Episode 195: More Religious Tests / Bernie’s Medicare For All

I have yet another example (well, 2, actually) of Democrats trying to apply a religious test to someone trying to work in government. More and more Democrats are getting comfortable with this.

Bernie Sanders has decided to introduce a bill to create Medicaid for all. Because a system that is losing money hand over fist, pays  out less than private insurance, and is losing doctors all the time is just what we need to “fix” the health care system.

Or not.

And you can still donate to The Salvation Army for hurricane Harvey and Irma relief. Details here.

Mentioned links:

No Religious Test Clause [Wikipedia]

Episode 181: Cuts to Sex-Ed in Schools, and A New Religious Test for Government Work [previous episode of “Consider This!”]

Did Durbin and Feinstein Impose a Religious Test for Office?

Feinstein w/Barrett; 9-7-2017 [Video of questioning]

Dick Durbin Appears to Illegally Grill Trump Judicial Nominee Over Her Religion [Video of questioning]

Sanders Wants ‘Medicare For All.’ Here Are 8 Reasons That’s Dumb.

Medicare for All is becoming the new litmus test for Democratic presidential hopefuls.

Show transcript

In the United States Constitution, Article 6 section 3, includes this clause, “…no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” The England that the colonists had come from did have such religious tests, mainly to allow only members of the Church of England to hold public office. The colonists saw that these sorts of tests tended to corrupt both the church and the state, so they prohibited the use of religious tests.

It seems, however, that Democrats these days are more than happy to impose anti-religious tests on administrative appointees. I don’t mean that they’re trying to make sure that only atheists get into office, only that they will hold you to a higher level of scrutiny if you take your religion too seriously.

If you’re getting a sense of déjà vu, that’s OK. It’s not a glitch in The Matrix. I gave this same bit of background information in episode 181, a little over 2 months ago. At that time, Bernie Sanders decided that a Christian, who had written an article affirming a Christian doctrine that had been around for 2000 years, was unfit to crunch numbers in the Office of Management and Budget. You should really go back and listen to that first. If you can’t find it in your podcast app, there’s a link in the show notes on the website, and you can play it from there.

It seems that Sanders has decided that one’s religion might be a disqualification for being a civil servant. While Democrats have not made this qualification official, which would actually be unconstitutional, they have made it a de facto standard. “Now wait,” you may be saying, “Sanders isn’t the whole Democratic Party!” Correct. He is, however, the one who got his foot in this particular door. The latest example comes from Senators Diane Feinstein and Dick Durbin.

Law professor Amy Barrett was nominated for a federal judge posit...