Quote:
Originally Posted by AGDee
I often find myself thinking "See? Proof that the good ones are all married" when I read his posts. I concur Doc, I concur.
MC? Can we clone you??
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Sorry.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghostwriter
But they don't require that you buy/own a car. Operating a car is a privilege and not a right. We are now for the first time requiring the public to buy a product from a vendor. FICA is, in reality, just another tax for a government service.
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Yes and no.
You are quite right that driving is a privilege, not a right. But, as a condition of that privilege the state requires that we buy a product from a vendor, and that's what EW was describing as a mark of fascism.
Meanwhile, you say FICA is another tax for government service. Others could just as easily and reasonably characterize it as requiring that all employees purchase insurance (Medicare) and a pension vehicle (Social Security) from a vendor, which in this case happens to be the government.
My point was not that either of these is exactly comparable to the requirements of the health care reform bill. (Which does not actually mandate that everyone have insurance -- at least not to the extent of imposing criminal penalties. The "mandate" is that you have to pay a penalty if you don't have insurance. Perhaps a small distinction in the mind of some, but a distinction nonetheless. I can choose not to drive and thereby not have to have auto insurance; I can choose not to be insured and just pay the penalty instead.)
My point was directed specifically and only to EW's assertion that the health care bill is fascist because it "forces an individual to purchase a certain thing from a certain industry." I was simply making the point that it can be reasonably argued that has been happening for decades. Nothing more. No judgment pro or con.
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