Good God, Ma R there is so much rampant paranoia tinfoilhat and downright inaccuracy in this last post it would take a tome the size of the now defunct Encyclopedia Britannica to catalog it all, much less refute it. Nonetheless, I will try a Cliff's Notes version of it, just so dispel the impression that I might agree with any of it, except this: "I place my trust in the people and do not trust the Federal government." I agree that you do, and how misplaced that trust is. After all, it was these people that installed the government you rail against...
Originally Posted by Ma_Republican
It doesn't matter that it hasn't happened yet, because like that fictional asteroid, it will.
Well, I was wrong, I agree that what you propose is fiction, just like that asteroid.... and I accept your admission, that "I admit that people do not have health insurance who need it."
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But what this law suggests is that I should give up my freedom of choice...
In what way? You have lost no freedom of choice, and will continue to get whatever insurance your employer provides, although probably at a reduced cost, plus having he opportunity to ditch your employer's plan and get a new plan on an exchange market. How, exactly, is that limiting your choice, except in that fictional scenario you posit?
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... and allow the government to impose its will upon me and my family with a theoretical limitless regulatory power.
Again, a work of pure theoretical fiction, completely divorced from history, logic, or reality as it might be experienced by a normal human being not under the influence of psychedelic drugs....
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I am paranoid at times, but in this I am clear eyed and certain;
I'm sorry, I just about ruined my keyboard. There is nothing clear-eyed or certain except the apparent paranoia.
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... if this is passed the government will find new and inventive ways to force Americans to purchase. What immediately comes to mind is wind and solar power, maybe the cell phone example that the Chief Justice brought up.
I don't know what the cell phone example the CJ came up with it, but there are plenty of science fiction authors from Philip K. Dick to Suzanne Collins that have dreamed up dystopian societies.... that are just as fictional, bizarre and unlikely.

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It doesn't matter that you believe it hasn't happened yet, because it actually has. The EPA is an all powerful entity who can destroy people at its whim, can create rules without input from Congress and can crush any industry it wants. But you believe that the Federal government wouldn't use that newly appointed power?
ROFL. Seriously, Ma R. I really mean that. Seriously? The EPA is an all powerful entity bent on the destruction of industry? Any evidence of that? Any examples? Any fantasy scenarios where this has occurred?

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One more thing, this cuts both ways. Imagine, if you will, that the mandate is held Constitutional and a Republican as radical and partisan as Obama takes power with a friendly congress.
- Now there you have a point, as we saw what GW Bush did with that authority for the first 6 years of his disastrous presidency - including the recession he gave to his successor. I happen to also agree that a Santorum presidency would make the Bush debacle measured by comparison. So there are some things that we agree on, except, of course, the object of your paranoia.

A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.

Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich