Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
I’m not the sort of person who screams of Obama’s “socialism” at every move he makes. But there is no doubt in my mind that the insurance mandate in the health care bill is the biggest step toward socialism that this country has ever taken. In a nutshell, the government will now require that every American purchase health insurance. If we fail to do so, we will have to pay a tax. This isn’t just another tax created to stuff government’s coffers; I believe this is a tax for simply living. This mandate is sending the message that if we don’t want to purchase something the government wants us to, we’ll be punished for it. That sounds like socialism to me.

In addition, Democrats like to tout the fact that 31 million Americans will be covered by the end of this decade. That’s something that I’m sure everyone wants to hear. But I have to ask, what’s the use of being covered if we can’t afford to buy the insurance? The Democrats’ main priority shouldn’t have been trying to cover everybody; it should’ve been trying to make coverage affordable enough so Americans could buy it on their own without the government’s help. The arrangement of covering people while not sufficiently lowering costs will probably drive more people onto the uninsured rolls, which means more people will be forced to pay a tax for not being insured.

We’ve heard much talk about how “historic” the health care bill was. It was a historic moment, indeed. For that was the moment future generations will remember as the day we surrendered our most basic freedom to the government: the right to live our lives as we choose.