{"id":39376,"date":"2012-10-29T00:32:47","date_gmt":"2012-10-29T07:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=39376"},"modified":"2014-12-30T12:03:13","modified_gmt":"2014-12-30T19:03:13","slug":"it-is-utter-folly-to-trust-romney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2012\/10\/it-is-utter-folly-to-trust-romney.html","title":{"rendered":"It is Utter Folly to Trust Romney"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A reader writes:<\/p>\n

I have been following your discussion of Romney, the HHS Mandate, and Dale Price with interest, and have another tidbit to offer against Romney. You may already know this but Romney\u2019s shenanigans in MA go beyond forcing Catholic hospitals to dispense the morning after pill, even if only \u201cjust a little\u201d further. Romneycare itself actually mandates insurance coverage of contraception in a manner similar (but not identical) to the HHS mandate in Obamacare.<\/p>\n

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Mass.\u00a0Gen. Laws Ann.\u00a0ch. 175 \u00a7\u00a047W<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>ch. 176A \u00a7 8W<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>ch. 176B \u00a7 4W<\/strong><\/a>, and <\/strong>ch. 176G \u00a7 4O<\/strong><\/a>(2002) <\/strong>require insurers that provide benefits for outpatient services to also provide hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women and outpatient FDA-approved contraceptive services <\/em><\/strong>under the same terms and conditions as for other outpatient services. The law defines outpatient contraceptive services. This law excludes policies purchased by an employer that is a church or a qualified church-controlled organization. (2002 Mass. Acts, Chap. 49<\/a>; SB 2139).<\/p>\n

Romneycare (2006) then mandated that pretty much everyone in Massachusetts obtain a state-government-regulated minimum level of healthcare insurance coverage, including the above. So while Romney didn\u2019t sign the 2002 law requiring all health insurance in MA to cover birth control candy (and many other states have similar laws), he signed the 2006 law requiring everyone in MA to purchase that same insurance. Of course, the exception is a little bigger than Obamacare\u2019s, since it exempts church controlled organizations that don\u2019t serve only their own religious. But it doesn\u2019t exempt Joe the Catholic Machine Shop Worker With 15 Employees or Sally the Catholic Individual Insurance Purchaser. It may be splitting hairs but your everyday MA resident got his religious liberty violated in 2006 as much as the rest of us will under Obamacare. And that\u2019s the guy we\u2019re supposed to trust to repeal the HHS mandate.<\/p>\n

As an aside, I certainly respect the idea of voting for Romney for the reasons suggested by Price. But I just can\u2019t do it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yup.\u00a0 The reason I respect Dale\u2019s case for voting for Romney <\/a>is that he makes it without any BS about Romney being a good man, or reliable, or trustworthy, or interested in abortion, the HHS Mandate, gay marriage or anything else beyond his principle-free will to power that is,\u00a0at heart, a\u00a0total moral void.\u00a0\u00a0Dale simply is rolling the dice and guessing that, nearly by accident, Romney\u2019s particular set of political allegiances\u00a0is slightly more likely to cause him to\u2013one hopes\u2013do slightly less damage than the current occupant of the White House.\u00a0 It\u2019s a respectable position, I reckon, because Dale does not disgrace himself by telling the massive passel of lies that so much pro-Romney stuff has consisted of in the desperate attempt to make this vote anything other than holding one\u2019s nose and muscling down a dungburger because that\u2019s what the GOP, in its utter cynical contempt for prolifers, has forced on us.\u00a0 Dale recognizes very clearly that this is a hostage situation and does not pretend that Romney is anything other than the cynical duplicitous liar he is.\u00a0 He simply takes the long shot chance that his cynical duplicitous lies will be slightly less damaging than Obama\u2019s cynical duplicitous lies.\u00a0 I totally respect that.<\/p>\n

I just don\u2019t think the game is worth the candle and so will be voting for somebody I actually want.<\/a>\u00a0 And, I suspect, after Romney is elected and commits his many many betrayals, Dale and many more will be joining me in 2016\u2013because Dale is a good and honest man and I think his patience, which is greater than mine because he is a better man than me, is just about gone with the Thing that Used to Be Conservatism.<\/p>\n

Let us all pray for each other.\u00a0 We are going to need to stick together in the storms that are coming as America continues its transformation into a post-Christian and anti-Catholic soft police state.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A reader writes: I have been following your discussion of Romney, the HHS Mandate, and Dale Price with interest, and have another tidbit to offer against Romney. You may already know this but Romney\u2019s shenanigans in MA go beyond forcing Catholic hospitals to dispense the morning after pill, even if only \u201cjust a little\u201d further. 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