There have been over 1200 waivers handed out for companies to avoid complying with parts of Obamacare, including waivers that cover over half a million labor union members — and fewer than 70,000 non-union workers.

Today it is being reported that 10 states are being granted waivers from certain provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act because they will not be able to have enough students proficient in math and reading by 2014. Did anyone think that a federal law would actually change student performance? Fox News quotes a government official who says that “28 other states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, ‘have indicated their intent to seek flexibility.'”

These companies and states are getting waivers because they can’t meet certain standards, or because the cost of complying with the rules are too high. These are all fine reasons, and I think the bar for a state or company to avoid a high-cost federal mandate should be fairly low. But none of these reasons has anything to do with a constitutionally-protected right (or at least not one that the Supreme Court has yet recognized).

Apparently, then, the only people who can’t get waivers are Catholic and other religious organizations whose objection to a rule is actually protected by the Constitution.

The Obama Administration is truly an anti-religion tyranny (and I say that as a non-religious non-Christian) with no understanding of or respect for fundamental American principles.

The only question left is whether the political heat to allow such organizations out of a requirement to provide their employees with birth control and other reproductive health care services through employer-purchased health insurance will be enough to get them to back down. At this point, it’s 50/50.