PRESIDENT CONCEDES WHAT HE DOES NOT OWN

By James Wilson

            In the eruption over the president’s usurpation of power over immigration an earlier travesty is forgotten.  Last August the Administration acted on requiring corporations holding a faith-based objection to Obamacare.  With great fanfare they permitted religious non-profits to opt out of providing contraceptive and abortion benefits in employee health insurance.  This “concession” comes after the Supreme Court found for Wheaton College, exempting them from the requirement.  They announced a similar waiver for closely held for-profit enterprises.  This second “concession” follows an earlier Supreme Court ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Products.

            Companies and organizations choosing to opt out need not inform their employees they are standing on their faith.  If they just notify the government the latter will quietly arrange for either government funding of these benefits or order insurers to provide them at no cost.  The cans of worms opened by this brazen action are legion.

            First, the president is doing nothing but seeking to end-around the Supreme Court rulings.  The Court forbade him to require these companies to provide reproductive services to employees against their faith-based convictions.  The president now says, “Well, you still have to provide them; but you won’t be the one paying for them.”  The elephant in the room is these companies’ objections are under all circumstances.  Their position is – inasmuch as these things are legal – employees are free to buy them.  But the employers cannot conscientiously supply them, at their own expense or at the expense of somebody else.  And the Court said they needn’t.

            Second, the president promises either the taxpayers or insurers themselves will pay for these services.  The taxpayers are not wild about adding to the deficit in this way, and this is especially problematic when the issue is abortion and studies show 80% of taxpayers oppose government funding of abortion.  (A mere 58% majority would like to see abortion ended altogether.)  Requiring insurer finding is confiscation of property/wealth without due process, which raises a few Fourteenth Amendment issues.  On the other hand, maybe this promise is no more truthful than, “You can keep your doctor,” in which case everything is under control and no worries.

            Third – and this is a whopper on so many levels – news accounts and the government keep promoting the fiction that this was ever about contraception.  Although Roman Catholic teaching opposes artificial birth control of all kinds – and they are entitled to enforce that teaching in their institutions under the First Amendment – the vast majority of Americans have no problem with contraception.  Abortion is another matter entirely – again with the 58% opposed and 80% opposing government funding.  Before we can even have a serious conversation about Obamacare and the mandate one side needs to start telling the truth about the nature of the issue.  It is not about birth control and it is not about access to birth control.  The pills and other aids are available in any drug store – for purchase by the parties wishing to use them.

            Fourth and finally – because this is the biggest issue for the greatest number of Americans – Christian or no – the president and his people are again re-writing federal law.  (This makes twenty-seven times, I think, on this law alone.)  The president’s function is to enforce the law; he has the right to recommend legislation.  He has no right, and no responsibility, to make laws.  That is the job of Congress and the state legislatures.  Yet here he goes again, armed with no authority other than his own supreme confidence that he is somehow making things better.  And – given the disaster of biblical proportions that has been Obamacare – we can only stare in slack-jawed wonder at such ignorance fueled arrogance.

            Speaking of the Bible, Jesus famously calls on us to render to Ceasar what is Ceasar’s and to render to God what is God’s.  We can debate the fine points of what belongs to Ceasar – whether we wish to let Ceasar define our faith and the behavior that stems from it – if we wish.  But Jesus says in that same Chapter 10 of Matthew that we will be brought before rulers who have power but no real authority.  He promises we will be taught in that very hour how to deal with the predicament, and that if we acknowledge Him before men He will acknowledge us before God the Father.  His promises are never ever broken – in heaven or on earth.

            I strive always to finish a posting with a blessing.  The president is conceding what he does not own.  Those who stand against this abortion mandate are owning what can never be taken from us.