Reply #104: It is not a mandate [View All]

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just as taxing smoking isn't a mandate not to smoke.

But if you are a middle class person making over 40,000 a year and you refuse to buy insurace yes (a very small percentage of the population, including myself that falls just outside of this credit), you will have a 2.5% tax increase. Tough luck, you are a burden on this system, just as a smoker, and just as a drinker is. Thats why we tax smokers and drinkers. You can try to pretend that I am an idiot but the bottom line is that this bill will help a lot more people than it will hurt. And I agree with you that this bill is not perfect, far from it. But when the CBO says that we will have 96% of the uninsured covered and there will be some kind of public option then I think that is a lot better than the status quo (not to mention all the other things this bill will do such as eliminate the anti-trust laws and outlaw pre-existing conditions).