How President Obama is Attempting to Snooker the Catholic Church

First, President Obama attacked religious liberty by mandating that the insurance plans of religious organizations provide free contraceptives, despite the fact that that would require Catholic organizations to violate their religious beliefs. That didn’t work out so well, as many believers across the spectrum of faith stood up to say, “We are all Catholics now.”

It is hard to imagine how this strategy made it out of the White House. A decision of this nature does not get made without calculating all the possible consequences, intended and otherwise. So apparently the White House figured the Catholic Church would bluster a bit, that the public would pay no mind, and they would get their way in the end.

They may very well get their way in the end, but it is going to cost them more than the initial estimate of political capital. Perhaps even the coming election, now that Americans have been abruptly reminded of the impending loss of their liberties through Obamacare. This mandate is just the tip of the iceberg.

That depends a lot, however, on how Catholics and everyone else respond to the ongoing intrigue. The initial strategy miscalculated public outcry, but the game is far from over.

President Obama’s second attempt at mandating free contraceptives relies on a violation of free enterprise and economic liberty. To wit, the White House now says that religious organizations will not be required to pay for the contraceptives, bur rather the insurance companies will be required to provide them for free!

Where to begin? First, this tramples on liberty by violating a basic tenet of  economics, known as “TANSTAAFL” (There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch).  In this case, There Ain’t No Such Thing As Free Contraceptives.

Somebody has to pay for it, and I suggest there are only a few options, if in fact neither the employee nor the religious organization is going to be required to pay. One option would be for the insurance company to increase the premiums on the plans of non-religious organizations, in order to subsidize “free contraceptives” to religious organizations.

Insurance companies might go along with this, and if they do, non-religious organizations will be hard pressed to prove that their increased premiums are paying for contraceptives for the employees of religious organizations. If this is a little hard to follow, I assure you that the official explanation will be even more vague and obtuse, that being the point.

That approach doesn’t seem too fair, however, and this administration is all about fairness. A second option would be to pay for it out of the slush fund known as the Federal Budget. The Democrats in the Senate haven’t passed a budget in over 3 years, so this might be a workable option. No budget means no line item to get worked up over, hence the insurance companies can be reimbursed with the magic money that flows from D.C., and no one will be the wiser. Any time an employee of a religious organization requests the “contraceptive rider”, the insurance company will be reimbursed by you, the taxpayer, via the government.

It is going to be very tempting for the religious organizations to sign on with one of these shell games offered by the Administration. They would do much better to simply say “No, we will not offer an insurance plan that includes contraceptives.” Then let the Federal government set up their own free contraceptives program, and keep the whole thing out in the open, without becoming entangled in this snare.

For it is a snare, and here is the end game. Whatever method the White House eventually settles on to force religious organizations to provide contraceptives in their health care plan, they can later use to force the inclusion of abortions in the same manner. Don’t forget, women in Massachusetts can now get abortions for $50 through their health care plan.

You see, if the government can mandate the inclusion of contraceptives in health care plans, well don’t you know that Planned Parenthood and their allies considers abortion to be health care also?

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