"Shared responsibility" = Socialism

Democratic Senators Kennedy and Dodd have taken time out from making "waitress sandwiches" to proudly announce that their dream health care legislation will involve forcing every American (meaning only those who actually make a decent living, of course) to buy health insurance whether they wish to or not, and that they plan on fining those peasants who refuse to play the game $1,000 or more:

"Called “shared responsibility payments,” the fines would be set at least at half the cost of basic medical coverage, according to the legislation. The goal is to nudge people to sign up for coverage when they are healthy, not wait until they get sick."

"Nudging" isn't usually done at gunpoint, with the promise of jail time for those who don't acquiesce. We guess that's just more of the wonderful hope and change we've been showered with lately.

This wonderful plan basically means that a given peasant will be forced to purchase a service they may have zero interest in receiving, solely to finance giving that same service away to someone else for free,

"The government would provide subsidies for the poor and many middle-class families, but those who still refuse to sign up would face penalties."

and that poor peasant will be heavily fined should they refuse to participate, in order to end up making them pay for this Ponzi scheme anyway (think it isn't? Seen the frightening projections for Medicare lately?).

We state again: We will not participate in a socialized medicine program, nor will we pay any fines levied against us for failing to do so. We don't need anyone else to "share responsibility" for our lives.