Let Freedom Ring: 2010

One of my facebook friends recently asked me a question about the recent health care reform bill. I soon found that my answer was far too long and detailed to include on a facebook thread and so here it is. I decided to start a blog, not only to answer this question, but to chronicle my journey on seeking to understand our government, politics, country and our history more fully.

The question:

Since you been such a interseting person to have a conservsation with I want to ask you a question. I was contemplating the issue we have been talking about and was wondering what do you think Jesus would do with healthcare? What do you think his opinion would be on the reform?

The Answer:

Your question was a two-part question. What would Jesus do about health care, and what would he think of the current reform. I’d like to address the ‘what would he think of the current reform’ part first.

To have this discussion I hope that we are both in agreement that the words of the modern day prophets are the words of Jesus. Being members of the church, I think that we can proceed on that assumption without any debate. There are several points I’d like to make briefly and then I’ll go into detail on each idea.

1. The constitution of the United States of America is an inspired document. (And when I say inspired I mean given to intelligent and good men through revelation and inspiration from God)

2. God does not encourage debt.

3. Socialism is physically and spiritually crippling and enslaving in nature and we have been warned by modern day prophets not to fall into its lure.

1. The constitution of the United States of America is an inspired document.

“According to the laws and constitution of the people, which I have suffered to be established, and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles; That every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment…And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose.” (D&C 101 77-80)

In other words, God raised up our founding fathers for the very purpose of establishing the constitution under His divine direction. It gives us the freedom to act as we see fit so that we can be completely accountable for our own actions. I hope that we can agree on this point. Here is how it pertains to this bill.

“no government can exist in peace, except such laws are framed and held inviolate as will secure to each individual the free exercise of conscience, [and] the right and control of property.” (D&C 134:2.)

One of the most recent arguments in favor of this bill is that “We have the duty to help our neighbor.” Do I agree with this statement? ABSOLUTELY! But as it is used in this argument it implies that the government knows how to use my money better than I do and encourages giving up “the right and control of property” to the government. This scripture that I just cited says that we MUST have the free exercise of conscience in order for our government to exist in peace. Our government CANNOT legislate conscience and morality and when it does, it infringes not only on our constitution, but on our God given agency. It deprives the giver of the happiness and peace that comes from giving with free will, and the receiver of gratitude for the gift and replaces these feelings with resentment on the one hand and entitlement on the other. (Pointed out by Eric Wadsworth in one of his posts)

One last quote on the constitution and agency-

“The constitution was created “to promote the free and intelligent exercise of the “moral agency” that all possess, allowing them to freely choose between right and wrong, good and evil, truth and falsehood, virtue and sin. Forced obedience was the basis of Satan’s rejected amendment to the Father’s plan of salvation.”

Arvo Van Alstyne, “‘Just and Holy Principles’: An Examination of the U.S. Constitution,” Ensign, Aug 1987, 6

Another important idea to note is that the constitution is intended to be somewhat pliable. What I mean by this is that the wording is broad in scope and many times general. This makes it possible to still be relevant hundreds of years after it was written. The wording is used by lawmakers and judges in different branches in the government to be interpreted into law. An important idea is that of “precedent” or in other words “its been done before.” Many times in analyzing a law to see if it is constitutional you will hear people talk about whether or not its been done before as an important key as to whether not it should be done again. This idea is important to remember as relates to this bill. The question “Is it the end of the world if the government forces us to buy health insurance?” is debated by many, but I think that the really important question is “Are we setting a precedent?” We cannot afford to set the precedent of limited agency.

You may have heard people cite the quote from Joseph Smith about the Constitution hanging by a thread. He actually talked about it quite a few times, but here is how he said it once.

“Even this nation will be on the verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground and when the Constitution is on the brink of ruin this people will be the staff upon which the nation shall lean and they shall bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction.”

Is this THE event Joseph Smith prophesied of? Gospel according to Danielle- probably not, but that isn’t really the most important point. Here is the point.

“Since no particular time was given for fulfilling this prophecy, members of the Church have often wondered about its timing. The prophecy clearly indicates a single, identifiable episode yet to come. However, it is helpful for us to constantly be on guard against threats to the central elements of the Constitution. It is not wise to sit by and think that the protection of the Constitution is the problem of someone else at some other time. Thus, rather than simply wait for the one time when the Constitution shall hang by a thread, Latter-day Saints must continually be vigilant. Our commission to save the Constitution is, like salvation, a continuing task, and Church leaders have pointed out the tools available: analysis of constitutional principles, teaching the obligations as mature citizens, recognizing and resisting ideologies that threaten constitutional principles, and developing loyalty to principle rather than to men or parties.” D. Michael Stewart, “I Have a Question,” Ensign, June 1976, 64–65

