Hot Air » Blog Archive » Obama: I’ll fine parents who pass on government health care

Obama: I’ll fine parents who pass on government health care

posted at 5:51 pm on November 28, 2007 by Bryan
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Allah noted the first headline in this story, which is Obama’s swipe at Bill Clinton for claiming to have been against the Iraq war from the beginning. But buried at the end is another line that’s worth shredding.

The issue of mandates for health care has driven the debate between Clinton and Obama for the past few weeks. Obama says he would enforce his mandate for health care for all children by fining parents if they refused to allow health care coverage for their children.

“I am happy to be very clear how we enforce mandates for children, and the reason is because children don’t have an option.”

And neither do parents, if Democrats get their way.

As I said of Edwards’ similar statement yesterday, this is totalitarian stuff. Obama and presumably Edwards will turn the doctor’s office into a police office by forcing parents to sign their kids up for health insurance or face fines. And if they don’t pay the fines, then what? Does Obama jail the parents, or whisk away their kids to some state-run orphanage, or what? Does he do both? Does he garnish their wages, thereby confiscating their money to pay for something that they didn’t voluntarily pay for? What are the teeth here, Barry?

And how might illegal immigration play into this? Currently, we have 12 to 20 million in the country illegally, and wherever you look, they’re stressing hospitals by failing to pay for treatments that they’re seeking. Only an absurd government would force illegal aliens to sign up for mandatory health care coverage but then turn around and let them get away with actually being here illegally in the first place.

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These are definitely scary times.

StephC on November 28, 2007 at 5:55 PM

Socialism rears it’s ugly head again and again. Sad how the common person doesn’t recognize it.

MNDavenotPC on November 28, 2007 at 5:55 PM

And under what authority would Congress attempt to enact this?

Interstate Commerce?

Enquiring minds want to know… just under what Constitutional Authority would the Feds do this?

Romeo13 on November 28, 2007 at 5:55 PM

Freedom and socialism don’t mix.

lorien1973 on November 28, 2007 at 5:57 PM

Okay, what does this mean exactly? Allow health care coverage? Does that mean he is saying parent have to enroll their children in certain programs, or that kids automatically would have access to certain things, period. I’m not clear at all from the link.

I thought, perhaps incorrectly, that BO claimed the difference was that his plan provide coverage by making it affordable and her plan mandated it. ie I thought BO was coming at it from a make available to all as opposed to HC saying all must have and prove it to get a job, etc.

I don’t want the government making the choices the parents should be making, but if that’s the case, there is some breathing room b/t BO and HC and JE.

Spirit of 1776 on November 28, 2007 at 5:59 PM

But as a former Democrat, I can tell you Norman Thomas isn’t the only man who has drawn this parallel to socialism with the present administration, because back in 1936, Mr. Democrat himself, Al Smith, the great American, came before the American people and charged that the leadership of his Party was taking the Party of Jefferson, Jackson, and Cleveland down the road under the banners of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin. And he walked away from his Party, and he never returned til the day he died — because to this day, the leadership of that Party has been taking that Party, that honorable Party, down the road in the image of the labor Socialist Party of England.

amerpundit on November 28, 2007 at 5:59 PM

In a showcase of stupidity, it will once again be proven that the true enemy of efficiency is government.

sunny on November 28, 2007 at 6:01 PM

Absurd Government? Oh, right ,we’re talking about the Dems, seemed a bit redundant on the face of it.

bbz123 on November 28, 2007 at 6:02 PM

Just how different is that from Mitt’s MA mandatory health care plan that also imposes fines for lack of participation?

Hollowpoint on November 28, 2007 at 6:05 PM

But if they want true universal coverage, then there’s nothing to say no to… just tax the bejeebus out of everyone, and use the money (plus whatever gets stripped from defense) to pay for it all. So when you take little Billy to the ER, there’s no need for insurance, or even ID, so it won’t matter who’s here legally and who isn’t, ’cause it’ll be UNIVERSAL and the Messiah will have saved us all!

(I’m choking back tears at the beauty of it all. Sniff.)

