Too Early For A Victory Lap
It's been reported that Hobby Lobby owns stock in companies that are involved with making birth control pills, providing insurance to cover the costs for abortions and god knows what else as part of mutual funds in their retirement programs offers its employees.
Yesterday, President Obama took what was reported as a victory lap for the start of the Affordable Care Act.
Whoa! If you live in Florida, the medicaid expansion is on hold and there are folks that won't get any benefit from the new law.
I think the position that the Hobby Lobby is in is at best ironic and at worst hypocritical.
It's quite possible that this may President Obama's "Mission Accomplished" moment. Unless the amount of money we spend on health care is reduced significantly, the health care system as we know it is still in trouble.
Yesterday, President Obama took what was reported as a victory lap for the start of the Affordable Care Act.
Whoa! If you live in Florida, the medicaid expansion is on hold and there are folks that won't get any benefit from the new law.
I think the position that the Hobby Lobby is in is at best ironic and at worst hypocritical.
It's quite possible that this may President Obama's "Mission Accomplished" moment. Unless the amount of money we spend on health care is reduced significantly, the health care system as we know it is still in trouble.
Hobby Lobby did not invest in abortion pill companies. The company that manages their 401k's have placed investments in pharmaceutical companies. Any person who works for a large corporation and is invested in company stock or 401K could be shown to be invested in something they disagree with. This is pointless.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that whoever manages their retirement plan didn't make them aware of the stock purchases. And my guess is that now that they ARE aware, the company will divest itself of that stock.
The article is a hit piece by a liberal rag that takes liberties with the facts.
Socially responsible investing cuts both ways. I agree with you regarding investment in 401K's. Our Church endowment probably owns or once owned stock in companies through investments in mutual funds that might cause UUs to think we are not living up to our principles. As I understand it the Hobby Lobby Company is family owned. Some folks don't agree with a lot of investment policies. Maybe they didn't realize the place they were putting themselves in, given the litigation. Or maybe they don't care and it's just part of doing business, in which case irony and hipocrisy may still apply. Again I don't think businesses qualify to invoke religious freedom as an argument wherever and whenever they feel like it.
ReplyDelete