You asked what Jesus would think, and so I am providing theological arguments, but more political arguments might include that it violates the 10^th amendment because the federal government has not been given the power to govern laws over health care and as the constitution states, any power not specifically named and given to the federal government remains in the hands of the states. There are many reasons that it is important for state governments to exercise this right. State governments are intended to be able to adapt to the needs of each state. Our country is so large that each state is very unique in every dimension from geographically to demographically speaking. Each state being able to make their own laws is also intended for the purpose of creating a testing ground for potential federal law. If a state law is a miserable failure, you can choose to move to a different state, but if a federal law is a miserable failure, it is obviously a more dire circumstance. Some say the federal government does have the right to exercise power in this case because of the commerce clause that states that the federal government has power to govern commerce “between several states”, however when you can’t even buy health insurance over state lines this doesn’t seem like the most valid argument. Even under the commerce clause it is “totally unprecedented” (Rudy Giuliani) for the government to be able to levy a tax because of commercial IN-action. (a tax for NOT purchasing private health insurance).

2. God does not encourage debt.

In a government by, for and of the people our government itself should be bound by the same expectation of financial prudence of those that it governs. We have been frequently and blatantly warned about the enslaving nature of debt. In the interest of being brief here are two examples of the Lords counsel and standard on the subject of debt.

“If there is any one thing that will bring peace and contentment into the human heart, and into the family, it is to live within our means. And if there is any one thing that is grinding and discouraging and disheartening, it is to have debts and obligations that one cannot meet.” Heber J Grant

Debt is bondage because “the borrower is [the] servant [of] the lender.” The Lord’s counsel on the subject is to “pay the debt … [and] release thyself from bondage.” James E. Faust

These quotes convey the fact that we are in bondage to those whom we are in debt to. In some of the research that I’ve collected recently I saw that roughly $3,689,000,000,000 (that is the correct number of zeros, count ‘em) of our debt belongs to foreigners the likes of which are China, Japan, UK, Brazil, Russia, and others. Translation…we have put ourselves in bondage to them. (the dollar figure is from the US department of Treasury web site.) This bill is estimated even by Obama to near 2 trillion dollars. Draw your own conclusion here.

This is an excerpt from an article I found in the Ensign on debt. It gives the six top reasons in common in the downfall of every great nation in recorded history.

“1. They lost their religious convictions and flouted basic morality.

“2. They became obsessed with sex.

“3. They debased their money of its intrinsic value and let inflation run rampant.

“4. Honest work ceased to be a virtue.

“5. Respect for law disintegrated and violence became an accepted method of achieving individual and group desires.

“6. Finally, citizens were no longer willing to be soldiers and fight for the defense of their nation and their heritage.” (Dr. Kenneth McFarland speech, ‘Bicentennial America’s Opportunity,’ given at Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, at the National Convention of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.)

“Brothers and sisters, will our modern nations be wise enough to escape similar destruction? Are we prepared to reverse the course of history? Through the exercise of our political rights and responsibilities, through community service, and through personal righteousness, we must free our nations from tyranny and from fiscal and moral bankruptcy to the extent of our ability.” J. Richard Clarke, “The Household of Faith,” Ensign, Nov 1980, 82

In other words, debt isn’t just “not good”, it has been a main contributing factor in the downfall of every major nation. We are not immune. History is to be learned from, not repeated. As we continually plunge our country into debt we by default “debase our money of intrinsic value” and continue to make ourselves more and more enslaved and vulnerable to those that we are indebted to.

3. Socialism is physically and spiritually crippling and enslaving in nature and we have been warned by modern day prophets not to fall into its lure.

“Socialists generally share the view that capitalism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital and derives its wealth through a system of exploitation. This in turn creates an unequal society that fails to provide equal opportunities for everyone to maximize their potential.” (Wikipedia…okay, not my best source but cut me a little slack)

Translation= those darned rich people need to do their civic duty and pay higher taxes so that I can have __________provided by the government ( you fill in the blank, but in this case health care). This is such a dangerous attitude! Here is what the leaders of the church have said on the subject of government dependence, sense of entitlement, and socialism.

“We must be careful not to adopt the commonly accepted practice of expecting the government or anyone other than ourselves to supply us with the necessities of life.”

“The practice of coveting and receiving unearned benefits has now become so fixed in our society Elections often turn on what the candidates promise to do for voters from government funds. This practice, if universally accepted and implemented in any society, will make slaves of its citizens. “We cannot afford to become wards of the government, even though we have a legal right to do so. It requires too great a sacrifice in self-respect and in political, temporal, and spiritual independence.” “Let us work for what we need. Let us be self-reliant and independent. Salvation can be obtained on no other principle. Salvation is an individual matter, and we must work out our own salvation, in temporal as well as in spiritual things.”

