A Tale of Two Mandates

An applicable individual shall for each month beginning after 2013 ensure that the individual, and any dependent of the individual who is an applicable individual, is covered under minimum essential coverage for such month.

At least 24 hours before the performance of an abortion, a qualified medical professional trained in sonography and working under the supervision of a physician licensed in the Commonwealth shall perform fetal transabdominal ultrasound imaging on the patient undergoing the abortion for the purpose of determining gestational age.

Two mandates; one from a piece of legislation championed by Democrats, one from legislation championed from Republicans. The first is the individual healthcare mandate from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the second is the ultrasound mandate from HB 462, recently signed into law by Gov. McDonnell.

Both are examples of an overreach in the government’s authority to compel behavior.

In 30 Seconds….

Comments on everything I would have written about over the past week, if I wasn’t up to my eyeballs in Tea Party stuff:

1. There’s no way you can convince me that veterans should have to pay for their healthcare (outside of elective procedures). Stupidest idea I’ve ever heard, and it’s made more so by another veteran (VA Secretary GEN Eric Shinseki) suggesting it. If this were Pres. Obama’s idea, it would be a teaching point for him…but a general officer? Nope, no excuse. Just because you have a triple digit salary and can pay for yours, doesn’t mean that everyone has those means.

2.  Michael Steele’s right: abortion is a choice. In that you have to make a decision to have one or not. Whether it’s a choice you agree with-and I don’t-is a matter of opinion, but at it’s most basic, that’s what it is.

3. Couple weeks ago on JJP, I commented on defense programs that I thought would get cut/rolled back under the Obama Administration (the ones I mentioned were the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship, the Army’s Future Combat Systems program, the Air Force’s F-22, and the Joint Stirke Fighter Program). And then….there was this in the Boston Globe. Proof that I’m-occasionally-not just shooting off at the mouth. For the record, as uncomfortable and expensive as it is, cutting defense spending in the middle of a recession-and the jobs that come along with that-is not smart.

That was a lot more than 30 seconds. Oh, well…

HB2DF,

-Coby