has surrounded himself with for his entire life.
We WILL become slaves to our government and we WILL be grateful for the crumbs that they allow us to have. They Will strip us of our individualism, wealth, pride, and dignity. We WILL become part of the collective.
I served in the military for 24 years and have been to almost 40 countries in my life. I raised my hand to support and defend the Constitution of the United States because I’ve always believed that this nation was something worth dying for. Now I’m thinking about taking my family and leaving the place that I swore to defend with my life for almost a quarter of a century. How sad.
Again, the president is not stupid. He is executing his plan and vision for this nation, and from the looks of it, he’s being very successful.

If Obama truly wants to cover the tax burden on ordinary Americans, get the illegal immigrants out of our country that are already getting free health care at our public hospitals!

The auto analogy is apt, especially if you think you should have to pay a tax to…..breathe. Typical Liberal.

We can hire some former East Berliners to sstreamline the process.
Wow what a concept!!!!
Posted by: Dave | Nov 10, 2009 11:50:45 AM
________
Sounds like something a right wing nutjob would say.
What happened? Did you all get a memo from the astroturf teaper bosses, the GOP and their sugar daddy insurance lobby to pound the internet pressing this issue?
All hands on deck! We’re actually well on the road to joining other first world nations in providing affordable health care for all citizens! Can’t have that! That’s so forward thinking!

Many constitutional lawyers and former judges believe requiring people to have health insurance is unconstitutional.
It will be interesting to see how the first case would come out.
Let’s see, do not get insurance, go to jail where you have some of the best taxpayer paid health care.

Automobile insurance is only mandatory if you own and drive a vehicle. Taxes are only required if you work, purchase something, or own a taxable asset (home, building, land, etc.).
This mandatory health insurance is something new to this country. It is a tax on our very existence…think about that for a minute. We the people, are now the property of the state…slaves.

The auto insurance Obama is talking about is called NO-FAULT.
It is such a brilliant idea that only FOUR states in the union use the approach.
Essentially I pay for people “who might run into me and may not have insurance.”
In all of american history the government has NEVER made us a buy a product. PERIOD. The very thought is UN-AMERICAN.
Even with nasty socialistic policies of the past (that are now projected to go BANKRUPT) the government called it what it was- a tax, and one that clearly showed up on our paystubs.
Anyone who thinks this is a good idea should watch (or gasp!) READ the book 1984.
How long until our costs go up and the government decides that we’re too stupid to take care of ourselves and impose ‘health requirements’ like forced excercise and imposed diets?
“The land of the free is under attack by leftist socialists- much like the nazis that forced their will over all of Germany. They also did so ‘from the inside.’

This raises an interesting point for me. Will Seventh Day Adventists (I think they object to health services) be compelled to pay into the system? There are so many broader constitutional questions about compelled participation. People aren’t compelled to vote. They buy car insurance because driving on the common streets is a privilege, not a right. All this does little to lower the actual costs of providing health services. What a joke.

PEOPLE LISTEN UP!
Anyone who voted for this bill – needs to lose in 2010 – anyone.
MOST IMPORTANTLY – we need a Republican Speaker of the House – so no matter – to remove Pelosi from her Speakership — you need to vote Republican, period!

To make a comparison between the requirement to carry health insurance and car insurance show how truly ignorant and out of touch with reality Obama is

This is wrong. People should not be required by law to have health insurance if they don’t want to. period. its their choice if they want to not be taken care of. Health care should be there for those who have no other choice.

RDavid:
Dirtbag is quite complimentary to describe the Marxist thug in the W.H.
People, wake up. Dirtbag and the rest of Marxist and Commie dirtbags could give a crap less about your healthcare, it’s your liberty they want.

All citizens must pay a tax for being born or off to jail you go……

With this line of logic all those on wellfare(SSI) who don’t pay their way now should also be imprisioned also. There getting a free ride on us who work for a living and pay their taxes and while there locked up they don’t have to be paid and not allowed to vote for those who continualy inslave them them to gov’t subsistance.

Remember everyone:
The Nazis Hoped for Change.
The Soviet Union Hoped for Change.
The Maoists Hoped for Change.
The Khmer Rouge Hoped for Change.
They Hoped for Change in Cuba.
All over the world, those who Hoped for Change, are surviving in tyranny.
Obama wants us all to be equal:
equally poor; equally oppressed; equally tyrannized.
The liberal utopia.
In 2010 and 2012, I sure will be Hoping for Change.

Here’s an obvious question:
Where exactly in the Constitution does it provide for Congress to compel individuals to sign up for insurance?

Heck, if you don’t want to pay for health care, quit work. If they put you in jail, you get room and board in addition to health care. If there is no freedom of choice, let them pay more to keep you safe, fed and insured.

I only have to get auto insurance if I drive a car.
What if my religious beliefs differ from conventional medical treatment?
Do I have to have insurance for a system that manages disease the way a business manages products?

Pres. Obama is ignoring two facts when he compares mandatory health insurance to mandatory auto insurance. 1 – In some states you don’t have to have auto insurance as long as can still prove financial responsibility (a bond through the state). 2 – You have auto insurance to protect the person you may hit, not yourself. This seems to be a trend, failure to understand the details.

What do you mean we’ve never been made to buy something? You can’t drive legally without insurance. This sounds like a Republican plan…force free loaders into carrying their share of the burden. The “well what if I don’t want it” argument doesn’t work when you get hurt and end up costing everyone else money, that’s the problem about deciding not to carry health insurance, you get the benefits anyway. Hey Noel, you don’t have to drive but if you have a heart attack are you going to sit in your house and die because you don’t have insurance? No, you’re going to cost the rest of us money while putting yourself into a miserable debt. Get a clue.

Wasn’t this MAJ.HASAN considered for one of OBAMA’S “DIVERSITY” CZARS???

How can you send Americans to jail for not paying for Health Insurance but not the illeagal aliens? Obama is turning this country into a Marxist state.

Enjoy the dis-mantling of America. You voted for it.

Jail time? Oh, it’s GOT TO BE George Bush’s fault!

Build more jails ’cause we’re going to need them!!! LOL…like our president thought of the fact that we Americans might just go on strike and refuse to buy insurance…..

Let’s not forget that none of the people who voted for OR against this bill are bound to use it–they all have separate but I’m sure “equal” insurance, I’m not sure if all Federal employees are also exempt.

who the hell does Obama think he is? it is NONE of his business if i have health insurance or not, he wants to have govenment controlled insurance and that way he can have access to all of OUR medical records…Somewhere we need to show him a lesson, on how to run this country….

Cory Glaberson: yes there have been suggestions of alternatives
1. Return to the system of the 1960s when it was extremely inexpensive.
No government control – BCBS were non-profits and it was insurance where the insured shared the risks. At the same time do away with malpractice suits, simply prosecute doctors who make egregious errors (that will save millions). If you trace all the trouble with health care since the 60′s: you will find that all of the trouble came from the laws democrats made to sabotage and meddle with it. You say there have been no alternative plans – that is the petulant teenage leftist talking: doing nothing is always an alternative. You idiots on the left just want a British system here that will bankrupt in 5 years.

President Obama must think the American people are idiots to make this “auto insurance” analogy. As others have pointed out, only liability insurance is required, to protect others. No insurance is required to protect the purchser. Furthermore, I can choose my deductible, choose to post a bond instead of buying insurance, choose not to drive, and buy my insurance from any one of hundreds of companies doing business across state lines and without any government “option” trying to destroy the auto insurance market and take it over.
On the other hand, the American voters did elect Obama, so he’s probably right. Most of us ARE idiots.

“To make a comparison between the requirement to carry health insurance and car insurance show how truly ignorant and out of touch with reality Obama is”
————————
Obama isn’t out of touch with reality. His followers are. He knows that they aren’t smart enough to see the differences between mandatory car insurance and mandatory health insurance.
1.) There is no mandate to purchase car insurance, there is a mandate to be be “Financially Responsible”. This means that you agree to prve that you are able to pay $25,000 for any damages that you cause to the property of others. A bank statement would legally suffice.
2.) As stated above, auto insurance is intended to protect OTHER PEOPLES PROPERTY, NOT YOUR OWN. Health insurance is for your own body.
3.) Driving is a PRIVELEDGE. If you don’t want to buy car insurance, then you walk to work.
The logical fallacies are abundant and show just how dishonest Obama is willing to be to achieve his agenda.

Comparing it to auto insurance is ridiculous because you are not forced to buy auto insurance unless you drive. The state is not required to give you a drivers license and you are not required to get one. It is a choice for both parties involved.

Some of us can remember when nobody had health insurance. You got sick – you went to your family doctor. When you left you paid him $25-30, and that was that. He didn’t have to hire a half dozen “Insurance Specialists” to process his accounts – there were none. There was no insurance fraud – there was none. You were treated, you paid.
How much money would be saved by returning to the old system? Billions in Medicare/Medicaid fraud. Billions in bogus lawyers fees and tort reforms. No more John Edwards types gaming the system and becoming millionaires off of it!
Would it still cost $25-30 a visit? Of course not, but is it unreasonable to pau $100 or so for treatment? I think so, and the doctors would save money in the process.

Wrong Wrong Wrong
The air belongs to the Government. If you wish to breath it, you must buy health insurance. The government did the same thing with tea back in the 1770′s. Opps, my mistake that was the British government. I wonder if there will be civil disobedience, and enough prisons for us all?

Oh, Cory Glaberson…you, my dear, are one of the sheep being led to the slaughter…you want to talk, let’s talk.
I come from a country that has this “fantasy” universal health care for all…it is a disaster…DISASTER. have you ever experiences watching loved ones denied by their own government with NO RECOURSE…you are foolish and weak minded if you believe the liberal democrats and obama have your best interest at heart…LOL!!! think for yourself…follow the natural consequences for this pathetic excuse of a health care bill…THINK!

If the penalties for not having auto insurance are so effective, why is there an uninsured motorist clause and why do I have to pay for it?

Hmmm! Prison might actually seem a better option than a United States that has lost much of its freedom under Obama and his ilk. The rights of prisoners are considered more important than the rights of regular citizens by liberals.

I don’t know what the answer is but something has to be done with our healthcare system, I didn’t vote for ohbama but the man is trying. What did bush do?
If you don’t have a solution, don’t whine about it.

If we all hold off on our fines, perhaps obama can imprison us all at the new vacant Club Gitmo! I hear the food is great, the grounds are beautiful and proud american soldiers are there to protect us. Where do we sign up?

A major flaw in the auto insurance comparison is that you are not forced to buy auto insurance. If you don’t own a car, you don’t need to buy auto insurance. You can still get to work and around via the bus, a taxi, bike, or walking.
With health insurance, they are saying you must buy it. There’s no way around buying it without paying a penalty (or jail time).

Similar to the former child healthcare plan in Hawaii, people will game the hell out of the system driving up the costs. Similar to Medicare and Medicaid, huge endemic fraud will sap our economy. Lawmakers allow those who would reap the benefits right the bills, ensuring tons of loopholes and unexpected consequeences.
Tort reform, allow cross state boundary shopping for health insurance, and get serious NOW about fixing fraud in Medicare and Medicaid.
Then and only then will I even consider supporting this crap.

