Bill: "I read it. Now your read what I wrote, no?"
Great, then we know I wasn't pretending to have a JD and you knew my response to the states/federal supremacy issue ahead of time.
Bill: "First - The executive branch cannot write law. Period. Declare war? Sure. Get funding for the war? Not so much."
Tell that to Bush-Cheney and their legal team, but ok. It turns out the executive branch does NOT declare war.
"The Constitution's division of powers leaves the President with some exclusive powers as Commander-in-Chief (such as decisions on the field of battle), Congress with certain other exclusive powers (such as
the ability to declare war and appropriate dollars to support the war effort)..."
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/project ... treaty.htm
See also Article 1, Section 8.
"Here's the thing, Ian. You're going to subsidize insurance for a good portion of the population that can't afford it, right? That's using federal money for a health benefit that - you guessed it - pays for abortion. So voila - you have a federal subsidy for abortion. Pretty cool, eh? (Not)"
No, the health benefit does not pay for elective abortion (are you referring to those exceptions for life of mother?). The same exclusion amendment went into this bill that went into ALL the healthcare bills in recent history. THIS is not a new issue; this is being seized by the teabaggers to raise a fuss. Nothing has changed. And IF tax dollars were going to subsidize abortion, it's not as if plenty of people didn't want their tax dollars going to raze countries in the middle east, but boo hoo for them, right? That was the semi-elective abortion of thousands and thousands of grown-up fetuses (children and adults), much of it occurring through our mismanagement:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War
Justin: botox is a legal medical procedure. So is lasik. Boobies. Tucks. You want that in insurance you pay for? I didn't think so
I will support you on the idea that abortion may be cost saving--more study needed--not just in the sense of welfare, but also in the sense of crime reduction. Unwanted kids go bad. See discussion in Freakonomics.
As for your suggestion that a fetus is not a human life, WTF are you talking about? Of course it's human life. Human life doesn't start; it's continuous, and just ends occasionally. Adults and their gametes and the embryos and fetuses and then babies that result are all human life. The VALUE we tend to place on human life varies with time in gestation. I have no respect for the idea that a fertilized egg is a "full individual human life" and will continue to disrespect that idea until we live in a world that has a funeral everytime a woman has a late period that represents the death of a 1-2 week old "full human individual." But you should watch "The silent scream." Abortion must be disturbing, it must be considered a failure, it must be considered a wrong, not just a choice. A necessary evil at times, a sad choice, but not just picing out what kind of bagel you want. If you do not feel SOMETHING contemplating the destruction of a human fetus with fingers and eyes and a beating heart, well, this atheist suspects something is wrong with your ...soul? But I'm sure some exposure to actual abortion procedures would fix you right up.
Bill then replied: "YOU were the one who chose to endorse the BRAND NEW use of PUBLIC FUNDING to pay for the consequence of others' bad choices."
Perhaps Bill, you are unaware that huge proportions of medical expense go to the consequences of bad choices? Smoking, eating wrong, not exercising, not getting vaccines, not getting screened, using drugs, drinking too much, getting too much sun and noncompliance with meds and on and on and on. IF you propose to follow through with your plan to limit publicly funded healthcare to unavoidable nonfault situations, you will have an enormous and impossible task of teasing apart factors that contribute to illness. Let's be honest: abortion is a touchy issue for its own reasons not because it's just about consequences of bad decisions. There are good reasons for this. I just accept it.
"Arrogance diminishes wisdom.
- Arab proverb"
Ahh, experience is the best teacher. Too much overconfidence in their magic truths in that region not to have learned about the dark side of zealotry.
Last little comment: Bill, you don't want people to be forced to buy insurance. GREAT! I'm ALL for it. As soon as each of these people signs over their EMTALA rights and agrees not to push for charity care when they get sick and come to me with their freaking hat in their hand. Until then, these people are obstacles to health insurance continuity and stabilization. We can't have people waiting for need then signing up for care.