Frozen Tex on November 28, 2007 at 6:07 PM

OMG, I’m an idiot, I just got the Universal part, it will even include little Dennis K’s pals.

bbz123 on November 28, 2007 at 6:08 PM

You Vill TAKE this benefit, and you Vill LIKE it!!!

…OR ELSE!!!

(apparently some Democrats didn’t get the word that the position of Fuhrer has already been permanently filled)

landlines on November 28, 2007 at 6:09 PM

Just how different is that from Mitt’s MA mandatory health care plan that also imposes fines for lack of participation?

Hollowpoint on November 28, 2007 at 6:05 PM

Theory (basically always true though) is just that private sector will provide better care. So if healthcare for all is inevitable, it’s better outside the fed.

Spirit of 1776 on November 28, 2007 at 6:15 PM

Socialism rears it’s ugly head again and again. Sad how the common person doesn’t recognize it.

MNDavenotPC on November 28, 2007 at 5:55 PM

Oh some of us recognize it my friend, but this, this is not socialism, this is straight up communism.

doriangrey on November 28, 2007 at 6:15 PM

all your children are belong to us

libertytexan on November 28, 2007 at 6:16 PM

You see, I have said for years. Socialism is such a bad idea that it requires totalitarianism to sustain it.

TheSitRep on November 28, 2007 at 6:16 PM

I was going to tell you guys what I just saw, but I’ll be lazy and just copy and paste my email to Bryan and AP:

He should be ashamed of himself… If you had your DVR fired up on FNC at 6:15, be prepared to puke as you see Obama take the stage before a bunch of youth repeatedly saying “What up”. It’s almost as bad as the display he and Hillary Tubman put on in Alabama earlier this year. Who wants to bet he takes the stage at his next event with a big gold chain shouting “go shawty, it’s yo birfday”. To be clear, I am hating the player, not the game.

RightWinged on November 28, 2007 at 6:20 PM

How to respond? Let me think,,, dum de dum,,
uh,, must be something I could say,,, Oh,, I got it,,
how about,, “LEAVE ME ALONE AND JUST SHUT UP!”

Yeah,, that was it. That works.

JellyToast on November 28, 2007 at 6:25 PM

so, he is willing to fine Americans making a choice?

Demss truly want a nanny state. Control the populus from the get go to condition them to government control.

we have a battle on our hands, my friends, and the enemy fighting along side the terrorists is the DNC.

madmonkphotog on November 28, 2007 at 6:34 PM

And if Obama would fine parents who refuse to submit their kids to mandatory health care, would they also be fined for refusing certain procedures? As MM noted the other day, some are rationally opposed to certain vaccinations that are extremely unlikely to be contracted by normal kids who don’t have IV drug users for parents. If they refuse Hep-B, I bet Obama’s HealthKare would be right there with another fine.

You can imagine the possibilities: Your kid is exhibiting individualist streaks, here is a mandatory prescription to Ritalyn. Your kid voicing conservative opinions: lobotomy.

JeffB. on November 28, 2007 at 6:42 PM

Weird stuff. Yeah, like Bryan said, show me the details. Amazing how blase the general population is when the candidates talk like this, though. My parents think this is peachy, as do lots of my neighbors down here in Tampa.

RW Wacko on November 28, 2007 at 6:47 PM

Both Silky and the Messiah have said they’ll punish anyone who doesn’t get on board with Gubment health. Shrill better jump on board pretty quick or she’ll be seen as part of the Vast Right Wing Regime for not forcing people to be taken care of by Big Bro.

eeyore on November 28, 2007 at 7:00 PM

all your children are belong to us

libertytexan on November 28, 2007 at 6:16 PM

heh.

DrW on November 28, 2007 at 7:05 PM

I wouldn’t want to be the first guy through my front door who comes to collect.

CurtZHP on November 28, 2007 at 7:07 PM

I’m moving to ~~England~~ ~~France~~ ~~The Sudan~~ ~~Australia~~ Fiji.