This is solely a huge tax increase on absolutely everyone, ending EIC, ending WIC, ending Medicare Advantage program subsidies and placing all the costs on seniors, Cutting $500 billion from Medicare, penalizing private citizens, forcing individuals to purchase a product, that more often than not, is more than they need. Punishing businesses, punishing individuals, all while saying this is not a tax. Well people, this is not health care reform. This is giving the government billions and billions more of our dollars so they can continue spending like drunken sailors. There is only costs, fines, penalties and jail for the citizens. Benefits to come in 4 or more years maybe. I will support healthcare reform, when something comes across as actually benefitting the people rather than government control and growth. And people this is government contol. Forcing people to purchase a product without allowing the benefits of bringing down costs; Such as tort reform, purchasing insurance across state lines, etc. Penalties not only for people but also for the states. If a state has tort reform programs in place for their states they are required by Obamacare to remove those safeguards. If people cannot afford to purchase health insurance for their families they will be required to pay a penalty. For those living at or below the poverty line that fine will be 2.5% of their income. For those at the higher end the fee goes much higher. If you cannot pay, then you will go to jail for up to five years and be assessed a $15,000 fine that will never go away-you won’t be able to discharge this fine in a bankruptcy. You will also be labeled a felon, as not purchasing this product is considered a felony, like committing a murder is a felony, and will be placed on your record as such. The IRS is being place in the position to place a lien on your property, homes, cars, t.v. sets and etc. and seize it to give to the government. There is nothing in this Obamacare bill that resembles anything other than government control and seizure for the benefit of the government.

No one so far has proposed any real alternative plan.
Posted by: Cory Glaberson
That’s not true. Many people — even one democrat congressman, urged that the minimum requirements for Medicare be raised and that extra funding be funneled to free clinics and hospitals — that’s all that needs to happen to get coverage for those who can’t afford it.
Truth is, the poor are already covered (they already get Medicaid or whatever it’s called in each state). Most of the middle class and wealthy are covered, leaving the working poor who simply can’t afford it – you know, like the single mother working two jobs. These folks often pay cash for medical services because it’s cheaper then buying insurance. This bill won’t help that single mother, it will require her to spend more money on a product she would otherwise chose not to buy.
If Congress was really interested in helping poor working folks, they would simply raise the minimum requirement for Medicare. That they are not doing that, and instead come out with a nearly 2,000-page “solution” should raise a few eyebrows.

Yea, but with jail time we could now provide them with fre healthcare. I love this country!!

This is unbelievable. These Socialist Pigs must be stopped, NOW!

I am still trying to figure out how mmandatory insurance coverage is even constitutional let alone the threat of jail time for noncompliance. Starting to feel like I need a passport to be in this country…..

Obama and the Democrats in Congress are indeed scary folks. They are so intellectually vacuous. They are trying to ruin the whole economy with their health care pap.

This is how we get universal health care. Those that buy it, have it. Those who don’t, get it free in jail. Everyone has coverage. Problem solved.
Next.

Destardi…just because obama appears to be “doing” something, doesn’t mean it’s good…Stalin “did” something, Hitler “did” something, Castro “did” something…what in the world is your point? DOING isn’t always a good thing…goodness gracious, I thought most folks would understand that.
There are better and less costly alternatives, Destardi…research for yourself, don’t be so helpless.

Mr. Obama said, “penalties are appropriate for people who try to free ride the system and force others to pay for their health insurance.”
-Does this mean he will finally start deporting illegal aliens?? I doubt it.

Obama’s analogy with auto insurance is pathetic.
First, driving is a privilege, not a right (like they are claiming health care is) so there can be rules and laws placed on it to protect “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”… we still have the choice if we don’t like the laws (or consequences) to simply not drive.
Second, if you don’t have insurance for some reason and you have an accident, no one comes to your rescue to pay for your car, the other person’s car, etc. like he’s trying to imply… that somehow if I don’t have auto insurance and get in an accident the government is going to replace my car.
I’m disgusted and physically sick to my stomach over this health care issue. I guess I can take solace when it passes, I lose my job, wait the 6-mo waiting period and hopefully haven’t died yet, my ulcers will be looked at.

WHAT A JOKE!!!! HA HA HA HA…
You mean to tell me that this Puke of a President that we have….Is going to build more Prisons/Jails for those people who he very well knows will not have insurance…yet there are those REAL criminals like child molesters/rapist, thieves, murders, etc, etc…who serve next to nothing for their crime…Is Obammy going to let some of these criminals out on good behavior to make room for the “uninsured”?…I thought his wonderful Health Care is covering everybody….Oh, stupid me….It’s for all the freakin’ illegals…
WHAT A PIECE OF WORK we HAVE RUNNING OUT STATES…Who voted this moron?

Only jail time for those who are productive. The freeloaders and moochers
get a pass because they tend to vote democratic.On every americans W-2 we should have a box to check whether we wish to give to the poor,to pay for illegals education and healthcare or to provide for those that choose not to better themselves.

My religious beliefs say to not go to doctors in most circumstances. Now Jesus says to render unto Ceasar what is his, so I would have to buy some sort of insurance I suppose, but I don’t think it is fair to have to when I won’t be using the system. I rely on God for my healing.

Welcome to socialism folks. Dictator BO has decided what is best and now we all get to give him our money or else.

Why not illegalize insurance and watch docs make housecalls for $60/hour

WHat have we come to in this country. I am a 61 your old man close to retirement and things don’t look good. I am from the fruit cake state of California and a 3rd generation that roots go back to 1893. The tansplant Politicans from Ca do not represent us, Pelosi, Boxer and other to speak of really dont have a clue. This President we have Needs to go back to what he does best and how he is running this White House ( Community Organizer) He goofed up with Acorn, The didnt follow his rules Lie ,Lie Lie, then call it (transparency). Real Change we all can believe in. It will be by the poeple and for the people. Go to the website and get involved. The time is here. We The People . Thanks for letting us all vent on here and say our peace.

Wow this government is totally out of control.I have read the constitution and the bill of rights many times unlike our children,,and what I see is America is now an oligarchy.and they show arrogance and disdain for what they swore an oath to defend,The majority of our government,are state-ist punks.
If they pass this health care law,my first stop is to my primary care doctor to get the medical records of myself and my kids,also I have written a letter to the doctor that if he shares my health records with any one, I will take it to court.let them pay attention to tens of millions of Americans begining to lawyer up, giving this tyrannical government the screw you! response,this is our duty to oppose all of this..thinking of my uncle the Korean war vet..from what is being allowed to be left of Detroit..CES

Mandatory car insurance has been in effect for years. How many are driving without it? The political system can’t even handle that. How do we expect them to handle this so-called health system? It will be a financial disaster to the honest portion of the public that pays the bill for the non-paying illegals and beer sucking bums.

Someone suggested that we Americans invoke the BOAKYAG strategy.
That works only if you have no spine, no love of freedom, are a victim–all the things the Democrats and liberals patently are.
There’s a reason the state motto of New Hampshire–coined by Gen. John Stark as a toast to fellow soldiers reuniting in 1809 to commemorate the 1777 Battle of Bennington, Vt.–is “Live Free or Die.”
It’s time for Americans who consider themselves sons and daughters of Liberty to stand.
The barbarians are now beyond the gate: They’re in charge, for now, only because of some Americans’ ignorance and stupidity and complacency.
While ignorance and complacency can be changed, stupidity cannot.
And that’s the Democrats’, liberals’ and leftists’, but especially Obama’s, Achilles heel.

Who is to say what is affordable, when you have no money, or very limited funds anything could be a burden.
Are all the thieves in Wasington going to tell us what’s affordable, is Obama gonna write me a worthless check to cover the expense.
How about Jail time for every President, Congress person , Senator, and down the line that made the mess that we find ourselves in first,
The first one in line for Jail should be the Almighty Obama for spending my great-great-great grand childrens futures on a waistless bailout of his buddies, in the banking and insurance, and Automobile industies, please would one person come forth from main street and tell me how you were helped by the Bailout,please.
The next person white or black that tells me Obama is just like us , a regular guy that’s going to bring change, I gonna stand them on their heads and shove that change up there stupid asses.

wow , no one on here is making any sense, you are all over the place.This isnt a democratic plan it is a republican one, like the auto insurance rule. All this will do, just like the auto insurance co’s will enable prices to sky-rocket cause now no-one has a choice, they will cartel the prices, cover less (like now) and say it is affordable (even when it isnt) and more americans will end up un-covered (like the insured now) get in more debt(medical and fines) Democrats said they were gonna make a single-payer system, the ONLY working option.They lied , like all Poloticians, and the Corporates will fill their pools with cash and dive in (like now) there really is no change, except now we dont get a choice to not pay the Lizzard ran Insurance CO’s. I wish Russia would nuke us all and get it overwith already

“Stops short of endorsing jail time”? Well, duh, he may have stopped short of endorsing jail time aloud, but he’s already said he’ll sign the bill. How stupid does he think we are…never mind, scratch that question. He knows how stupid we are. That’s how he got where he is.

The reality is, this guy is a Marxist Dictator wannabe like Chavez. Unlike Chavez he does not have support from the Army – that could be telling in the end. The problem is that our Conservative leaders do not have any guts. The NRA called me the other day whining about proposed gun control laws. I asked them outright,
“Are you willing, if it comes down to it, to make war against your government and all that entails – Civil War -
Killing those who are on the other side-
in a fratiricidal Civil War. Your enemies might be your neighbors, “friends”, and family, but they are the enemy and you might have to kill them-do you have the stomach for it?
If he isn’t then LaPierre is a phony that just wants my money to pay his salary”
I don’t belong to any group, and I don’t even own a gun – I just like asking inconvenient questions to see how “sincere” people are about their beliefs.
The NRA guy said thank you for your time and hung up. The Conservative leaders are just phonies and entertainers, stirring everything up, but without the nerve to follow this to its logical conclusion. Socialists and Marxists cheat and will not give up power voluntarily. We who are conservative will have 1 of 2 choices – Fight or leave. Seeing the “bloodless and gutless leaders we have in conservatism – I will leave.

As this country makes it’s final slip into socialism, I truly hope that all of the morons that voted for idiot get some sort of illness that will not be covered under the new health plan. Oops. My mistake. I forgot that welfare will jusy pay for their illnesses. It’s the working people that voted Republican that will be responsible for all of the bad healthcare. Just remember….what comes around, goes around. Say good bye in 2012.

ABC NEWS IS AS USELESS AS BARRY !

