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Bully Pulpit

The term "bully pulpit" stems from President Theodore Roosevelt's reference to the White House as a "bully pulpit," meaning a terrific platform from which to persuasively advocate an agenda. Roosevelt often used the word "bully" as an adjective meaning superb/wonderful. The Bully Pulpit features news, reasoned discourse, opinion and some humor.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Obamacare’s Penalty for Not Buying Insurance Isn’t Penalty ‘Because Penalty is Punishment,’ Says Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee

(By Matt Cover, CNSNews.com) - Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D.-Texas) told the House Judiciary Committee yesterday that the “penalty” that the health-care law enacted last year by Congress imposes on individuals who do not buy health insurance is not in fact a penalty.

The law itself states: “If an applicable individual fails to meet the requirement of subsection (a) [having a government-approved health-insurance policy]… there is hereby imposed a penalty with respect to the individual.”

Elsewhere, in a section entitled “Payment of Penalty,” it says that individuals failing to carry a government-approved health insurance policy must pay a maximum penalty of $750.

In Rep. Jackson-Lee’s view, however, this language does not actually impose a penalty.

“I would make the argument, one, that instead it is an incentive to do right--that it is not penalizing because penalty is punishment,” Jackson-Lee told the Judiciary Committee.


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