SouthernGent on November 28, 2007 at 7:13 PM

He keeps coming up with more and more doofus ideas! And the scarey thing is he doesn’t have a clue!!! He just looks out at the world with glazed over eyes and actually convinces some people.

jeanie on November 28, 2007 at 7:18 PM

I’m moving to ….
SouthernGent on November 28, 2007 at 7:13 PM

There’s always Denmark.

CurtZHP on November 28, 2007 at 7:59 PM

This is the fight that the Republicans need to take to the American people. Not “Hillary is a lesbian” Not “Obama did coke”, Not “Edwards has an expensive hair stylist”.

The only problem is too many Republicans are so weak that they can’t say “there is no health care crisis and even if there were government should not even try to solve it.”

As bad as Obama is, how dare Mitt tell me that under his plan I will have private insurance or else…

sweeper on November 28, 2007 at 8:05 PM

What about illegals? Will they be forced to pay?

Nah.

Mojave Mark on November 28, 2007 at 8:33 PM

Ahh yes, the reasons for the second amendment keep getting clearer everytime the democrats open their mouths.

boomer on November 28, 2007 at 9:04 PM

Luckily this jug-eared weasel will never get the political opportunity to further undermine the country with such socialistic claptrap, since he’ll never get the votes to be any more thasn the obscure doofus that he now is and will return to being for good after November 5, 2008.

profitsbeard on November 29, 2007 at 12:04 AM

This is dripping with irony. The past 7 years we have heard from the lefties over and over how BushCo. is eroding our freedoms and acting above and beyond the Constitution. But, they endorse a plan like this where clearly forcing citizens to buy health care is not in the Constitution. I guess it is okay, because it is for the chillllldddreeennnn.

The libs have no concept of the principles on which our country was founded and on which the Constitution is based. Lord help us if they get the White House and the Congress.

Mallard T. Drake on November 29, 2007 at 12:52 AM

I find this debate very interesting because the latest Rasmussen Poll shows the top concerns of voters being Immigration, National Security, The Economy and The War in Iraq. Why in the world would the Dems keep pushing universal health care when the public is not interested in it as a top issue? Anybody else notice this?

Moses99 on November 29, 2007 at 6:20 AM

Boy, old Bombs away Obama may not have the minerals to fight the terrorists, but he’ll bomb an ally and ‘force’ parents to comply with his health care demands. What happens if the don’t pay the fine, Bombs away? Are you going to send ATF in to shoot them? Love how you can scratch a democrat and underneath is a nasty, wriggly little stalinist wannabe.

austinnelly on November 29, 2007 at 8:34 AM

What the guy is saying is that if he has his way, every kid must have health care coverage. If you have bought private health care coverage for your child (say, through your employer-provided family health plan) then you’re OK. If not, you must sign up to the government plan. If you don’t do either, you are risking the health of your child and the Man will come after you.

Kind of like the Man will come after you if you don’t have your kid in school. You can buy your child private education, or if you can’t/don’t want to, you can put your kid in public school (or home school them under government supervision). What you cannot do is keep your kids illiterate.

The constitutional authority thing is not a big deal either. The Federal Government can enforce something like this either the way the late term abortion ban is enforced (under the commerce clause) or the way No Child Left Behind is enforced (by offering carrots to complying states and withholding them from those that don’t).

factoid on November 29, 2007 at 10:37 AM

Another frigging control freak

What the guy is saying is that if he has his way, every kid must have health care coverage. If you have bought private health care coverage for your child (say, through your employer-provided family health plan) then you’re OK. If not, you must sign up to the government plan. If you don’t do either, you are risking the health of your child and the Man will come after you.
factoid on November 29, 2007 at 10:37 AM

Why do you have to sign up for ‘the government plan’?

If there is a government plan to cover all children who do not have private insurance, they are all covered. Go to the hospital, they are a child, the bill is paid.

Since being illegal makes no difference, being a citizen makes no difference, it stands that anything shorter than Michey Rooney goes to a doctor and gets his meds – no questions asked

A parental registration is hardly needed

Unless – we are demanding that certain classes of parents purchase private insurance with their own dollars. Then we need oversight and jail time for the slackers

Redistribution begins in the other guy’s pocket