Neither Obama, nor any proponent of the abominable health care bill, has addressed the constitutionality of forcing citizens to buy a particular good or service. This is not a power of the federal government enumerated in the Constitution! When the income tax was enacted in 1913, everyone agreed that it would take a constitutional amendment to impose it and the 16th Amendment was the result. Now, the liberals/socialists simply assume that the federal government can impose any penalty it desires on citizens whether or not it is a power granted to the government under the Constitution. There is no analogy to mandatory auto insurance since since driving is a privilege, not a right, and everyone has the option not to drive if he or she does not want to buy insurance. Who will have the option not to have health care under this proposed mandatory system? It is guaranteed that the Supreme Court will have to address this tremendously important constitutional issue. The “mainstream” media has buried any discussion of this key question.

So…. the poor and minorities all get free health insurance and if the working people don’t want to pay they will take either the money your freedom or both. Since when did the constitution allow for the government to mug the citizens. If this keeps up you will see class warfare on a whole new level with the end result much worse than befor this idiot act of thievery. Ah,the great uniter,splitting this country like gutting a carcass.

I can’t believe Jake Tapper, didn’t have the courage to call BHO on his analogy to Auto Insurance. With auto insurance, I can select the coverage I want, the limits, the Insurance Company and the deductible. And oh, if I don’t happen to own a car, I am not “required” to purchase auto insurance – and will not be put in jail or fined.
Also If I am wealthy in most states I can post a bond not carry automobile ensurance.

Time for civil war!

Where exactly in the Constitution does it provide for Congress to compel individuals to sign up for insurance?
Posted by: John |
It’s probably found in the same section that says Congress can require every American to buy solar panels for their house, exercise for at least 30 minutes daily and subscribe to cable television. That section would also probably grant Congress the powers to enforce those mandates through penalties and jail time. I’m being sarcastic. My guess is that neither Congress or the president has the constitutional power to mandate that people buy anything, let alone insurance.

What I think is appropriate is that in the same way that everybody has to get auto insurance and if you don’t, you’re subject to some penalty
Obama– the people who choose not to drive—dont need and are not forced by mandate and threat of jail time to buy auto insurance. The people who choose not to go to doctors, or choose to use alternative therapies that they pay cash for on their own-should not be made to pay for your government approved health insurance.

god I hate Obama. He is the lowest form of life. How much longer til he is gone. I wouldn’t be surprised if Obama tried to do away with term limits for the president. He would be king for life and we would all be screwed

So welfare isnt a free ride?
While were letting fellons out ie. child molesters, murders and other criminals were going to fill jails up with people that dont want insurance. that makes a hole lot of sense. Keep up the good work dividing and tearing america apart DC.

Okay see if I’m got this right. Some people don’t buy insurance and they burden the system when they go to the emergency room and don’t pay. So we put them in jail where they are a burden to the system and they still get free health care, 3 squares a day and probably costing the taxpayer tens of thousands of dollars a year to incarcerate him or her. At least they probably used to have a job. My conclusion is this is not about health care, it is about government control.

This piece needs to be rewritten. The grammar and lack of punctuation is awful.

What about those who live in other countries and come here when sick as illegal aliens. They are gaming the system and the rest of us have to pay for it. Why not be at least as insistent for validation of citizenship and penalties for abuses? Democrats have voted down EVERY single amendment to ensure Illegal’s do not get taxpayer funded health care.

I have heard from many who say that the government will not arrest due to shortages of prison space…what do you think the FEMA camps are for?

This raises an interesting point for me. Will Seventh Day Adventists (I think they object to health services) be compelled to pay into the system?
Posted by: albrect |
Everybody means everybody. Personal beliefs aren’t relevant here. There might be people who don’t use “traditional” medical services, but their money is still needed to make this new health care system work.
Look at the bright side, once they are forced to buy health insurance, they might “rethink” their religious views and see that subscribing to modern medicine is really the best thing for them. After all, Congress says they need health insurance, so they must have it.

This is our time. WE own the house now…WE are in charge. It is time to make right all the wrongs that been done to the poor folks in this country.
You all WILL pay your taxes, because that money is really ours…WE work for you, WE serve you…and now YOU gonna’ serve us.
Thanks for the free healthcare. What go around come around.

And YOU thought this was FREE health care? Foooooools.

Where in the constitution grants the federal government the authority to force anyone to purchase a product from a private company or be fined and thrown in jail if he refuses? That’s repressive fascism not freedom.
You Dems haven’t done jack to address the illegals problem. Since ERs are required by law to treat everyone regardless of ability to pay, the illegals will still be receiving their health care for free. Unlike US citizens, they aren’t being threatened with high fines and prison time for not buying insurance from a private company. Surely, you aren’t so dumb not to realize that cost shifting will continue even after you Dems shove this monstrosity down our throats.
What an utter disappointment you Mr President have been. Congratulations for beating your predecessor in record time to be our new worst president in history.

Dr Nidal Malik Hasan (Why’d he do it) has some really good health care benefits.

Obama is protecting BIG Business? Just like GB protected BIG OIL. Who is the fool now?

The auto insurance analogy is not even close. Washington doesn’t even want you to drive an auto, they want you to ride gov’t transportation. We pay uninsured motorist coverage to cover the illegals that drive without insurance, how does that compare? What’s the penalty, I’ll tell you the penalty. The illegals go scott free and my premiums go up, now there is your analogy.

The ultimate goal of Obama and his global banking masters is a cashless society where everyone is under under a gov’t healthcare plan.
Then, you will be forced to have an implanted RFID chip w/GPS so the gov’t can track you and, should you become a “problem”, they can turn off your RFID chip’s credit allotment so you can’t buy anything – even groceries.
It’s the ultimate control….the gov’t can track your every movement and shut you off….make you a non-person.

This shows how OUT OF TOUCH this BOZO is. Everyone has car insurance !!!!!! Are you joking !!!!!! Then why do we have NO FAULT insurance. Its because there’s a good twenty percent chance that it you’re involved in an accident, you or your insurance will have to pay to fix your car, because the other person has no insurances.
How does this JERK expect people to pay fines when HIS POLICIES are drying up what JOBS are left.
If this country is to survive looking something like America, this idiot has too go, or you can stick a fork in America, ITS DONE !!!!!!!!!!!!

The government better use a lot of the unspent stimulus money to build new prisons and put really bad people like me in them when I refuse to let them take what’s left of my income to pay for a disastrous healtcare scheme.

Attention Barry: You are not required to have auto insurance unless you drive. Secondly (for now) there is no way the government can ‘check’ or ‘find’ out that you are driving a car withouth auto insurance. For example: Uncle Jack gives you his old beater car. He says if you fix it she is all yours. It currently has no insurance. You fix it and drive it and do not insure it. If you do not get into an accident you have no insurance you are fine (I mean this in terms of being FINED-JAILED ETC). I am in the insurance business so I AM NOT advocating driving without insurance, rather trying to prove a point. BARRY you speak of “SUBSIDIZING”, you are in the subsidizing business. You buy off voters by promising their representatives certain subsidizies. Give me a break!!!!!!!!

I just signed up as a patient with my veterinarian and registered as a mixed breed, or what Obama would call a mutt. I believe our pets will have better health care than us humans.

HEY JAKE,
NEXT TIME TELL THE PRESIDENT…the auto insurance comparison is a APPLES AND CAULIFLOWER…
WE THE PEOPLE ARE ONLY REQUIRED TO BY INSURANCE THAT PROTECTS MY NEIGHBOR FROM MY BAD DRIVING…”LIABILITY INSURANCE”…I’M NOT REQUIRED TO PURCHASE ANYTHING THAT COVERS ME.
WE DON’T HAVE TO BUY COLLISION INSURANCE IF WE OWN OUR CARS…THE BANK CAN REQUIRE, AND DOES, COLLISION PROTECTION…NOT THE GOVT…I HAVE A CHOICE.

The auto insurance analogy is obsurd – those who don’t own a car are not made to purchase insurance – big difference.

you must buy car insurance by law to protect others the state does not require you insure your own self or your property.

YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHING YET!!!
WAIT ‘TIL OBAMA ORDERS YOU TO HAVE IMPLANTED RFID CHIPS W/ GPS TRACKING…..”FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY.”

No, Mr. Obama I do not have to have Auto insurance if I want to not drive a car and many don’t…what do I have to do if I don’t want health insurance…Die?!?!

Obama’s Auto analogy is Stupid! And he knows it. You can Choose not to have a car, in which case you don’t need insurance.
I guarantee that if they make health care “free” I’ll personally overload the system by going eveyday for something and get my money’s worth.
Which is of course the problem with “free.”

One other point, the biggest problems with the “free ride” arguement is that the courts have decided that no one can be refused emergency care, and if an illegal or person without means happens to sneeze, they go for emergency care.
Wanna fix it? Deny care to people in the US illegally, and for those who are citizens, deny non-emergency care in emergency rooms, and hold them accountable for the costs, or have good state programs for the poor.

I live in Mennonite and Amish country. They pay there own way. What about them?
We pay our own health insurance through a HSA and it goes up every year even though we use it little. We own a small business.

One can choose to not drive a car. There is no government mandate to buy insurance if one chooses not to drive. No such choice here. This is oppressive.

Obama doesn’t see the difference between car insurance and health insurance?
I choose to buy a car, therefore I pay car insurance. If I didn’t buy the car, I wouldn’t be obligated to buy car insurance either.
Now, under Obama’s / Pelosi’s brilliant plan, I am required to pay for health insurance whether or not I choose to go to the doctor. I am required to pay for insurance simply because I am alive. What a joke. What makes a government official think they have the right to tax someone for simply breathing? Sickening. Repulsive. Disgusting.

Sunlen, This is your high school English, writing, and grammar teacher. You are putting me to shame. Please take a writing seminar quick, fast and in a hurry. This drivel that you are spewing should not be on a national news media blog.

VOTE em ALL OUT IN 2010 and 2012. Remember who votes Yeay for this charade of a bill and VOTE EM OUT!!!!!!!!!!

As usual, the Congress and the Senate have EXEMPTED themselves from the ‘public option’. Of course.
WAKE UP!

Exactly, Matt. You are only required to have car insurance if you have a car… and you are not required by law to own and drive a car, therefore you do have a choice to not carry insurance.
This mandate is interesting and very suspect in a bill that also creates a gummint option. In a less criminalized way, it makes a degree of sense if you are trying to open up a larger risk pool to the private insurers who need a large risk pool to keep $$ in the coffers to pay out for pre-existing conditions. But that can also be accomplished in large measure by eliminating interstate restrictions.
Let’s pray this piece of crap bill is repealable.

By the President’s own admission, $1000 is a burden. I’ve seen estimates of $15k/year for a family policy under this plan.

Another idiot pronouncement from the Idiot In Chief. Hey, can I get “quality” health care while in jail????? I’m looking forward to it.

What the hell happened to “The land of the free”? Where did freedom of choice go? Personal responsibility? This mommy daddy state crap has got to end or we’ll all be cattle in pens or peasants living in hovels.

There is no Federal Mandate on purchasing Car Insurance. It’s a State decision as evidenced by New Hampshire. NH does not have any law requiring the purchase of Automotive Insurance.

