Courtney McGrailDear Editor, John Mangan (IC, Letters, 19/03/2015) defends Barack Obama, citing his policies and laws towards the poor and the underprivileged, particularly in the arena of healthcare and immigration. I can’t guess Mr Obama’s intentions, but it’s important to draw the distinction between the free exercise of charity and government mandated socialist policy. The motivations for the latter are often muddied by political ambition.
The liberalisation of immigration policy can be a populous tactic for securing party support and is unjust to those immigrants who got to the US by legal means. While many see the Affordable Healthcare Act also known as Obamacare as an unholy alliance between big government and private health insurers, by no means beneficial to all Americans, it as much to the disadvantage to those who already have insurance, as those it seeks to provide coverage for. Further, the Obama administration has used this act as a cudgel to subdue the Church. For example, the Little Sisters of the Poor were taken to court, merely for not wanting to pay for contraception and abortifiacients under this new mandate.
Finally, even if these initiatives were done under the pure Christian motives Mr Mangan imputes to Obama, they would not, I think, absolve him of his relentless support of abortion up to birth and even beyond it.
Yours etc.,
Mark C. Hickey,
Sandymount, Dublin 4.