Here is how Representative Marsha Blackburn explains the HHS Mandate debate:
Democrats have overreached in trying to make this an issue about access to contraception — which it is not — out of desperation. They are employing the politics of fear because they know the effect of the new mandate is that it will force religions to pay fines for freely practicing their faith and living the Gospel outside the brick walls of their respective churches.
When a religiously affiliated soup kitchen doesn’t meet HHS’s definition of being religious enough, it could be fined millions of dollars or be forced to stop serving the poor if it wants to stay true to deeply held religious beliefs.
This is just the latest example of the frightening concentration of power by big government. Who is HHS to define who is religious enough? Why does HHS get to take away our constitutional freedoms?
Do we really want to punish people who provide valuable services for our country? Why are we going to force, for example, the nuns in Nashville, Tenn., to sin in order to continue teaching children how to read?
Obama has set up a false choice that sets the stage for more big government to sweep in and take over. Government is forcing upon us a poisonous medicine whose effect is the crowding out of religious institutions from effectively serving the public. It’s a way of forcing religion underground so it can’t compete with a growing federal government.
Thank you, Congresswoman Blackburn! Please pass her clarity onto your representatives and any American voters you happen to know.