How stupid. Auto insurance is to protect the other guy/property and is the price you pay for the privelage (Not God Given Right) to drive. Where do these people get off making such a comparison. Health insurance is a choice. They’re all about choice when killing babies, what’s the deal?

Yeah, whatever. The Non-Citizen gets another free pass as he tap-dances around yet another little nugget that his administration is squeezing right onto our way of life. I have noticed several people saying things like “Back during the FIRST American Revolution” and “After the NEXT American Revolution…” I think that the government has felt too froggy and has jumped way too soon. They should have stuck to their methods of “educating and medicating” the American out of our young with their revised history books and Ritalin for our boys. Enjoy the moment, Obam-ites – while it lasts.

I can not afford to pay for my daughters birth certificate because my husband was disabled in Iraq. We are living on $74 a month! Try going from having everything to having nothing! And since I have to divide my $74 a month between all our bills I do not have enough to pay for her birth certificate. Does that mean that I will go to jail, or my daughter will go to jail? Because good luck getting the government to help you attain the money to purchase the certificate. And just yesterday, $4000+ in an emergency room visit. Now what?!?!? Three hots and a cot to pay off her medical needs? Sad!!!

I think it’s an obtuse and rudimentary argument to compare the new health care penalties to car insurance penalties. People who don’t want to pay car insurance have a choice: don’t drive a car. Under Obama’s plan, people have no choice about purchasing health insurance b/c people are required to have it just by virture of breathing on this planet. It’s ridiculous and unconstitutional.

Mr. President,
Why don’t you break up the REAL monopolies and keep State Insurance Commissioners from barring outside insurance companies from writing policies across state lines like that auto insurance you love to keep trying to convince is comparable?
End ERISA. End State Monopolies. OR….stay the hell out of my health care.

President Obama’s “CIVILIAN NATIONAL SECURITY FORCE” will see to it that his dictates are followed at the local/door-to-door level.
SEIU and ACORN members will form the core of the CNSF.
YOU WILL COMPLY.
BARACK IS YOUR GOD.
OBEY…OR ELSE.

BOYCOTT THE US MEDIA UNTIL THEY ACTUALLY COVER THIS ADMINISTRATION AGAIN
My fellow Americans. The time has come upon us to take back the press, the one free thing in America that is still the great equalizer. I am not a Republican nor Democrat.. I am an American.
The last two standing presidents , one Democrat and one Republican, endured equal scrutiny and aggression by the media. Both Presidents lived a daily whirl-wind of attacks and accusations from the media. Most often the media took control of press conferences and events and took the topic line completely away from whatever they were actually there to meet about simply to grill the President on what they wanted to talk about. They asked them questions 10 different ways till they were frustrated as could be. It was a difficult position for both men to be in and a stressful one to be sure. Yet they both endured it for 8 years a piece and managed to still do their jobs as Presidents. The media did not take a side and attacked both men, from different backgrounds and political parties… equally.
So why is it that our current President’s Administration gets almost no questions at all ? The media just sits there nicely and reports whatever benign tripe that the administration puts out. They never pressure him, never forced him like I watched them do through 16 years and 2 different political parties in the white house. He reports air and gives them lots of PR shots and they happily report it. And then they wonder why they no longer have revenues where they used to be and are crashing out.
So I say we contact our journalists, media outlets, and news providers in general and let them know that either they press the administration for answers and drill in on all the small but highly important things that are happening and treat this president with the ferocity they treated Bush AND Clinton or we will go to news sources that do. This is not a partisan statement, no matter what side of the fence you are on we all benefit from the media digging in and asking that extra question. If there is nothing to hide there is nothing to hide. No one has EVER grilled him on how he feels about Socialism. No one has ever grilled him about his true roadmap for the next 4 years and all the things he feels he must accomplish. No one has ever grilled him at all in fact.
Bottom line, cover this president the same way you covered the last two, or we will get our news somewhere else.

Actually, the argument about auto insurance being mandatory is vapid. I used to have auto insurance and health insurance, that is, until I saw how insurance companies don’t bother honoring their side of the contract. Now I use neither and have no intention of doing so. These people (insurance industry) are corrupt and above the law (the fruits of K-street lobbying). I have been riding a bicycle for years now and am ‘coincidentally’ in excellent health! Hmmmm. Cardiovascular disease being such a big killer, maybe the pigs should outlaw exercise, as it’s obviously a draw-down on the ‘profits’ they continue to pull-in at all of our expense. Unless you have the money to fight it out in an open court of law, the health care insurance ‘industry’ is under no obligation to deliver on contracted services; yet we’re going to be forced to cover any potential losses for their reckless avarice? I say good luck! I’ve already kept tens-of-thousands of dollars in my own pocket by refusing to have anything to do with this ‘mafia’. Another edict from the federal government means zero to me. These pigs are not going to get a ‘dime’ from me. May they rot in the hell they’ve created and believe me, they surely will…the ‘enemies’ of our nation are almost ‘ready’. Are you?

Sooooo……he’s going to impose penalties upon all of the freeloaders that he promised the world to in order to become elected (i.e. “I don’t have to worry about paying my bills no more” and “I’m here to get my free Obama money”)???? Or is he referring to middle class citizens who are responsible enough to pay for themselves as long as they are able and only resort to TEMPORARY gov’t assistance when absolutely NECESSARY?

Be responsible? Are there going to be increased fees and penalties for people that smoke, people that are overweight, people that don’t exercise, people that don’t take their medicine, etc, etc?
Forcing insurance companies to insure people with prior conditions makes a health care plan more of a membership plan, where you know the costs going in and get a discount.

money can buy everything even the lives and freedoms of a supposed free people.
like Rockefeller said, “I care not who runs the Country, as long as I control the Banking system”

What are the poor and disadvantaged people that the Democrats are trying to help supposed to do? They will not have the money to purchase the cheapest government plan of $15,000/year. (According to the Congressional Budget Office the lowest cost family non-group plan under the Speaker’s bill would cost $15,000 in 2016.) Nor will they have the money to opt-out by paying the extra tax. A better plan would be to make all health insurance much more affordable by permitting insurance companies to sell accross state lines. I have found family plans on http://www.ehealth.com for less than $300/month NOW, BEFORE any reforms! Why are so many Americans willing to give up their liberties to a federal bureaucracy when they have never seen government work correctly in any other area?

…Hey here’s the solution! Since everyone that is a citizen will need to pay the Govt for insurance, or pay a fine for not having insurance, just renounce US citizenship, and stay in the Country as an illegal. Then all your Medical costs will be free, and you won’t even have to pay taxes.

Yea like he will jail those who pay nothing now. Dont think so. This is all geared toward the middle class. Get ready to bend over and touch your toes.

HOW’S THAT…HYPE&CRINGE…WORKING FOR YOU NOW???

How about enforcing existing laws before we start passing new ones? Like perjury. Like, failure to pay taxes? Like, (and yes, boys and girls there is a really big difference between the two) substituting a Certificate of Live Birth for a Birth Certificate? Like, conspiracy. Like paying government money for thugs to beat up people and block polling places? Shall we go on? Outside of Chicago, this is the most disgusting adminstration in 150 years.

Obama equates Mandatory Health Insurance to Mandatory Auto insurance.
But I can sell my car and walk or take the bus to avoid paying for Auto Insurance… how do I avoid having to pay for Health Insurance?
I guess Mr. obama offers 2 choices: jail time or suicide. How nice.

He is a sick individual with no regard or grasp of the Constitution of the United States. The auto insurance analogy is a joke and shows the intellectual level of this man child. I hold no ill will towards him personally but he is clearly out of his intellectul element. Hey stupid “everybody” doesn’t have to get car insurance; just those who own automobiles. We dont ask those without cars to pay for the auto insurance of those that do. What a spineless non position taking rube this guy is.

Hey Obamamoron, I’m only required to have liability for other people’s property and injury because of MY NEGLIGENCE.
AND I CAN CHOOSE WHATEVER FRICKEN INSURANCE CARRIER I WANT. NOT MANDATORY DC CAR INSURANCE.
“You lie so much you believe yourself.”

JUst like they enforce the immigration laws?…..I’ll freeride until just like the illegals do.

There are a number of steps prior to invoking 2d amendment rights that most of the writers are forgetting. That is impeachment. Every one of these representatives that voted for this and the administration, all of them, should be impeached. Start with the representatives and move your way up the chain. Violation of the Constitution is an impeachable offense for all of these folks and usually includes most,if not all, states. Let the trials begin.

No one in the white house or the legislature will pay a cent for this despicable healthcare bill. We, the taxpayers, are paying for their cadillac insurance. They will not be paying one cent, nor will they be subject to a fine, tax or jail time because “we the people” will be paying for their insurance. The people shoving this crap down our throats are the ones getting the “FREE” ride! Wake up, Americans! Your freedoms are diminishing another step every day.

Classic Obama Speak. Duck the question. The buck stops with the other guy not me. True leadership at it’s finest.

WEll let me tell you a story..i am 51 yrs old with type two diabetes..i HAD ins thru the county..been on it for 7 yrs. i signed a contract stated i would not use drugs…i kept smelling pot in my garage so i busted my nephew..Yes i did inhale (had to breath to get my words out..well i tested positive for THC and now i am with out insurance with the county..i make 8:50 an hour my 1 bdrm cost me 709.00 amonth all bills paid..i have no car..had the same job for 7 years..i can’t not aford my own insurance and my job does not carry it..so i guess i will be the first to try out jail here in Texas..wish me luch i don’t get the death penalty..oh by the way i have not seen a doctor in 5 months and i am almost out of medicine..who will care anyway

There is a fundamental flaw in Mr. Obama’s analogy. ALL auto insurance laws are passed by the STATES. Under his misadministration, he is ursurping authority both traditionally and constitutionally restricted to the States. Of course, that hasn’t bothered him in any of his other socialist projects, but there’s always hope…

Obama deliberately overlooks that ‘required’ auto insurance is usually for the liability coverage – i.e. to pay people whom you have injured (bodily or property). It is not to cover yourself, but to cover your reasonable (emphasis on “reasonable”) responsibility not to infringe upon the rights of others.
In the case of personal health insurance, anyone foolish enough to ignore coverage they can afford is only risking harm to themselves. And since nobody (emphasis on “nobody”) owes them insurance coverage, there is no rational excuse for government to step in (with other people’s money) to cover them.
The simple truth is that the Obama knows government cannot pay for this huge entitlement unless it uses raw force to take money from those who can now afford insurance, and divert it to those who can’t afford insurance.
Pardon me, but this is, or was, a free society where people have a right to make their own decisions as long as they are not hurting others. We have an inalienable right to decide when and where we want to be charitable. Government, constitutionally, has no rights, and certainly no right to tell us how to spend our very hard earned money.

The idea behind manditory car insurance is to protect OTHER drivers. If you chose to go without health insurance, you don’t get health care, so who suffers? I don’t see the parallel. Join our scheme, or else.

