Jophiel wrote:
gbaji wrote:
As Joph naively points out, the White House has promised to exempt them in some cases, but that has no force of law, and can't be counted on at all.
Way to backpedal from "It doesn't matter what Obama says because he can't change this at all ever!"
I guess "naively points out" was your way of admitting you were wrong.
Um.. Naively in this case means you place great trust in the promise of exemption, while I place none in it.
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The exemptions are based on tax filing status.
No it's not. You just made that up.
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If your building is considered to be a church by the IRS, you're exempt.
Not true. If your building is a church, you will be considered for exemption. Didn't you (or someone) just provide a quote about how exemptions would be approved based on being able to show not just that one is a church, but that the mandate would violate their beliefs? I thought someone did.
How do you suppose that process would work Joph? So any church can just opt out of the entire health care mandate? Or will the government get to decide who can opt out, and how much of the mandate they can opt out of? Which means that being a church doesn't give you any more control over this than anyone else. As long as the White House gets to decide what is allowed, it's no longer about free choices.
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you don't need to beg for it or hope you'll be blessed with an exemption.
Of course you do. Anything short of anyone saying "I don't want the mandate to apply because I believe this is a violation of my beliefs" being allowed to opt out, then the decision about who can opt out and how much they can opt out of is made, not by the people, and not by the churches, but
by the government.
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If it's not a church but considered by the IRS to be a religiously-affiliated nonprofit then you have the compromise regulations (not directly offered by employer, accessible via insurance company direct).
Which isn't sufficient by a long shot either. And let's not forget that the 1st amendment doesn't just apply to religious institutions. It also applies to
people.
'
Is the white house going to allow anyone to be exempt from the mandates if they claim it violates their religion? If not, then the mandates still violate the constitution on this grounds. As I've been saying all along, the problems with churches and church organizations and church run hospitals and the mandates is just the tip of the iceberg. The whole concept of the health care mandates is a terrible mistake.
Promising exemptions to some, but not all, and for some things, but not all things, is a pretty pathetic bandaid.