Ronald Reagan was Right
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010“A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.” Ronald Reagan said these words in his 1964 speech at the Republican National Convention.
Never before have these words been more true. Can anyone name a government program that was repealed? Probably not. But I am certain that you can name government programs that are still in effect and are bankrupting this nation. And yet, Congress continues to fund them and pass more.
For those of you who hate conservatives, have we ever been wrong concerning the growth of government? In a 1961 address, Ronald Reagan warned that medicine was a way for the government to inch its way into our lives. Ask yourself this: after the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, did the government ever stop meddling in medicine? Since 1965 Congress routinely passed amendments to Medicare and Medicaid, or established new programs altogether. Funding for both programs increases each year because as always happens, the government underestimated the cost. In 1965, when Medicare was signed into law, the public was promised that funding for Medicare would not reach $9 billion until 1990. In 1990, the U.S. government spent more than $66 billion on Medicare alone.
In 1997 SCHIP—health insurance for children—(also known as CHIP) was passed. In 2009 President Obama expanded the program. Those who stood against it were labeled as insensitive and uncaring. Isn’t it uncaring for a government to force people into dependency? No decent human being desires to harm children; that is why progressives use them as a means to expand their big government agenda. But why is the government needed to provide health insurance to children? What happened to the economy to make it where parents can no longer afford medical care for their kids? The answer is simple. The government overtaxes, overspends, and over regulates thus weakening the economy by destroying the value of the dollar, lessening consumer buying power, and destroying our liberty.
In March of 2010 Congress passed the Health Care reform Bill. President Obama giddily signed it into law. Even now Congress is discussing amendments to this bill. This bill was supposed to solve all of our woes concerning health care. If that is the case, then why is Congress drafting amendments for it before it has even gone into effect?
Do not let the name of the bill fool you. This health care bill will do nothing to reform the health care industry, but it will destroy it by complicating it. This bill expanded government well beyond the confines of the constitution. For the first time Congress has mandated the purchase of a commodity. This bill introduces new taxes and regulations that will further limit the freedom of patients to choose their doctors and the care they receive. It also limits the freedom of doctors to choose their patients.
The bill sets the stage for a single payer system by mandating the purchase and provision of health insurance. The exchanges that the bill establishes will kill competition and force insurance companies out of business. The government sets the rules for these exchanges. Insurance companies are to provide the same benefits at roughly the same cost. People will end up with the same benefits packages regardless of their needs: whether sick or healthy, single or married, young or old, man or woman. Insurance companies will be banned from denying coverage and dropping coverage. Being forced to provide a set standard of benefits for everyone will result in higher costs. Insurance companies will be hard pressed to meet these costs forcing them to close their business. This will make it difficult for people to comply with the insurance mandate, thus leaving the door open for the government to step in as our “savior”. The federal government will do one of three things:
1. Bailing out insurance companies, thereby indirectly taking them over and giving us the illusion that they are still independent.
2. Step in with a Public Option and slowly choke out insurance companies.
3. Declaring a National Emergency where the government proclaims that they must take over health insurance companies for the public good.
Whatever course of action the federal government chooses will ultimately close insurance companies permanently leaving us with what Washington offers. After all, what business can compete with an entity that has the power to support itself with taxes?
Reagan warned of government’s slow encroachment upon our lives. The health care sector is just one area that the government has seized control. With the passage of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act the feds took over the auto industry and the banks. They even tried taking over the individual states with the bailouts that were listed in the bill. The Financial Reform Bill of 2010 allows the government to control the financial industry. This is all done for our protection, or so they claim. But who protects the people from a government that insists on owning everything within the economy? When will we the people stop listening to the politicians in Washington and starting listening to common sense?
It is time for us, the American people, to stop looking to the government for solutions to our problems. Government is never a solution. But it is always a problem. The Founders understood this. That is why they wrote the Constitution in a way that limits the federal government’s power. These “negative rights”, as President Obama put it, are to prevent the government from becoming tyrannical. But one thing is certain: the day we stopped abiding by the U.S. Constitution was the day we signed the death warrant for the Republic. When the American people allowed progressives to step in with government programs so as to “save” them, they were inviting government to run their lives.