“What I think is appropriate is that in the same way that everybody has to get auto insurance and if you don’t, you’re subject to some penalty, that in this situation, if you have the ability to buy insurance, it’s affordable and you choose not to do so, forcing you and me and everybody else to subsidize you, you know, there’s a thousand dollar hidden tax that families all across America are — are burdened by because of the fact that people don’t have health insurance, you know, there’s nothing wrong with a penalty.”
So is this why auto insurance is soooo affordable? Because last I checked auto insurance is NOT affordable, the insurance companies can make thier own regs (what does my credit rating have to do with my accident FREE/Ticket FREE premium going up?).
Also.. we can take motorcycle insurance in the State of florida when I lived there. Motorcycle insurance was an OPTION back then (1991-1996) and was a whopping $20/month. Why…becuase insurance companies were COMPETING to get your $$, and not under some state/federal govnt MANDATE forcing MANDATORY insurance (like auto insurance).
Mandated insurance = monoploy for the insurance companies. Think about it…
Also how many ILLEGALS drive cars in our country? How many have insurance? How many ILLEGALS get deported when caught without a drivers license…
EXACTLY… WE will still be covering ILLEGALS for health insurance even if they DONT buy insurance.

Incredible. Everyone but government employees on government health plans, big corporations who will pay for the health plan, or the government-assisted indigent, will have a health tax. Which will go up in premiums as soon as the bills come in. Or you go to jail. Incredible.

In some states (e.g. Virginia), you don’t have to have ANY insurance, but if you don’t, you pay an uninsured motorist fee, exceeding $500 a year.
You get into an accident, and it’s your fault? You pay the other guy out of your pocket, if you have anything IN your pocket. Or he takes your home, if you HAVE a home. Or he gets nothing, if you HAVE nothing to take.
Don’t pay the UMV fee and you lose your license, but not your freedom.

“We must form a resistance to this tyrrany.
I’ll start by just ignoring this moron we have in the white house.”
We have one, it’s called the constitution. Ignoring what it calls for in dealing with tyranny is not resistance. It’s liberalism.
Take stock in what matters and stock up on it.

Lord what is happening in this country? How did a complete Anti-American Socialist Idiot become our president? Our Great Nation of freedoms, the envy of the world, is being dismantled by Obama, Reid, and Pelosi. I hope the tide can be turned around before it is to late. We need a Reagan in office.

The government takeover of the health care system is a bad idea. Why isn’t Obama looking for a cheaper way to solve this problem? Deregulation would allow health insurance companies to sell policies across state lines without a massively expensive government program. Tort reform would eliminate frivolous lawsuits and reduce costs.
This current bill needs to be scrapped and a new one written that allows the free market to work.

Barack Obama (2007)
“Their (Edwards and Clinton) essential argument is the only way to get everybody covered is if the government forces you to buy health insurance. If you don’t buy it, then you’ll be penalized in some way, what I have said repeatedly is that the reason people don’t have health insurance isn’t because they don’t want it, it’s because they can’t afford it.”

please tell me what law i would be nreaking by not having inseuance
frank la may

I’ve been an avid supporter of Obama so far, but his likening of health insurance to auto insurance is a really poor analogy. With auto insurance, I don’t have to get it if I don’t own a vehicle. I have a choice of taking public transportation and not driving, and in some cases, can even get a waiver if I can show evidence of enough financial resources to cover basic liabilities. With health insurance, I can’t really decide to not get sick or injured. I can eat healthy, exercise, and still catch a cold or get hurt regardless. Universal healthcare is something we need, but with gaffes such as this, the conservatives are gonna tear apart any chance for it to be realized.

I think the baby boomers thought their parents paid the price for eternal freedom and they no longer had to stay alert to threats. While they partied, did drugs, had free sex, and generally turned themselves into selfish, ego centered, ignorant little monsters, the country their parents and grandparents built was slowly stolen from them. Now, draped with the threads of a thousand decrees from anonymous administrators, they are too burdened and too weak to recover it. Goodbye America, I loved you.

Write your senators and tell them that you will work to unseat them if they support this unconstitutional government takeover of healthcare.

All this is designed to do is pretty much force anyone who cannot afford soon to be VERY expensive PRIVATE health insurance onto a government plan…DE FACTO national health…the regular folks out there cannot or don’t want to throw big money at health insurance will end up taking the government plan just to avoid the fines and possible jail time…and you know, I don’t go to the doctor very often, but now I’m going to pay for someone who does? When a person has a lot of auto wrecks cause their driving stinks, they pay more, or they lose their license…if people get sick a lot and cost a lot, are we going to have them meet a death panel? Just asking…

BRAVO COMRAD OBAMA! ALL ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE BELONG IN PRISON.

So how is that Hope and Change working out for all of you idiots who voted for this moron who had a cup of coffee in the Senate?
Proof positive that the dumbing down of America has succeeded.

bewolff:
We don’t “need” universal healthcare. What we DO need is healthcare REFORM, not REFORMULATION. Inter-state deregulation of insurance forces insurance companies to create better products at lower costs to attract buyers – that’s free market price control. Second, we NEED tort reform. Tort reform allows doctors to STOP practicing defensive medicine and driving up costs. Defensive medicine is practiced because doctors run unnecessary and expensive tests to cover their behinds from a law suit – law suits, btw, that made JOHN EDWARDS A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE. Making these two changes goes a long way to REFORMING healthcare.
Finally, ask yourself this question: when did healthcare start to become so expensive? Answer that question and you will understand why government interferance in ANYthing causes prices to rise and competition to evaporate.

Obama thinks that people who ride the system should be jailed? Funny, coming from someone who made his living teaching people how to ride the system. The larger question would be how much more does it cost to keep someone in jail than it would to pay their insurance premium? Stupidest people I have ever seen.

Well, I suppose he’s probably familiar with people “gaming the system” since many of his supporters do just that through all the entitlement programs, and I’d be willing to bet through the new program of helping people whose homes are on foreclosure lists. While I think everyone SHOULD buy insurance if they can possibly afford it, I still don’t see how it’s constitutional to mandate that they do so. And as big as a federally run “healthcare” program would be, there’s even more opportunity for a substantial amount of “gaming” the system.

well doesn’t this just suck? All these people on the boards acting like they’re gonna start some kind of revolution and rebel. No you won’t. You’ll suck it up and pay like you always do. We talk a tough fight but when push comes to shove and we have to pay, we always do. Are there any real revolutionaries left? probably not

I am so happy that we have man like the President in office! The President and the House Speaker are showing remarkable strength/courage by taking a defiant stand against the establishment for healtcare for all! This is born right! It makes me angry that so many Americans are not appreciating this effort by our elected officials.

The scary part is:
Who determines how much we pay?
Is it based on our income?
Do those that chose not to work not have to pay?
The more money you make (aka the hard workers), are punished by having to pay more for those that don’t work hard?
Yep, Re distribution of wealth 101. And it’s just the begining!

Obama promised that the new health plan would be the same that Congress has.
Where is the malpractice reform he promised?
You Lie!!!

Elections have consequences.

Where is it in the Constitution that congress has a right to mandate a private citizen must purchase anything… including health care?
And comparing auto insurance to mandated health insurance is wrong. Not everyone takes up the privilege of driving, and driving and owning a vehicle is regulated by the STATES which require you to purchase auto insurance. You don’t have to drive or own a vehicle if you don’t want to. If you are comparing apples to apples, then everyone in the USA should be forced to carry and pay for auto insurance, whether or not they drive, or own a vehicle.
WHY DOESN”T A SHARP REPORTER ASK BHO BRING THIS UP??? Shame on you Amerika.

Mr Obama and I agree on very little. I have seen many individuals who expect health care for nothing. But just as every health professional is obligated to help each individual that comes through a hospital/er door, so should that individual be obligated to pay for those services. If society were deadbeat free, this question and problem would not arise. This problem is here because certain people expect medications, procedures and treatments for free. Just because a medication or treatment exists doesn’t entitle anyone to it. Those who can afford expensive procedures may get to circumvent the reaper for a while, the rest of us will have to take care of what we have the best we can.

Many organizations (govt included) do not buy auto insurance but are instead self-insured. Some individuals are also. Self-insured should remain an option for a free people. I am self-insured and I beg to differ with Pres Obama when he says I am free-riding. My costs for the same procedures are higher than Medicare and almost all private insurance… so I am subsidizing them. No one is paying my costs and I am not free-riding- it is the other way around.

I seldom if ever post twice, but…I was just thinking:
There are millions of Americans who CAN’T find jobs, can’t find housing, or adequte nutrition…AND the U.S. has about 1.2 million MORE people in jail then the next biggest jail economy, (?China?).
Sex offenders are living under bridges for lack of jail space!
Is jailing people for NO insurance the closing salvo of LBJ’s war on poverty? Is this a backdoor effort to provide ’3-square & a cot’ for the millions referred to?
‘Wnd.com’ a prolife Christian website that has/had the (alleged) gun/drug runner & mass murderer, Ollie North, on it’s editorial staff, has suggested that a ‘Stalinist Gulag’ is/has been in the works since President Clinton…
Normally I just laugh at such paranoia…however…if 17 million can’t afford insurance, it would take something like that, logistically, to manage such a mass jailing, wouldn’t it?

Below is a letter I sent this morning to both of my senators.
————————————–
The time has come to ensure that this monstrosity of “health insurance reform” is put to rest for good.
We Americans, and we Georgians, are freedom-loving people. We will not stand idly by as our masters in Washington attempt to “transform” this country into something our grandparents would not have recognized. Our representatives are attempting not to make sure that all Americans have health insurance, but rather seek to enslave us and make the Imperial Federal Government responsible for the health care of all Americans. This legislation will result in rationing of care. It will cause businesses to drop their private insurance benefits in order to sign up with the government. It will tax those who choose not to buy health insurance. (As a 28-year-old healthy male, I know plenty of people who do not pay monthly insurance premiums, yet instead pay the full amount when they have to see a doctor for an illness. These people have saved money by paying only for those services which are essential.) And should someone make the choice not to purchase “approved” health insurance, that individual could be faced with fines and/or imprisonment.
President Obama makes the case that everyone must purchase automobile insurance, therefore everyone should be made to purchase health insurance. This is ridiculous and further evidence of the contempt and disdain with which our “leader” views his subjects. Driving an automobile is a choice, and should one make the choice to drive, it is unlawful to do so without insurance. But not everyone chooses to simply exist.
Once the government is in charge of our health care, what next? Will we be told how much we can weigh? What we can eat? What type of shoes we must wear to provide proper posture? How long our hair can be? Will sodas and junk food be taxed at an exorbitant rate?
A majority of the American people are against government takeover of 1/6 of our nation’s economy. Yet the Democrats insist on pushing this down our throat, our wishes and wants be damned. They know what’s best for us, they know that once this is enacted it will be extremely difficult to unwind, and many know that they will be voted out of office anyway, yet the perks they will forever receive from lobbyist and as ex-government employees will keep them comfortable for the rest of their lives. They don’t care what we say; that’s why it is your job to say it for us.
For months Americans have been angry about the prospect of government takeover of the health care industry. But with House passage of the bill in the dead of night on a Saturday, we are now not only angry; we are scared. When people become scared they do desperate things. I worry that the peaceful Tea Party attitude of the summer and fall will turn into a more fearful and aggressive stance as winter comes. I talk to people every day who are absolutely frightful about what the future may hold. Those in my age group fear for our freedom in the coming years; my parents and grandparents fear for the debt that will be laid at the feet of us and our children.
We are angry and we are afraid. You stand between us and these monsters in Washington. You must not let them succeed with their plans. We don’t want to “fundamentally transform” America. We’ve liked it how it’s been, thank you very much. And we won’t take kindly to some elitists changing it to morph into their Socialist and Communist utopia. Let us be in charge of our own lives, and stay the hell out of our health care. Those decisions are to be made by us, our doctor, and any insurance provider with whom we choose (and are allowed) to do business. Focus on something else. Afghanistan. Terrorists in the military. Communists on Capitol Hill. But leave our health care alone.

