December 29, 2012 by ST

Liberal reax to Hobby Lobby defiance shows disturbing “Govt is God” mindset

The owners of Hobby Lobby face $1.3 million in daily fines after they decided to obey God rather than the federal government – refusing to comply with Obamacare’s contraception mandate.

The act of defiance came one day after Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor denied Hobby Lobby’s emergency request to block enforcement of the mandate, but said the company may continue its appeal in lower courts.

Hobby Lobby is a national arts and crafts chain. They own more than 500 stores in 41 states.

The company is owned by the Green family, devout, evangelical Christians. They believe “it is by God’s grace and provision that Hobby Lobby has endured” and they seek to honor God by operating their company in a manner consistent with Biblical principles.”

The family believes the Obamacare mandate to provide the morning-after and week-after pills is a violation of their religious convictions.

“To remain true to their faith, it is not their intention as a company, to pay for abortion-inducing drugs,” Becket Fund attorney Kyle Duncan wrote in a statement.

Duncan said the company would continue to provide health insurance for its employees while they fight the government in court.

But on Jan. 1, Hobby Lobby will face a $1.3 million daily fine if they don’t comply with Obamacare.

What was the liberal reax to Sotomayor’s ruling? They were predictably snobby and, of course, juvenile – not to mention dangerously devoted to their government masters:

“I hope the government earmarks every cent of that fee money for Planned Parenthood, just to spite these ass****,” wrote one reader on the Jezebel website.

“Anyway, I’m all for Hobby Lobby (and all other organizations that think birth control is totes gross) ignoring the law,” wrote Erin Gloria Ryan in a column titled, “Whore Pill-Hating Hobby Lobby Will Have to Pay a Buttload of Fines for Ignoring Obamacare.”

The website Think Progress said Hobby Lobby is ignoring two points.

“First, that Plan B is not an abortion-inducing drug, as Hobby Lobby claims, and second, that the company may well end up paying more to avoid covering contraception than they would simply providing access,” the website reported. “It also takes a twisted view on the ‘Freedom of Religion’ argument; the company is actually forcing its owner’s religious beliefs on all employees, no matter their personal religious views.”

What astonishing stupidity. Here’s the mindset of liberals like the idiots at “Think Progress”: It’s ok for the federal government to force you to violate your religious freedoms at the point of fines and possibly at some point jail time if you don’t comply, but a private employer choosing to exercise its First Amendment rights is “forcing its religious beliefs on all employees” – EVEN THOUGH THOSE EMPLOYEES HAVE THE OPTION OF FINDING ANOTHER JOB if they don’t agree with the decision.

Good grief, these people are mind-blowingly ignorant (and willingly so) at times. Then again, what do you expect from people who by and large view government aka Uncle Sam as God and your private religious beliefs that are supposed to be guaranteed under the US Constitution as secondary to what the their government god mandates?

While they’re at it, why doesn’t the left, en masse, just break out their weed lighters and set fire to the Constitution, too? They should pass one to Justice Sotomayor as well – if she hasn’t done it already.

December 29, 2012 by ST

Sanity in France: French court tosses 75% “millionaires’ tax”

France doesn’t often get it right, but a French court did in this case:

France’s Constitutional Council on Saturday rejected a 75 percent upper income tax rate to be introduced in 2013 in a setback to Socialist President Francois Hollande’s push to make the rich contribute more to cutting the public deficit.

The Council ruled that the planned 75 percent tax on annual income above 1 million euros ($1.32 million) – a flagship measure of Hollande’s election campaign – was unfair in the way it would be applied to different households.

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the government would redraft the upper tax rate proposal to answer the Council’s concerns and resubmit it in a new budget law, meaning Saturday’s decision could only amount to a temporary political blow.

While the tax plan was largely symbolic and would only have affected a few thousand people, it has infuriated high earners in France, prompting some such as actor Gerard Depardieu to flee abroad. The message it sent also shocked entrepreneurs and foreign investors, who accuse Hollande of being anti-business.

Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said the rejection of the 75 percent tax and other minor measures could cut up to 500 million euros in forecast tax revenues but would not hurt efforts to slash the public deficit to below a European Union ceiling of 3 percent of economic output next year.

“The rejected measures represent 300 to 500 million euros. Our deficit-cutting path will not be affected,” Moscovici told BFM television. He too said the government would resubmit a proposal to raise taxes on high incomes in 2013 and 2014.

The Council, made up of nine judges and three former presidents, is concerned the tax would hit a married couple where one partner earned above a million euros but it would not affect a couple where each earned just under a million euros.

UMP member Gilles Carrez, chairman of the National Assembly’s finance commission, told BFM television, however, that the Council’s so-called wise men also felt the 75 percent tax was excessive and too much based on ideology.

Note the unmistakable “what’s the big deal about it?” bias from Reuters with this sentence: “While the tax plan was largely symbolic and would only have affected a few thousand people…”, and the Associated Press couldn’t help itself either here with a similar dig:

The largely symbolic measure would have only hit a tiny number of taxpayers and brought in an estimated €100 million to €300 million – an insignificant amount in the context of France’s roughtly €85 billion deficit.

Our left wing media simply can’t help themselves when it comes to wanting to punish “the rich”, can they?

Anyway, three cheers for the French court, but I can’t help but wonder: How soon before the United Socialists of America aka the Democratic Party proposes something similar here in the US? Since the leader of their their party – our celebrity President – believes “at a certain point you’ve made enough money” and all …