Earlier I penned a column where I cited a number of reasons why President Barack Obama should not be re-elected. I left out the issue that defined his presidency, though it was not excluded because of an oversight but due to the fact it merited more than just a passing mention.

That issue is the benignly-named Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known by its political colloquial name ObamaCare, a microcosm of this administration’s extremism on numerous fronts.

Expansion of Abortion

Pro-life Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak of Michigan introduced and passed an amendment to the national health care legislation that prevented the use of federal dollars to pay for abortions outside of the three standard exceptions (rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother).

The amendment was later taken out the bill and replaced with a pledge President Obama made to pro-life Democrats that he would issue an executive order that has the same effect of the removed amendment, though without the permanence of codification.

Can pro-lifers trust President Obama not to rescind his executive order?

The president’s shifting position on another major social issue provides a clue when Obama said he opposed same sex marriage as a candidate for the presidency before supporting it as a candidate for re-election.

And when considering the political debt Obama owes to rabid pro-abortion forces, it’s possible his executive order (13535) will be scrapped before the president delivers his second inaugural, if he is re-elected.

Lack of Transparency

Remember when candidate Obama promised on the campaign trail that the negotiations over his health care bill would be aired on CSPAN? Well that didn’t happen, despite requests by CSPAN that the bargaining over the massive health care legislation be broadcast on their network.

All of a sudden, speed mattered more than transparency and the negotiations to produce the ObamaCare legislation were run by congressional Democrats behind closed doors.

Too bad that ice cream truck Michael Moore rode around Capitol Hill broadcasting the Patriot Act’s language in Fahrenheit 9-11 wasn’t available for ironing out the details of ObamaCare.

Growth of the State

Beyond extending the federal government’s reach down to the citizen via the individual mandate and to small businesses, ObamaCare expands the size of the federal government with its price tag through 2021 projected to be $1.5 trillion.

Why so expensive? Under ObamaCare, Medicaid will cover an additional 16 million people, which will cost billions.

Policing the citizenry and businesses to ensure they are complying with the national health care law will require more government employees and a bigger federal bureaucracy.

War on Religious Institutions

ObamaCare mandates that all private insurance plans must cover women’s “preventive services”, without contribution from the policyholder. “Preventive services” is fairly generic and was exploited to provide for free birth control pills, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs.

The religious exemption clause was written so narrowly that it does not provide a waiver for most faith-based entities. For example, Catholic hospitals do not exclusively treat Catholic patients nor do Catholic charities just serve members of their own faith.

Religious organizations, in addition to those who do not consider drug-based birth control consistent their personal beliefs, are forced to pay for services and drugs that run counter to their tenets.

Imagine the government obligating a Muslim butcher to carry pork products to accommodate consumers who don’t feel like having to leave the neighborhood to purchase bacon.

ObamaCare represents a repugnant intrusion of religious institutions in which the state coerces people of faith to engage in actions that run counter to their beliefs. Roman Catholics and even atheists who embrace liberty ought to be outraged by this brazen bullying by the state.

I am convinced that this odious ObamaCare “detail” has nothing to do with ensuring broad access to birth control pills, but to demonstrate the omnipresent supremacy of the state.

Increased Tax Burdens

Under ObamaCare, most Americans are compelled to purchase health insurance. Failure to acquire approved health insurance results in being assessed the Individual Mandate Tax of $695 or 2.5% of household income. When people file their taxes to the IRS in 2014, they will also have to file a form disclosing whether they obtained Department of Health and Human Services blessed health insurance.

Those who have so-called Cadillac insurance plans, a pejorative/class warfare term for insurance with a high premium and thus covers more than standard insurance policies, will pay an astounding 40% tax on their plans.

And then there’s the Snooki Tax, a 10% excise tax on indoor tanning services. Those are just a few of the taxes loaded in the 2,700-page bill.

And the Biggest Joke of All

ObamaCare will result in an estimated 8,000,000 people with employer provided insurance being dropped from coverage as it will be cheaper for businesses with more than 50 employees to pay the Employer Mandate Tax than it will be to comply with what is deemed by the government to be acceptable insurance, accomplishing the complete opposite of expanding health insurance for Americans.

The 50 employee threshold also discourages companies from hiring additional people, thus providing a fiscal incentive to keep small businesses small. ObamaCare is bad for employees, business and job growth.

To Retain or Dismiss the Government That Can Give Anything and Take Everything

With its controversial reinterpretation of the president’s signature achievement, the Roberts Court has essentially put ObamaCare on the ballot for public approval with its namesake standing as its proxy.

Then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi infamously said “we have to pass a bill (ObamaCare) so we can see so that we can show you what it is and what it isn’t.”

And she wasn’t kidding since Pelosi requested that there be no public broadcast of ObamaCare’s final construction behind closed doors.

Now that ObamaCare is fact and we have been made aware what is in it, the burden is now on the voters to either accept the massive growth of the Leviathan and learn to conform to its expensive and intrusive mandates or start the process of unshackling our citizenry from this unconscionable arrangement between the state and the people.

The cost of ObamaCare is too great on our finances and our freedoms.

The only out for Americans who resent the increased role of the state in their lives, wallets, medical treatment and conscience is to repeal ObamaCare, which can only be accomplished by electing Mitt Romney president.