People can decide whether to buy a car or not, so ultimately have a choice whether they buy or don’t buy auto insurance. So comparing a health insurance mandate to auto insurance is a bad analogy.

What about individuals whose religious preference forbids medical science. Example here are the Christian Scientists. They do not believe in medical services. They pray for their families and other members when something is wrong medically. Will they be jailed or penalized?

The auto insurance analogy is wrong. In STATES (not federal gov) requiring auto insurance the majority require LIABILITY – not comprehensive. Obama wants to require what is equivalent to COMPREHENSIVE health care insurance. Such a requirement is not consistent with his analogy at all.

So, if Obama is so hell-bent on making people pay for their own health insurance, why’s he trying to stick the taxpayer with a $trillion bill???

“the same way that everybody has to get auto insurance and if you don’t, you’re subject to some penalty” What the what? Um, one only buys car insurance IF one chooses to buy a car…

He spews lies all the time

Health care and health insurance are not “rights”. How can you make something that is finite in nature, and dependent on someone else taking their effort and limited resource to produce, a right? It makes no sense.
You have a right to be healthy and a right to buy health care or insurance with your own money. No one is stopping you. If providing you with the service is more expensive or risky, then your higher cost is just logical. Democrats don’t realize that trying to work against logic has horrible consequences.
Separate, why isn’t the federal government buying me a gun? I have a right (Constitutional, even) to bear arms, right?!?
So if a right to own a gun DOESN’T mean that someone has to buy it for me, why does a right to health care / insurance mean we have to provide these things for others at our cost?

Big Brother is always looking for another reason to impose fines or put people in jail, “for the better good” of course. Isn’t oligarchical collectivism cool?

The analogy of required auto insurance to health insurance is, as usual from this president, totaly unrelated. The auto insurance drivers are required to have (presuming the vehicle is paid off)is *liability* insurance which is to pay for the repairs to the other vehicle if *you* are at fault. Yes, comprehensive & collision insurance is required if the vehicle is still being paid for but that is to protect the bank and their investment, not you. Why should I be *required* to have health insurance if I either have the ability to pay cash for anything or wish the option of financing procedures if I wish? Of course, the MSM doesn’t question him about those issues or how he has his facts all screwed up.

The ObamaCare penalties are the same as those imposed on those who engage in tax evasion. We all understand that if you don’t pay your taxes you go to jail. Same thing with ObamaCare. Pay the government or go to jail. What’s so hard to understand about that? What I find hard to understand is the legal basis for ObamaCare. The Income Tax is legal because we passed the 16th Amendment to the US Constitution. Don’t we need another Constitutional Amendment to make ObamaCare legal?

Who determines whether prople who “cannot” afford health insurance are really unable to afford it. Do all those on food stamps need food stamps? Wic, welfare, and other forms of social welfare are rife with fraud…Is our president going to personally check the reality of affordability? I think not….hence we, me and you, pay for the shiftless, lazy and stoopid… typical fringe socialist mentality.

Obama is mentally ill with a severe form of narcissism. He truly believes he is above any criticism.
The best thing in the world is to ratchet up the criticism of him. And things like SNL ridiculing him and the Olympic slap in the face are extremely helpful.
Obama will destroy this nation to preserve his ego. Dems MUST go in 2010 if this nation is to survive the destruction of Obama and the spoiled children, Marxists and anti-American hacks throughout his administration.

“I don’t use doctors.I am healthy.I don’t drink,SMOKE,or do drugs.I run and swim and I don’t eat fast food.I am very healthy a never sick.Why should I subsidize the fat,lazy smoker and their fat kids?Your lifestyle choices should cost you not me.Lose weight and get a life.
Posted by: Emme | Nov 10, 2009 2:04:16 PM”
God forbid you have an accident and break both your arms while enjoying the great outdoors ….
That happened to me… and I didnt have insurance at the time (young, healthy, active, non smoking…)
Over $100,000 later (shattered my left arm…) and a bankruptcy later.
I dont agree with “The One”… but as most agree something must be done with health insurance. Just not what they are proposing.
I.E. Being able to SHOP for insurance across state lines for one….

JAIL TIME?! HAAAAAAAAAA

Is requiring citizen to BUY something constitutional????
I don’t think so.

I love the ignorance about this subject.
Lets take France (the best single payer system, the one that we hope to emulate)
1/ Healthcare is not universal in France
2/ Payment for Healthcare is deducted from your paycheck
In short No Job, No Payment , No Healthcare.
Is this clear enough ?
How do I know, I lived and worked in France.

It still astonishes me that this mindless hack is our president.
Unreal.

Obama is a moron who doesn’t even understand the simple difference between auto insurance and ‘health’ insurance. 1)Driving a car is a PRIVILEGE – being alive is a RIGHT. 2)Compulsory auto insurance is only for the LIABILITY you present to other people on the road. It covers THEM not YOU. Getting extra auto insurance to cover damage to your car or injury to yourself is …OPTIONAL! 3) In many states you can still post a BOND in lieu of auto insurance to cover the compulsory coverage amount.
The fact is that liberals CREATED the problem of high cost medicine when they enacted a full tax credit to employers for offering insurance while limiting schedule A health cost deductions for individuals by a formula. So then most people stopped buying health insurance for themselves directly because their employers were offering it in group plans at lower rates. Sounds good so far but those who used to pay their doctor directly also started getting insurance and eventually the ONLY customers of a doctor were insurance companies – not their patients.
THERE is the problem America! Through the 70′s and 80′s liberals injected a middle-man between you and your doctor called ‘insurance company’ who skims a percentage, sets rates and denies paying whenever they can. You doctor gets paid by THEM so THEY are now the ‘customer’ not you. Do you REALLY expect an insurance company to care as much as you how well your doctor treats you? So do you REALLY expect government will do better? BWHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

From the Declaration of Independence,
“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…” It is Time all else are words.

So you go to jail because you are sick.. the jail has to provide you with medical services to treat your illness. The jail has to pay your bills while you are incarcerated.
FREE HEALTHCARE
Duh?

Well if you go to jail for not paying for health insurance, you will get free health care!!

Obama’s statement comparing auto insurance to health insurance tells us either he is an idiot or a deeply cynical liar. To drive a car on a public roadway you are required to have insurance in the event you injure another party. That is to insure that you are directly responsible for any harm you create. Not to help lower the overall cost of auto insurance. You can own a car and as long it is not used in a public roadway it is not required to have liability insurance.
What this ignorant fool who by the way if he actually ever passed a bar exam would know this, what he is really comparing is someone who doesn’t own a car being required to have auto insurance in case said person might drive at some future point.
Obama and the democrats are now without a doubt fascists. To threaten someone who does not want to be compelled to purchase something they neither want nor need is so beyond the pale that those who advocate this ought to be impeached and removed from office immediately.
Now speaking of free riders, as mentioned above if that is the criteria then not only should welfare be abolished in it’s entirety but half the federal civilian workforce along with that of the states and counties and most cities ought to be fired immediately as they are redundant and the rest to have their pay and benefits cut to the same level as their counterpart in the private sector.
As for that parasite fool commenting that there is a born right to healthcare, you have no such right. You have the right to seek it and pay for your own care, not the right to have other people be your indentured servant and pay for you. Your problems are not my obligation.

I agree with Mike and BullDurham, the whole point to making auto insurance mandatory is to protect other drivers, not yourself. If you injure someone, or damage their property, your insurance is there to cover them, not necessarily you. That’s why only liability is mandatory, everything else is optional.
The same principal does not translate to health insurance, where only you are in danger for not having it.

I sure hope the people of this great country wake up & stand up for what is right. What they love about this country. The right to choose, the right to prosper.
It’s bad enough we have to deal with 3 more years of this, add another 4 on top of that and there might not be anything that resembles America left.
There is a reason the governiships of VA & NJ were lost. Almost all of it had to do with Obama regardless of the media that tries to convince you otherwise. Obama amassed a record number of majority of black/minority voters last year. They didn’t show up for these elections. Why? Either his appeal is wearing off, which has alot to do with it, or something greater.
Before I list reason #2, let me start by saying that I am NOT a racist. I feel most black/minority voters in 08 voted for Obama because he shared their skin color. They did not vote on the issues. If they did, they should have come out this year. Every election is important. If they CARED about what mattered, they’d vote, wheter it was a minority candidate or not.
In any event, people need to wake up and take control of their lives back before the gov’t has all of it.

By Obama’s logic, this is pretty simple.
If you drive a car without insurance, they take away your car. In Obama’s world, if you live without insurance, then he will take away your life!

I think this is great! I want to work and this will increase the need for prison guards and security workers. It will give work to unemployed or under employed. It will also give insurance to those of us who are uninsured with a government job. hahaha

Obama recently gave a speach that said that health insurance madated by government, is Constitutional, just as government mandates car insurance, yet Obama seems too stupid to comprehend that car insurance is NOT required, if you don’t own or drive a car. Obama is establishing a pattern that shows that he is dangerously incompetent to hold office, perhaps we need to call our Congressional Representatives and demand that they call for a competency hearing, pending removal from office due to gross incompetence.

We are paying for the uninsured now! I don’t see any of those illegal aliens, oops, undocumented Americans getting fined now. This apparently will only apply to the rest of us, “We the people.”

In order for the Auto insurance analogy to be correct Auto insurance should work in the following manner:
EVERYONE should own auto insurance even though one may own no auto, the reason being because everyone one time or another will ride as a passenger on an auto, and if they get hurt in an accident the auto insurance would be responsible for medical bills and or liability, same goes if you are struck as a pedestrian, or cyclist therefore since you can “tap” in the auto insurance troth in case of an accident then it should be mandatory for you to have auto insurance.
after all a 25 year old who is healthy and cooses not to purchase health insurance will most like not go to the emergency room for the sniffles only if something major occurs, but if you force that 25 year old to pay for health insurance that same person will make it a point to use it as much as possible (anyone doubts that?) which leads me to belive that the use and the cost of healthcare will skyrocket.

