Orrin Hatch (R-Kolob) has once again demonstrated his scissor-like grip of both science and the constitution.
Backed by some of the most powerful members of the Senate, a little-noticed provision in the healthcare overhaul bill would require insurers to consider covering Christian Science prayer treatments as medical expenses.
Hatch has a history of supporting quackery, possibly because Utah is home to a lot of people selling so-called “supplements”. Secular Right is, rightly, squealing about the “separation of church & state” issue. (Yes, I understand that there is no such separation in the constitution. I also understand that the Founders very carefully set up a secular government.) To me the bigger issue here is the separation of superstition and science, not to mention the separation of taxpayers from their money.
If you want to pray for people, that is your right and it is guaranteed in the First Amendment. If you want to charge people for praying, and can get them to fork over, more power to you. But you do not have a right to put a gun to someone’s head to make them pay for your prayers. Remember: Every single penny the government spends is taken at gunpoint from productive people.
If you don’t think so, just stop paying taxes and let me know who shows up.
If the government has no constitutional authority to spend money on health care (which it doesn’t) it certainly doesn’t have the authority to force private companies to spend it on woo.
Both Hatch and Harry Reid belong to a religion that believes “the constitution will hang as by a thread.” With friends like these the constitution doesn’t need enemies. I wish both of these clowns would put down their scissors, go home, and just shut the hell up.
But that would require them to have an actual sense of shame. And that’s just not allowed in the Senate.