“We know that the day will come when “every man” shall share equally in the good things of earth, “according to his family, according to his circumstances and his wants and needs.” (D&C 51:3.) We also know that attaining such equality must await the time when all men willingly work to sustain themselves and, motivated by love for their fellowmen, liberally “impart” of their substance unto the poor and the needy, “according to the law of [the] gospel.” (D&C 104:18.) Marion G. Romney “‘In Mine Own Way’,” Ensign, Nov 1976, 123

“Our families may be corrupted by worldly trends and teachings unless we know how to use the book to expose and combat falsehoods in socialism, rationalism, etc.” Ezra Taft Benson, “The Book of Mormon Is the Word of God,” Ensign, Jan 1988, 3

The united order is nonpolitical. It is therefore totally unlike the various forms of socialism, which are political, both in theory and in practice. They are thus exposed to, and riddled by, the corruption which plagues and finally destroys all political governments which undertake to abridge man’s agency. Marion G. Romney, “The Purpose of Church Welfare Services,” Ensign, May 1977, 92

These quotes clearly demonstrate that the leaders of the church DO NOT approve of socialism, or government dependency.

If you are curious as to what the Lord would do about health care, look at the model that he already has in place for taking care of the welfare of his people. The church welfare system IS the perfect model. Even though on the most basic level it does take care of the immediate needs of the people it helps, that is not its goal. The goal is to "help people help themselves" as cliche as it sounds. We also have the perpetual education fund. Look at that good that provides for its beneficiaries. They receive loans from charitable donations to go to school. When they are done they pay the loan back so that someone else down the line can do the same. "On average, with the 2.7 years of education they are now receiving, they are increasing their income by three to four times."(Thomas S. Monson, “Welcome to Conference,” Ensign, May 2009, 4–6) What does that have to do with health care you say? Everything! We do NO good trying to make the poor rich by debasing the rich. How about letting the poor (uninsured) get rich on their very own merit??? Teach them how to fish!
What about people who are educated and have valuable job training and still not enough income to have health insurance? Honestly, that is where my family finds itself right now. Then the next step would be to let the free market work! I think that government over-involvement is the real cause of the symptom of a poor health care system (which despite that fact also happens to be THE BEST in the world!). Tell the government to mind its own business so that we can buy insurance from any company we want to and create competition. Let people be creative! Let people think for themselves! Let the entrepreneurial spirit flourish! There is a doctor in New York that charges people $80 a month (discounted for families) to be their doctor. He doesn't accept health insurance. For this fee he will take care of office visits, labs and simple inpatient procedures. At that point all you might really need would be catastrophic insurance. Translation? AFFORDABLE! NO GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION! No government intervention means NO TAX HIKES and NO MORE DEBT! If the government really wanted to get involved, give people tax breaks for doing things that help the system along, but that's it!

So my friend wrote a response to my last post and we agreed to post it here rather than in the comments area. Here it is.