“Mr. Obama said, “penalties are appropriate for people who try to free ride the system and force others to pay for their health insurance.”” if he really believes that, then it must be appropriate to penalize medicaid and medicaire recipients for taking that free ride. When will he begin and what are the penalties?

There is an easy solution to this problem: when you go to the polls next year for CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS, look for the R and pull the lever, press the button, punch the paper…like it or not, politics in America is the LESSER OF THE TWO EVILS…and if you had seen the House vote for the “Health Care” bill, you would know that only ONE Republican voted for it, and he’s from a HEAVILY Democrat district…hold your noses, and JUST GET ‘ER DONE!

Could someone please explain how Medicare is going to pay 500 billion when they are already broke..

Obama is not really a fool, it seems as if he is because his every choice is made from a political position. He intends to destroy America, and his agenda is leading to that, he knows exactly what he is doing. He has no unintended consequences, but he does have a bunch following as if he were the pied piper.

For all of those who voted for Obama I have one question. You didn’t actually think his campaign slogan of “Change” meant a positive change did you? Well, regardless of your answer, you got it! Good Job!! Kudos to you on your selection for president.

Obama is an IDIOT. Compulsory auto insurance is LIABILITY insurance to cover OTHER people you might injure – not YOU.
Besides driving is a PRIVILEGE … being alive is a RIGHT!

Besides driving is a PRIVILEGE … being alive is a RIGHT!
.
Unless a faceless insurance clerk says it’s not.

“Besides driving is a PRIVILEGE … being alive is a RIGHT! ”
If you really believe that, then you believe health care should be free. Right?

yeah we all know that EVERYONE on the rode hjas legit auto insurance….
what a trav-sham-a-mockery

President obama is a communist,dictator loving marxist.next years elections will be the next revolution,we will take back our government.harry reid,nancy pelosi and the other scum will face their political careers end.tick tock,tick tock

Does this mean that members of Congress will be fined and jailed if they do not pay into the gov. health system? Where is the escape clause for these buffoons? It is there somewhere.

Obama says its wrong for people who don’t buy insurance to “force you and me and everybody else to subsidize” them.
Obama admits its wrong! So his plan…..
To force “you and me and everybody else to subsidize” them.
and the American masses sleep on.

I’m sure this has been said before, but where does the government think they get the right to FORCE me to buy anything?
He used the analogy of auto insurance. Two things differ from that and this forced buying of insurance.
One: I do not have to drive a car. I bus, bike, and walk if I want to. I most certainly will not elect to cease living in order to avoid buying insurance.
Two: I am NOT FORCED to buy insurance for MY car, only liability insurance in case I hit someone ELSE’S car. If I get in an accident that is my fault, and I don’t have insurance, I will deal with the costs.
The auto analogy does not work. The reason why they have this provision is obvious. They have passed a bill that will completely destroy the economic model of insurance. Because insurance companies will not be able to deny anyone entry, people will wait until they have a medical problem to buy insurance. “Hey! I just paid you 100 dollars for insurance, now you pay for my 5,000 dollar medical bill!” So, in order to prevent people from doing that, they have put in this -everyone must buy insurance- provision as a sort of slap-on, Microsoft patch to the whole thing.
The problem is, they don’t have the power to do that. Never in the past have they forced people to buy a product. They can’t now either. I will begin with civil disobedience. I will drop any insurance I may have. I will refuse to pay the fine. I will go to jail and I will run this up to the Supreme Court if need be. If that does not work, I will petition my state government for intercedence.

All the idots comparing health insurance to car insurance NEED TO GET A LIFE !
There is NO comparison between the two.
Car insurance is waiveable with a posted bond, not required at all if you walk, ride a bike or take a bus.
Government MANDATED Health insurance is does NOT do what is needed, does NOT include the politicians, and WILL cover illegles for NO COST to them, but ALL COSTS on the taxpayer.
I demand the rights we have had thru the years to FREEDOM OF CHOICE….The ability to make MY OWN desicion as to what and how much insurance I will have.
Anyone who says any REQUIREMENTS to do so in the name of the greater public good is a COMMUNIST, and should be treated as such. The same goes for in the greater interest of public safety, or the best interest of the child. These are all CATCH PHRASES used to impose some depraved lunatical idea from a minority ont othe masses.
Much like any election, if a majority is supposed to win, that means a majority of the REGISTERED voters, not just those who show up to vote. 51% of the 30% that show up is not a valid majority to show laws down our throats. If you cant get a majority turnout, VOID the election until WORTHY candidates are found that make it worth doing.

Difference: Driving is a chosen activity, not a government mandate. If you choose to drive on public roads, yes you must carry insurance to protect others you may hit. Health Insurances is not a chosen activity with this bill. It is a government mandate. This is the first time in American history that the government is mandating us to buy something or face a penalty such as jailtime. This president is following the teachings of Karl Marx and bypassing our United States Constitution. He’s also a compulsive liar.

What were the consequences for not buying medical insurance? $250k and a year in jail? Last time I checked not driving with auto insurance wasn’t as punitive.
Besides. After running around with a president that ran the debt up 4 trillion over eight years and a current president that has run a deficit greater than every president in history combined in less than a year in office. Enquiring minds want to know. How in the name of Sam Hill do you even expect to pay for this 1.5trillion abomination? And why is it that this thing kicks in after 2012? Seriously. You that confident on your re-election that your expecting to pass the blame on to the other party?

Everyone keeps saying how smart this President is. I don’t see that myself.
In NYC there are over a million people who do not own automobiles because they use the Mass Transit system, they don’t own auto’s, they don’t pay $1000 per month for parking and they do not have to buy auto insurance. I’m sure they like it that way.
This is the way it is in dozens of urban population centers.
How is this analogy comparable to forced health insurance? Idiots everywhere are buying this stupid argument especially the media.

How about the Federal government just stays out of States affairs? But then again, those who voted him in don’t have the knowledge of how our republic works … so his tyrannical escapades go largely unnoticed.

I don’t believe “O” can find enough law officers to arrest all of us. Wasn’t the last President who had us fighting each other this guy’s idiol?

They will get excellent healtcare in jail.
Win, win!

Yeah Obama.. “hardship exemptions”. The typical ‘poor masses’ need more wealth re-distribution coming their way for doing nothing. And what happens when the middle class totally disappears? Why that’s when the only two classes left are the poor and a bunch of rich elite facists like you in charge.

Does anybody sense that the arrogance displayed by the white house ‘elite’is a comfortable coat to wear because they intend to stay in office for a long time. They certainly don’t seem concerned about the voters.

jail looks pretty good.
warm in winter,
cool in summer,
exercise equipment,
medical care,
food,
library,
no internet to distract from creative thought,
and if things continue…plenty of like minds for company

Uh, Grand Organizer, you don’t have to buy car insurance in New Hampshire. Maybe he should spend a little time with the concept of States Rights.

To Emme: You say “I don’t use doctors.I am healthy.I don’t drink,SMOKE,or do drugs.I run and swim and I don’t eat fast food.I am very healthy a never sick.Why should I subsidize the fat,lazy smoker and their fat kids?Your lifestyle choices should cost you not me.Lose weight and get a life.” It’s the “I don’t use doctors.” that I don’t believe.
How old are you? I’m 62, I drink and I smoke. I don’t do drugs other than that. I also run and swim, but I DO eat fast food. I, too, am very healthy. I expect to live well into my 80′s – when it will be time for me to go.
You think you’ve got it all covered. That’s a laugh! Watch out for that uninsured motorist while you’re out there running!!!!

Did you notice when this reporter was trying to get an answer out of Obama as to whether jail time was appropriate that Obama never gave a straight answer. He just kept saying that he believed penalties were appropriate. Why couldn’t he give a straight answer right away that jail was out of the question? Of course he wouldn’t deny it because thats the plan Stan!

Mr. President
Some states (not the Federal govt) have made auto insurance mandatory because driving is a privilege.
Your analogy makes no sense to those who actually think.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE! If this abomination passes then everyone pledge to DROP whatever health insurance you have and just pay your doctor in CASH whatever you can afford, (don’t worry, most doctors will let you pay less if you really are poor).
WE the PEOPLE are the fourth branch of government – the branch that is supposed to be FEARED by the other three not the other way around…

Matt, they do support measures to reduce Health Care such as Tort reform (Dems against) or Out-of-State ccmpetition. Conservatives have a rational approach, address the issues individually. Don’t just up and take over the system. After all look what a great job the Feds have done with Social Security (broke), medicare (broke), Post Office (broke), etc. Now you want to give them our health also. Great idea.

I’d like to say, that Obama won the election because the people who wait for handouts, instead of working, are in greater numbers than those of us that work hard and try to be responsibile citizens. I don’t expect someone else to pay my way. I don’t mind working hard to keep myself. But I am tired of taking care of those who choose to stay home and sit on their butts.

I agree with earlier comments about Obama’s “intelligence”. I also do not understand him being described as “eloquent”. How did this joker get through Harvard? (or edit its Law Review?). The takeover of the health care industry by the government and its associated “penalties” are clearly unconstitutional. I, for one, am ready to die, if necessary, for my God given liberties! Are you?

This is called Communism…

My religious beliefs prevent me from betting AGAINST my own health. Buying insurance is a wager. You are wagering that you will get severely sick and the insurance company is wagering that you will not.
Well… most people people DO NOT get severely sick so that’s the insurance racket in a nutshell and explains WHY greedy liberals want ‘in’ on it.

It figures. They funded Acorn with our grand childrens money and now they will spend the next 20 years fining them for health care crimes!

the constitution? what’s that? never heard of it!

Evolved1, You need to read the bill. You DO have to buy health insurance or pay a stiff fine or face jail time according to the bill that the Democrats just pass on Saturday. You can’t just say “I will not go to the doctor so I’m not paying”. They’re not giving you that option.
Are you not reading any of this stuff?

A PRISON YARD–DAYTIME
BILLY
What are you in here for ?
JOHNNY
Murder.
BOBBY
Rape.
TIMMY
Awww…I didn’t have health Insurance.

To pay for fines and penalites, many would be forced to forfeit private property. There is more to the Marxist health “care” plan than just medical control over our lives. When Obama talks about “gaming the system”, the man knows what he’s talking about.

I BELIEVE OBAMA SHOULD HAVE TO LIVE OFF A WEEKLY PAY CHECK LIKE MOST PEOPLE FOR A FEW MONTHS THEN SEE IF HE WILL KEEP TRYING TO RUIN THE WORLD.JOBS ARE HARD TO FIND PAY IS NOT GREAT AND PRICES ARE GOING UP ON BASIC THINGS NEEDED TO LIVE NOW HE WANTS TO MAKE HEALTH CARE A HALF TO BUY IS HE GOING TO PAY FOR IT FROM THE BIG SALARY WE PAY HIM TO DO NOTHING

Auto Insurance? Only becasue I own a car that I intend to operate on public highways therefore putting OTHERS at risk of injury or damage to THEIR property as a result of my possible actions. Mr. President, I am only required to buy LIABILITY Auto Insurance. This policy only covers damage or injury to OTHERS. I am not required to protect either myself or my car with insurance.
How about we just have a LIABILITY Health Insurance in case someone else gets sick because I caughed on them?

