The following comes from a July 11 story on the Catholic News Agency website.
Two U.S. representatives have introduced a bill to stop the federal government from taxing religious employers that decline to cover contraception and abortion-causing drugs in their health plans.
The legislation will protect religious groups, as well as private businesses with “moral and religious objections,” from being heavily taxed for refusing to pay for insurance “that violates their religious or moral views,” Representative James Sensenbrennner (R-Wis.) said on July 10.
Rep. Sensenbrenner is joined by Representative Diane Black (R-Tenn.) in sponsoring the “Religious Freedom Tax Repeal Act.” The “tax” it would repeal is part of the federal health care reform law, whose regulatory fines were upheld in the June 28 Supreme Court decision that cast them as a form of taxation.
At Tuesday’s press conference, they explained that the law known as “Obamacare” would allow the Internal Revenue Service to collect $100 per day for each employee of an organization that fails to cover services such as contraception and sterilization without a co-pay.
The tax penalty is part of the Health and Human Services contraception mandate, currently being challenged by over 50 organizations in 23 lawsuits.
Sensenbrenner described the tax as “severe” and “confiscatory.” A religious institution with 50 employees, he calculated, would be forced to pay nearly $2 million in taxes each year for refusing to provide contraception.
“If these taxes are levied, and they are enforced, there will be no religious-affiliated institutions left in this country,” the Wisconsin congressman warned.
These institutions play a vital role in the nation’s life, he said, and should not be “taxed out of business” for following their moral convictions.
Rep. Black told reporters she was co-sponsoring the bill because of her belief “that freedom of religion is an inalienable gift from our creator, and not a revocable privilege from our government.”
To read entire story, click here.
Even if they do pass these exceptions, allowing the government to control our health care is a very very bad idea, but our many, too many, socialist bishops would love it!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
“We’ve done it for 4,000 years – just carry on!” ~ Pinchas Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of European Rabbis, after a German court the other day declared infant circumcision for religious reasons illegal. This is precisely the sort of leadership American Catholics are going to need from their bishops. Will they get it?
What an incredile revenge Kathleen Sibelius has undertaken for being denied communion. No wonder the bishops stand weak-kneed and slack-jawed before pro-abort Catholic politicians.
Was Sibelius barred from Holy Communion? I missed this in the news.
Don’t understand your logic. Sebelius is merely one of many Obama minions who were hand picked because they believe as he does and will follow his directions . – She has always been pro-abortion, pro-sodomy marriage, etc.
It is time that all US Bishops stand up against heretic and schismatic public persons.
Not speaking against the Mortal Sin of SCANDAL has helped promote relativism.
Functionally, the exaction at issue here is less a tax than it is a penalty, namely, a penalty for RECUSANCY, which is to say, a penalty for refusing to pay into a system of health care that is NOT UNIVERSAL — first of all, not universal because this same proposed system, for its part, has yet to recognize the fundamental right of preborn infants to live out their lives in due order and expectable course.
the Constitution does not include the phrase “Separation of Church & State,” neither does it say “Freedom of religion.” However, the Constitution implies both in the 1st Amendment. As to our freedoms, the 1st Amendment provides exclusionary wording:
Congress shall make NO law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievance
It was Jesus who gave us the “separation of Church and state”. “Give unto Caesar what is his and to God what is His”.
Yet more deceit? Arguments that the ACA infringes religious liberty have gone from wrong to ridiculous.
First, the ACA does not force any employer to act contrary to his or her conscience. The law does not compel any employer to provide health insurance to its employees. Any employer may choose not to provide such insurance. Moral dilemma avoided.
Second, contrary to Congressman Sensenbrennner’s assertion, an employer choosing not to provide such health insurance pays a tax of only $2,000 per employee–far less than the typical cost of health insurance. Employers with fewer than 50 employees don’t even pay that tax.
Sensenbrennner misleads by mentioning a different tax that applies only when a health insurance plan is offered and it fails to meet statutory requirements. Unmentioned by Sensenbrenner are the many exceptions and other ways to avoid or substantially reduce that tax.
Doug Indeap, what you are basically saying is that you would like total government ran healthcare insurance or insurance only provided by those who are willing to pay for contraceptives (an abortificient at times) and abortions. Count me and many others out of that. We don’t want to pay for such in any way, any shape or any form.
This, “First, the ACA does not force any employer to act contrary to his or her conscience”, Doug Indeap, is false. Countless employers are already arguing that it does. Who pays you people to lie like you do? Are you paid a salary or are you on contract to deceive the public?
You need to get your facts straight. The law does not force any employer to provide health insurance. You can look it up. It merely says that IF an employer provides insurance, that insurance must cover specified things. No employer is forced to provide insurance for things the employer dislikes.
I think part of the command by Jesus to give to Caesar means to throw a tyrant’s thugs back to the tyrant’s lion’s den.
Don’t confuse some of these folks with truth and facts about Obomneycare as they prefer to retreat to the Tower of Babel concerning this current Constitutional law.
August 1, Senior Judge John L. Kane of the District Court of Colorado issued an injunction against the Affordable Care Act mandate that forces employers to pay for contraceptives. Hercules Industries, owned by 4 Catholic siblings is self-insured and offers a heath plan that does not include contraception, abortion or sterilization. They sued HHS for violating their First Amendment rights and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.