Catholic values in a hostile political climate

I posted the following article on this blog on August 17, 2009 and received a few rebuttals claiming I was not pro life if I did not support a government health care plan.

At the time I posted this article I was (and still am) concerned about several issues regarding the current proposals to have the federal government greatly enlarge their role in our citizen’s health care needs.

1. The governments track record of management (or if you prefer, mismanagement) of virtually every government agency is extremely poor to be very generous. The current Medicare Medicaid programs are on track to go bankrupt in a few short years. The Post Office is notorious for mismanagement. The EPA, the IRS, etc. etc. all have over spent and underperformed for years.  
2. The government by almost all observers state the government is riddled with corruption. Special interests are draining tax payer moneys that should be going to the benefit of all.
3. The government and the current administration in particular are among the most untrustworthy we have seen. This administration has more instances of doing exactly the opposite of what they promised than any previous administration. This has lead to this administration making claims such as the Catholic Church and many Catholic groups have endorsed their health care plan. The fact is the Church and these groups have said they would support a health care plan that met all Church teaching criteria. The proposals up to this time have not met Church requirements.  Now, the Obama administration is claiming they will not (for instance) pay for abortions with tax payer moneys. The problem here it this administration has no credibility any longer.

Because of these concerns, I suggested in the referenced article that the Church and all Catholic agencies should not support any health care plan proposed by this administration. This administration has been openly hostile to Catholic teaching and simply put, cannot be trusted.

This administration has deliberately misled the American people about the number of people without health care and therefore the urgency of adopting health care reform. They have repeatedly stated that over 40 million Americans do not have health care insurance. This is an extremely misleading statement. First of all even if it were true that there were over 40 million people in this country without health care insurance, there is zero people in this country without access to health care. Since 1986 there has been a federal law requiring medical treatment for any and all who appear at any emergency room hospital in the United States, so for this administration to claim 40 million Americans do not have health insurance, while it may be literally true, they know that people hearing this believe that 40 Americans do not have access to health care and they make no attempt to clarify this.

The truth is that a large percentage of these 40 million Americans are not even citizens and have not paid into any of the social programs that support the free care they already get. And all people (even those here illegally) are receiving free medical care currently. And, I really do not object to this, what I do object to is the lies and attempts to take away more of our freedoms in this obvious power grab.

Problems with Catholic Organizations Supporting ANY government sponsored health care program at this time….

I am readdressing this issue because I learned today that I am not alone in this approach to resolving the health care issue. I received an article from the “Our Sunday Visitor” stating that several Bishops have begun to address this issue by becoming vocal about keep large government out of such endeavors. They are being backed by a long dormant Church principle of subsidiarity. Subsidiarity holds that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least-centralized competent authority. I am in complete agreement with these Bishops.

Here is a link to the entire article