Abp. Chaput laments "long, unpleasant and too often dishonest national health-care debate..."

From Abp. Charles J. Chaput's most recent column:

Third, the health-care reform debate has never been merely a matter of party politics.  Nor is it now.  Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak and a number of his Democratic colleagues have shown extraordinary character in pushing for good health-care reform while resisting attempts to poison it with abortion-related entitlements and other bad ideas that have nothing to do with real “health care.”  Many Republicans share the goal of decent health-care reform, even if their solutions would differ dramatically.  To put it another way, few persons seriously oppose making adequate health services available for all Americans.  But God, or the devil, is in the details -- and by that measure, the current Senate version of health-care reform is not merely defective, but also a dangerous mistake.

The long, unpleasant and too often dishonest national health-care debate is now in its last days.  Its most painful feature has been those “Catholic” groups that by their eagerness for some kind of deal undercut the witness of the Catholic community and help advance a bad bill into a bad law. Their flawed judgment could now have damaging consequences for all of us.

Do not be misled.  The Senate version of health-care reform currently being pushed ahead by congressional leaders and the White House -- despite public resistance and numerous moral concerns -- is bad law; and not simply bad, but dangerous.  It does not deserve, nor does it have, the support of the Catholic bishops in our country, who speak for the believing Catholic community.  In its current content, the Senate version of health-care legislation is not “reform.”  Catholics and other persons of good will concerned about the foundations of human dignity should oppose it.

Read the entire column. Let's see: the Obama administration has "reformed" the car industry, the banking industry, and is close to "reforming" the health-care industry. What next? Oh, yes: the education industry!

Comments

[LJ]

Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak and a number of his Democratic colleagues have shown extraordinary character in pushing for good health-care reform while resisting attempts to poison it with abortion-related entitlements and other bad ideas that have nothing to do with real “health care.”

Mmmm... just what are those "other bad ideas?" Is this a non-partisan hint regarding the vast socialist takeover of about one fifth of the American economy?

It's funnny that in decades gone by it took no courage for a priest or bishop to extoll the virtues of the Democratic Party to mainly immigrant parishioners, just as it takes no courage today for Jesse Jackson and any number of black evangelical preachers to do the same, but Lord Almighty;
should a Catholic cleric today cross the line and suggest that same Democratic Party is hell-bent on transforming America into a European style socialist state with the same dire social, economic and moral consequences not to mention abortion;
the IRS moles are clamouring for their charitable status to be revoked. Separation of Church and state, don't you know.

Archbishop Chaput is a bold man and by his own admission began his adult life as a Democrat or at least sympathetic; but like so many enlightened Catholics cannot bring himself to recognize or state openly that first; it is not necessary to be or vote Democrat in order to fulfill one's social obligation as a Catholic, and second; the entire socialist/progressive project is not morally neutral but an evil unto itself, promising equality for all and delivering that equality in the form of poverty for all, including substandard health-care.

Many Republicans share the goal of decent health-care reform, even if their solutions would differ dramatically.
No kidding. They are the ones offering health-care reform as a goal in itself. The Democrats under the whip hand of our Catholic Speaker of the House are seeking health-care reform as a means to a larger end. It's the same end as Copenhagen and Kyoto and the entire Al Gore railroad and road show.

Sad, very sad. At least the American people, including some Catholics and a whole lot of non-Catholics are showing signs of being unwilling to submit to the tyranny of the socialists. They will defend the freedom of the country and of the children and grand-children of those misguided Catholics who somehow cannot differentiate between their own social/moral obligations and the socialist snake-oil that promises to take care of those obligations for them.

And, of course, these are my political opinions and not necessarily the opinions of Ignatius Press.

[J.T.]

I echo LJ's comment. Some people seem to think that if just the abortion aspect were "removed" from the bill then everything would be OK. Nothing could be farther from the truth. This is dangerous legislation being put forward by very dangerous people. The fact that the way it is being done is unconstitutional is merely an afterthought. This country, already reeling from decades of misguided liberal policies and government regulations, will take a blow to the gut that will render it almost impossible to "get off the floor".