They done gone and done it.

I will forever remember the day that America was attacked by terrorists. I will forever remember the birth of my children. I will forever remember the day that I left for a mission. I will also forever remember the day that American Government turned it's back on the voice of the people and decided to bind us with a system that attacks the most sensitive aspect of our lives...our actual lives.
The Democrats of the House passed a bill with 219 votes to 212. No Republican's supported the bill and enough Democrats objected to make it this close. If the representation of the House had gone the way of the polls the bill would have died 259 - 172 and the people of the United States would have won. Apparently the Democrats care nothing for the thoughts of the people who they represent.
One of the things that I find absent from many of the punditry is simple communication. They want to spend time on the things that most American's haven't spent time caring about. They talk about "deem and pass" they talk about "publicly funded abortions" "CBO ratings" "Medicare de-funding" and of course "tax hikes". In the end most people have no idea what these things mean and more to the point they don't care. So I think I've distilled the most important fact of this bill into something that any American from any party can understand. They are trying to MAKE me buy health insurance. The choice to have health care or not is a lot more important than being forced into having it when you don't need or want it. Liberty is the freedom to make even stupid choices and suffer the consequences good or bad. Tyranny is being forced to do something and then forcing everyone else to join you in the consequences. That is the simple and direct meaning of this bill. If I chose not to get insurance I will be fined. This is intrinsically wrong. I don't believe health insurance is a basic human necessity or right.
If this country wants to get back into a position of legitimate power and true liberty we will stick to the tenets that got us here. Limited government and individual freedoms. That means individual responsibility. That means get rid of Social Security, Welfare, Food Stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, and dare I say it...the educational system. I guarantee that our country would benefit from the cuts in taxes and the increased individual freedom/responsibility. A nation that goes to the government for a handout is a nation that is too weak to exist. This bill enforces that weakness and makes us fiscally, mentally, socially, and generally weaker and that is NOT the America that we want. You can argue the finite points of this bill but the reality is that in the end no argument can be made that removes personal responsibility from human existence.
Some would argue with me that the government makes us have auto insurance. Fine lets have that argument. In an auto I can kill or maim a person. If I neglect to purchase insurance I am not hurting you. The next argument is that I'm costing you money because I will inevitably have to go to a Doctor and you will assume that I will not be able to pay my bill and thus will be a burden on society as they pick up the bill for me. What a cop out argument. For the sake of argument lets assume I won't pay my bill. The Doctor would send me to collections of which I would not likely pay and the Doctor would then write off the expense and reduce his tax burden and in order to recoup the loss he would increase the cost of his services. Theoretically this would increase your premium. In reality the increase is minuscule relative to the cost of the malpractice insurance that the Doctor has to pay for in order to protect him from sue-happy liberals that think they deserve a huge payout because a Doctor made an honest mistake that resulted in them suffering for a week or two because he left some gauze in an incision. I can understand the cases of legitimate criminal neglect but even this should be limited in payout. This bill doesn't address this problem. The Republican opposing bill that was shot down last summer cost the American tax payer about $250 Billion and could be completely implemented within a year of passing. This bill gets paid for starting now but doesn't actually have a benefit of tangible value until 2014. I won't even begin to venture what it's going to cost the tax payer because most of us know that it's going to cost more than the slightly less than a trillion dollars that the Democrats weaseled out of the CBO and the fact that we get to pay for that for the next several years makes it even worse.
As a note. I don't have health insurance. My wife doesn't have insurance. My children have state provided insurance (which gives some people reason to call me a hypocrite). To make matters even more interesting...I make less than half the mean income of my community (<$20K/yr.). If I can manage my life, health, and finances, as limited as they are, then anyone can. I am not exceptional. I am not heroic. I am the average Joe. Most important. I am responsible. Let's make America strong. Let's make American's responsible.