Obamacare and the Nanny State

Today is the day. If we may borrow from the soothsayer and adapt his warning to Caesar to fit an anxious American public 'Beware the ides of February'.

Okay, we're slightly beyond the middle of February. But we're close enough to the middle of the month that we feel we can get away with it. Today is the day where you must have health coverage or pay a penalty. The penalty is...well, we don't care what the penalty is, because the real issue isn't about penalties. It's about government overreach. It's about the eventual totalitarianism where the nanny state must, in the end, become manifest. And it is manifested in Barack Obama and John Roberts.

See? There are no independents in the nanny state. A Democratic President and a Republican Chief Justice of the Unites States Supreme Court have agreed that if you don't have health insurance you can be compelled to buy it, or suffer tax penalties. Take that, heathens who don't think government can cure all ills.

That's how the nanny state solves problems. You don't have something it believes you should have? Well, then, we'll order you to get it. Soon after that, we'll order you to eat your vegetables.

We are not arguing that having health insurance, or eating your vegetables for that matter, are not good ideas. They are. But if health care is all about issues between the doctor and the patient (and their religious leader, if we may be so bold as to once more implicate the political left in its hypocrisy) then on what grounds can the government order you to have or do something which you may not need? Indeed, on what grounds can a moral government order you to do or not do anything beyond what is obviously and directly dangerous to an, ahem, healthy body politic, such as prohibitions against murder and theft? And even then we see that the mere prohibition or encouragement at times will fail. Still, at least such laws reflect a greater truth wherein human beings are expected to respect other human beings in their natural and reasonable rights.

What respect is there in an order to do what may be unnecessary, and therefore up to the person to decide if they want it?

We'll leave the answer to that question to you. But, having asked it, we will give you our answer. The ACA and its supporters in the Supreme Court if not the larger body politic are tyrants of the worst kind: arrogant bureaucrats and general busybodies in the guise of Mary Poppins. King George would be proud of you both, Mr. Obama and Mr. Roberts. And of your political supporters, even and especially those who voted for you, Mr. President.