I do not disagree with you on many of your points. There is however a couple of points I would like to point out.
First our constitution has been being held by a thread for quite some time, when I look back it started in George W. Bush’s years. (For others they may have seen earlier but I am young). Some of the first steps of the government taking too much power from the people are when the Senate gave Bush the power to declare war without the vote of Senate or blank checks – that was pretty scary. Another one which impacts our society greatly is No Child Left Behind. He took the power from the states and made it the Federal Government’s responsibility to dictate how States educate their students. If the State did not like it then they threatened to take away all federal funding; forcing the states to accept the regulation. This still continues in the current administration.
It is interesting to me that we have a society that believes that everyone is entitled to an education but not affordable healthcare. Do not get me wrong I do not think we should be forced to obtain healthcare or it should be government insurance. I just feel that everyone is should have access to affordable healthcare. For instance: my husband pays $240 a month for me to be on his health insurance that is more that 10% of what we make in a month with $1,000 premium before the insurance even kicks in plus a secondary insurance which he pays $200 month that doesn’t even cover a quarter of what the health insurance we pay for covers. Then the health insurance just raised my cost to $120 more a month for a total of $360 month just for me. Last year alone out of pocket cost at least $5000; with monthly payments, co pay and out of pocket costs we paid at least $11,860 in medical bills/insurance in one year is that not crazy. That is at least a third of our income paid just to medical bills and our family income is considered below poverty. I feel that the regulations on the health care system (which were loosened in Reagan’s years) need to be tightened (i.e. Insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and medical suppliers.) These companies are what are driving up the prices. Here is a link to an article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/business/24leonhardt.html that is very enlightening. Do I think that the new health care reform bill is perfect? No, I do think it is a step in the right direction giving every American the opportunity to obtain affordable health insurance.
Now let us address the topic of the over whelming amount of our deficit. President Bill Clinton left office in 2001 with a federal budget surplus of $127 billion. President George Bush ran a deficit of $319 billion in 2005. (Bloomberg 2001) While Bush was in office he pushed through tax cuts totaling $1.85 trillion and raised government spending 23 percent in his first four years in office to $2.29 trillion. And yet we re-elected Bush again for another 4 years which only drove our country further into the ground. Now how do we offset this spending? Let us set the record straight the Obama is not the only one guilty of big spending. Obama’s spending is trying to correct some of the mistakes made by the previous administrations policies. According to the Senate bi-partisan financial committee the health-care reform will actually in the long run decrease our deficit. “They've built a bill that Washington's toughest scorekeeper says will cut the deficit by more than a trillion dollars over 20 years.” (Newsweek http://www.newsweek.com/id/235246 )
We theoretically live in a country full of opportunities but in recent years the wealthy and government have choked out those who are not as fortunate. I do feel that I have a sense of entitlement only that my hard word work and education would eventually pay off. Do you not agree if you are a hard worker trying to obtain a piece of the American dream that you should at least have an opportunity to that? Look at the housing market this is due to regulations lifted and loosened on bank and mortgage companies. The big government and big business stealing the American dream from the average America so they can make a quick buck. So that the average hard working American cannot even by themselves a home today. This is a whole another topic I am not ready to dive into. I do not want to steal from the rich the same way I do not want the rich stealing from me. During Bush’s years do you know that the poor were taxed more than the rich, I mean that the rich had to pay less taxes on their income and investments that the average American had to pay out of their paychecks. What is backwards about this???? Some of Obama’s policies are to offset this inequality. I am not talking about socialism either. I can look at our government and society and see a type of feudalist economy. It is supposed to be a democracy , where all the people have a say in our government’s affairs. We as a people have lost this a long time ago. How do we get this back? I have yet to find a solution myself.
Now to address the question about what would Jesus do? I feel that Jesus would encourage everyone to have access to medical care and condemn those who could make this happen but do not because of greed. He would not force health care upon us because that is taking away our ‘free agency’. If you get a chance listen to my link on you tube where Glenn Beck, who is LDS, talks about the role of God and Government in our society. I agree with his description of what is going on. It is unfortunate that government has stepped in to try to force our society to be moral. Again this does interfere with our ‘free agency’ and we need to make sure that we are following God’s commandments. If you know my political views than you know that I am for LESS government and I am liberal and conservative in my views. I believe in a lot of what conservatives stand for but I do not think that I should force my views onto the next person. For example, I am very much against abortion but it is not my duty to judge or tell someone else that cannot have an abortion. They will have to answer to God and this is there ‘free agency’ acting. Now that I am on a tangent, let me refocus.
Let me quote Mark 10:21-25 “21Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.
22And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.
23And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!
24And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!
25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”
I am someone with little to give and I give greatly. So how come it is so hard someone with so much to give so little? For example does someone really need a $70,000 car or $30,000 Rolex or could they give that money to help the poor. I do not want to force people to make these choice and unfortunatley my political party is doing that but I feel Jesus would suggest them to give their riches to the poor. Again I am not here to judge I just wonder?
I do not think that God or Jesus promotes taking one and giving to another or forced wealth redistribution. I do think that they would want us to work together as a people to help support each other and make sure that we do not go without. Here is quote from Moses 7: 17-18 “17 The afear of the Lord was upon all nations, so great was the bglory of the Lord, which was upon his people. And the Lord blessed the cland, and they were blessed upon the mountains, and upon the high places, and did flourish.
18 And the Lord called his people aZION, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them. “
Now we as Latter Day Saints are supposed to be setting an example on how to be chartable, righteous, and loving. But we are fighting a reform that does not take away our rights but gives healthcare to those who cannot afford it who are less fortunate and making it affordable for others like you and me. Helping us live as one heart and one mind. Again I do not disagree with that are flaws in this health-care reform but it benefits us more that harms us. Let’s make the government wrong and show them that our base as people is God and not the government. That the only laws that we do need to follow are the commandments that the Lord has given us through revelation and in the scriptures. If we follow these laws and the government helps govern these laws then there would be no issues. The problem is there is so much greed that drives this country that people do not take the time to stop and think about the person next to them. They do not take time to think what is best for the whole as society or our country but that what is best for me. Is this the path of Jesus, I do not think so. I feel that Jesus is looking down on his people and weeping for his people, weeping for the cruel, unloving, uncharitable world that we are living in. I hope that I have not said too much. This a little of what I feel, I have lived a life that includes a variety paths, tirbualtions and circumstances than a normal indvidual. I base my opinions on my experiences and that of the Jesus’ words.