Politics and Insights from History

“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 Can anyone name a government program that was repealed?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.

Everyday we are told that we need health care reform. Obama claims that the nation’s health care system needs to be overhauled and that he is the one to do it. Obama, Liberals and Democrats, the major media, and nearly every American believes that the health care system in this country is broken. People are told every day that if nothing is done, if the government doesn’t do something, then health care in America will vanish. People will not have access to medicine. The country will go bankrupt.

The truth, however, is that all of this is nothing more than fear mongering. Obama and his liberal friends want you to be frightened of losing your current health care coverage so that you will go along with their solution. The thing is, the solution being offered is the cause of the problem.

Obama claims that about 46 million Americans are not insured. No one bothers to ask why they have no insurance. It is assumed that these people want insurance but are unable to afford it or get it from an employer. The fact is that approximately 17.6 million of these 46 earn $50,000 or more a year and about 10 million earn more than $75,000 a year. People who earn this much tend to pay for their health care out of pocket. Therefore, they do not need insurance. Basically about 38% of these 46 million who are uninsured earn enough money to afford it, but choose not to have it. This 46 million uninsured is a number thrown around by politicians, Obama, and the media to gain sympathy from you.

The population of the United States is roughly 300 billion. The fact that 46 million people might not have health insurance is the least of our problems. The majority of Americans have health insurance whether it is through their employer, a private insurance company, or the government. There are a variety of reasons for why individuals do not have insurance. Affordability is at the bottom of the list. Most people do not carry health insurance for two reasons: they do not want it, or they don’t need it.

But here is a fact no one bothers to mention. Every American has access to health care. A person is never denied access to a doctor or a medical procedure because they don’t have insurance. The difference is, they pay for it directly out of their own pocket instead of waiting for a third party to cover the cost from money that they sent in over a period of time.

Whenever we purchase items from a store we pay for it directly right then and there. Why should medical care be any different? When you pay for medical care directly, you only pay for what you use and pay less than what you would through an insurance company or if you relied on the government. You are ultimately responsible for paying for your health care. It is your responsibility to go to the doctor when needed and then pay for it. It has never been the government’s responsibility to cover your medical costs. Such measures violate the U.S. Constitution and degrade individuals. It also robs us of you of your liberty.

Obama claims that universal health care will bring competitiveness to private insurance companies. This is a blatant lie. In every country that has had socialized medicine the private sector was destroyed, leaving people with only one option: the government’s program. The private sector has never been able to compete with the government. The private sector depends upon profit to stay in business. When the government steps in and says “free” the private sector disappears.

Obama claims that rising health care costs caused the deficit. Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that this is absurd. What about the $700 billion stimulus bill that he passed back in January? How about the amount of spending that the government does every year with no regard for the fact that they do not have the money? How about all of the pork barrel spending that is snuck through on every bill that goes through Congress? All of this caused and adds to the deficit. If Congress and our current president cannot control their spending, the deficit will never get paid off, despite current health care costs.

The fact is, our nation is bankrupt. We have no money. The value of the dollar continues to fall. As a nation we continue to borrow more from China to pay for all of Congress’ spending. The two government run health insurance plans in this country are bankrupt. How can we as a nation afford a single payer system like what Canada has? We can’t.

People believe that Obama is pushing health care reform because he cares about them. Obama, like all politicians, does not care about anyone but himself. He doesn’t care about you or the fact that people are without health insurance. Obama sees this as an opportunity to seize more power and he is using it. If our Congress, and if Obama really cared about the people’s access and ability to pay for health care, they would be pushing for less government involvement. They would be pushing for an end to Medicare, an end to Medicaid, and for deregulation of the health care sector.

Here is another question: why are we moving towards universal health care when the countries that already have it are moving towards privatized medicine? We have had Medicare and Medicaid for about forty years. In that time they proved that government run health care does not work. Why is our government expanding these programs instead of getting rid of them?

In short there are five reason to ditch Universal healthcare in all of its forms:

1. Government run health care is unconstitutional

2. Government run health care does not work.

3. Government run health care drives up the cost of medicine and limits access

4. Countries with it are moving away from it.

5. This is the United States of America not Europe. It is time that we quit emulating Europe and be Americans with American innovations and American solutions.

This country was built by people who were fiercely independent, did not rely on the government for anything, solved their own problems, and did not bitch, whine or complain when things were not fair. They told the government where to stick. It’s time we do it again.