Breakin' the Law

Can you think of a law the Government pays you not to break?  There is no Non-Speeder Subsidy Program.  There are no grants provided to everyone who doesn't rob a bank.  You don't even get a tax credit for not killing your husband when he leaves the toilet seat up and the TP roll empty.  Complying with laws was just expected--and was not "rewarded" financially.

And then along came the Affordable Care Act and its Individual Mandate, which made it the "Law Of The Land" as President Obama likes to put it, that every American have health insurance coverage.  And in order to get people to comply with the new law, the ACA contained a new subsidy program (the cost of which still has not been released) that would help lower-income people--in effect, paying them--to comply with the law.

I was thinking about that yesterday as the press releases poured in from liberals like Mary Burke, Senator Tammy Baldwin and the group Citizen Action Wisconsin decrying the Department of Health Services report that 38,000 people who had been on BadgerCare before eligibility standards were changed did not purchase new policies through the Federal Exchange this year.  Those are 38-thousand people who were living above the poverty line--but who were still going to receive the largest Government subsidies to comply with the Individual Mandate.  Many of them likely just chose not to.

The folks that I just mention don't believe that it's the fault of those 38-thousand or so that they are now breaking the "Law Of The Land"--even though the Government is offering to pay them to comply.  They believe that it is Evil Governor Scott Walker's fault--for not paying them enough to comply with the law.  They continue to criticize the Governor for failing to take $200+Million from the Obama Administration to expand BadgerCare--so the real cost of the Affordable Care Act is eventually hidden in state budgets and not in the Federal budget.

Another thing I find interesting is that when 38-thousand people are convicted of Felony Drug Possession in Wisconsin, those same liberals and their support groups blame the statutes themselves--saying they are "bad laws" that need to be changed or thrown out so that there are fewer offenders needing to be punished.  Yet they will be the last people on Earth to ever suggest the ACA be changed so that there are "fewer offenders" of the law.

Meanwhile, I'll just sit here waiting for my big check for good behavior.