Wild-Eyed Christian Says Jesus Inspires His Public Policy Decisions

 Apparently, Jesus is in favor of the Healthcare Reform Bill and Dodd-Frank. Who knew?

"And so when I talk about our financial institutions playing by the same rules as folks on Main Street, when I talk about making sure insurance companies aren’t discriminating against those who are already sick, or making sure that unscrupulous lenders aren’t taking advantage of the most vulnerable among us, I do so because I genuinely believe it will make the economy stronger for everybody. But I also do it because I know that far too many neighbors in our country have been hurt and treated unfairly over the last few years, and I believe in God’s command to 'love thy neighbor as thyself.'"

Here's my problem: I'm fine with people living their life according to the Bible, the Torah, the Koran, or even The Essential Calvin & Hobbes Treasury. Whatever you want to be your personal guide in life is fine with me. However, your personal belief system is pretty much irrelevant to whether you should use the coercive power of government to come down on one side or other of a public policy debate.

When I see Obama invoking Christ to support his public policy position, he sounds like the folks on the other side of the aisle who invoke Christ in support of anti-gay marriage legislation. They both sound like buffoons.

Additionally, I'm pretty sure that Christ's teachings of caring for other people was supposed to be through charity and done voluntarily. I don't recall Jesus advocating for people a requirement that the wealthy people of Bethlehem pay more money to Caesar so Rome could implement a unified healthcare system and administratively deal with the issue under a single system.