New Hampshire as well as other states do not mandate auto insurance which is why insurance is cheaper there as there is no floor on prices. Just do a google search, lies and more lies as usual. The states voided real id as well as federal gun laws, I suggest you call up your state (not fed) representative and ask them to the same for this bill.

Wow, Janice, you are simply going to deny that this provision is in the bill? Obviously, someone like Jake Tapper would not even ask the question if this were just “rumor”. Obama did not say this wasn’t in the bill. Here’s an idea, let’s educate ourselves and READ IT! We the People need to take up the mantle of leadership again, instead of “hoping” our leaders are doing the right thing!

As so many here keep pointing out, the IGNORANCE by the anointed ‘One’ – the only compulsory part of auto insurance, (mandated only by STATE governments BTW), is for the LIABILITY you have if you hurt someone ELSE! There is simply ZERO equivalence between that and health insurance. The man is a moron!

So is it any coincidence that Gitmo is being emptied just in time to start locking people up for not complying with the federal mandate to start buying health insurance.?

Jail? Why not? Better health care given in jail . This may become a regular stop when you need a checkup or major health problems arise.
Illegals? No insurance no problem in Cslifornia They just walk away from auto accidents with no consequences. What’s to stop them from going to Emergency rooms like they do now? They will still be treated, insurance or not.
If people do not want to participate let them get sick and suffer the consequences of their choices. If people cannot truly afford insurance the government should set up clinics and hospitals where they can receive care. Like the county hospitals do now in California.
Why set up a totally new system? Fix the problems with the insurance industry. Regulate them as a public utility if necessary. Don’t create a totally new government run system with all the disincentives to offer service to the people that need it most.

I jail, I think at least you get free health care. So it may not be a bad option.

Jail time IS in the House Bill that passed last Saturday. You do not have to buy Auto Insurance if you do not own a car. If you own your car, you do not have to insure your car. You only have to have liability insurance to cover other people and their cars. And You decide how much car insurance coverage you want and can afford. The Government does not dictate to you how much insurance you must have!

to Janice:
Key excerpts from the JCT letter appear below:
“H.R. 3962 provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax.” [page 1]
- – – – – – – – – -
“If the government determines that the taxpayer’s unpaid tax liability results from willful behavior, the following penalties could apply…” [page 2]
- – – – – – – – – -
“Criminal penalties
Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses. Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:
• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.
• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]

Mike M: I am from Los Angeles and am certainly no redneck, and while it’s more than inappropriate and extremely bigoted for you to call people that, I completely disagree with your reply. You say you voted for Obama and he can’t mean what he says concerning jail, so I ask you: why would you cast a vote for the President of the United States if he is a person who does not mean what he says? By your own admission, B. Hussein Obama is well… a liar. How could you vote for someone who does not “mean what they say?”

The ONLY people who aren’t outraged at Pelosi’s health care legislation are the morons who haven’t read it!!!!!!!

BO IS A MARXIST.

President Obama is taking away choice and in fact wants to subsidize those that can not afford health insurance and give them free health insurance. I do not see anyone paying for their neighbors car insurance.
People can choose not to drive and thus not pay car insurance.
His comparison is flawed.

Scott R – I think you replied to the wrong person. I didn’t vote for Obama.

For those who think putting people in jail can’t happen…think again. This is no longer the United States of America. It is being turned into the United Socialist/Facist States of America. The courts have been chipping away at the freedoms guaranteed in the Constitition for years. With Obama and the Democrats in control, it is no longer chipping..it is full speed ahead!

What Obama really means….
“What I think is appropriate is that everyone needs to be forced to buy a new GM $50,000 SUV, we decide if you can afford it and you have no say in the matter. Furthermore it’s not fair that only people of means get to drive that nice new shiny GM that they didn’t want, so they will have to pay a little extra so everyone else can have one too. It goes without saying that recklessly driving around in such a killing machine requires you to have full coverage on that vehicle, and of course pay for your fellow Americans insurance if they can’t afford it. You still have a choice in this country though, you can do what we say, or you can go to jail”

They can’t jail all of us… we should ALL refuse if we are forced into a public option instead of choosing our own private plan.
We need to vote out of office all of those who voted for the health care bill without reading it!!! There are too many snakes in the grass of this bill.

I don’t understand why everyone keeps comparing health insurance to auto insurance. You have a choice to drive a car… but this is a law that is enforced if you are living. How is this not a constitutional issue?
Also- How can you start taxing people for a program that won’t be in effect until (conveniently) after the next presidential election?
And why is is SO URGENT that it must be done NOW, but we need to wait 3-4 years to start using it… Does that not smack of political timing to anyone?

LMAO at all those who honestly thought they were gonna get “free” health care. Nothing is ever free and health care is one of the biggest INDUSTRIES around.
I would love to be able to walk into a hospital, get treated for whatever I need and not have any bill. And ya know we used to have that too. We used to have free health care for the needy. It was called a charity hospital. Remember the shriners? The red cross? The mercy hospitals. they provided the free health care to those in need.
An what happened to the mercy hospitals? They were closed down, bought out and acquired by greedy people out to make money. The truth is the health care industry has grown into a government run fascist industry that now has your wallets in sight.
And as far as Obama actually “buying” insurance. What a crock. He get’s a private health care system fully funded for the rest of his life by the chump taxpayer. He, nor congress will be taking this medicine.

Game the system? What about someone like me who is healthy. Haven’t been to a doctor in 25 yrs. Could because I run 12 mles a day for 30 yrs. Only have insurance for myself to cover my family. I should have the option to not have insurance if I want. By Obama’s rules the system is gaming me- by having paid into the system and not using it. Why should I be forced into an insurance pool with millions of people having much less healthy lifestyles then I?

I live in Alabama and our legislature will introduce The Alabama Health Care Freedom Act in January. This is a constitutional amendment that reads:“In order to preserve the freedom of all residents of Alabama to provide for their own health care, a law or rule shall not compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in any health care system … the purchase or sale of health insurance in private health care systems shall not be prohibited by law or rule ….”
9 other states intend to filed similar legislation and 11 states already have.
Thank goodness for the 10th amendment.

I’m perfectly happy with my healthcare but I also understand that some people are not or can’t afford it. That being said, I have never seen any benefit from the taxes I have paid in the past but somebody out there must. If the gov wants the citizens of this country to pay for this 1 trillion dollar plan that is not a guaranteed fix then they should hold their own pay accountable if it fails. That means making less than 100k a year and not expensing every trip they want to take to Puerto Rico or Hawaii.

Mamasauras – That’s IT! CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE! I am not hurting ANYBODY nor denying anyone else’s civil rights by NOT buying health insurance. Not buying something is PASSIVE RESISTANCE which is recognized by the UN as an internationally protected form of protest!
If they throw us all in jail we’ll sic the UN on them! (oh.. wait a minute..liberals control the UN too huh?)

If this crap weren’t so damn serious I’d laugh. Is he for real? There is a Next Great Depression in our future. The beginnings of it are already here. Now, has everyone been practicing their goose-step?

And I think there is no punishment too severe for politicians who violate The Constitution in order to act like tyrants….This Schmuck has to go.Political defeat for him in 2010 and 2012 followed by a goodly time in prison….

If we get put in prison for not having health insurance won’t the prison system give free health care? I’m just saying …

And – Members of Congress are exempt from these bills.
No wonder they voted for it.

Imagine an armed Million Conservative March on Washington. Would Obama, Reid, Shumer, Pelosi, Kerry, and the rest of the demoncrats get the message then?

How about the chronic welfare dwellers, free-riding the rest of us for their existence? BO up for penalizing them anytime soon?

To all of you Liberals that love the idea of an Obama healthcare plan. Just imagine another George Bush being elected and having that kind of control over your lives. After all, Obama won’t be in office forever, and you don’t know who will be in power when this whole government healthcare thing takes off. Maybe think of it that way. Try taking off your Obama Tinted Glasses. He is a passing thing. This level of control the government will have is not. THINK!

The ones who should be fined & jailed are the DOLTS & CONS who devised such an absurd system! Let’s hope it fails and never passes into law. BTW, the people who are pushing this monstrosity are EXEMPT from its terms and can keep THEIR “cadillac coverage”. How convenient, eh!? AMERICANS, JUST SAY NO!

I thought he was supposed to be smarter than our last President…

Folks, this is Romney’s idea. I hated it then and I hate it now, by the way:

also, I hear a lot about this being universal healthcare. This is not the case. It is projected that only 5% of Americans would be using the public option. Believe me, I don’t want to be on any public option any more than you do. But for people who need it, it would be nice for themt o be covered. It’s only 5%. It is not expected to be more than that

My health insurance premiums just went up 10%. When I inquired as to why, I was told that everyone with the same plan I have goes into one giant pot. If the premiums we all pay are less than the claims, everyone gets an increase. It’s not like car insurance where if my neighbor wrecks his car, my rates don’t go up. By adding millions more people to the health insurance rolls, our premiums are all going to go up. VOTE OUT EVERYONE WHO VOTED FOR THIS BILL.

Festivus – Yes, me too! But at least in MA we can exclude ourselves on religious grounds. All you have to do is sign an afidavit and you are are no longer subject to the MA health insurance requirement.

I’m not sure what the liberals drank – electing this clown to the oval office!?! You have to be a complete IDIOT to listen to this snake-oil salesman and actually believe ANYTHING he says!!! Between him, pelosi, and reid – you have the most corrupt government the U.S.A. has ever seen. You complained of the deficit over the past 8 years???… and these three have just spent way more than that in the first year….. Liberals HATE prosperity, HATE economic growth, HATE capitalism and most of all you HATE America!!! Go pick a better country to live in and ruin THAT one!!!

Obama can kiss off. I’ll rot in jail and he can pay for that. I know there won’t be enough jail space for everyone. Why would I want his health care? My employer pays mine. This man is a lunatic! He will be impeached before he sees 4 years.

Those of you posting on here that are FOR the health care reform proposal, you might want to read the actual bill…scary. What starts out as innocent coverage to those without it, suddenly turns into a hostage situation if you lose or change insurance. You are forced to go into the public option- and as we have seen with other “savior” programs of the past, once you get into the system, you don’t get out! Really… you have GOT to educate yourself on the fine print in this thing.

Great, let’s criminalize living.

Mr. President, What if I say the cost of the gov’t health insurance plan is to expensive for me. Who is to says that it isn’t, you? Are you going to apply penalties (fines or jail time) on me for my decision? And you respond by saying this is not important. Are you kidding? My freedom is the most important thing to me. Bottom line, to live and breathe in America will require every person to have a health insurance?
You compare this bill to car insurance? Mr. President aren’t you aware that one can drive in this country without car insurance. All I need to drive is a license. The car can be insured under someone else’s name, not mine. So there is no federal, state, or local requirement fr a person to insured to drive.