July 21, 2009 – It is truly impossible for someone to be a real Conservative and be in favor of Government Health Care.  Regardless of if you favor a so called “Single Payer” system or you want Socialized Medicine.  If you favor Obama Universal Health Care which is modeled after the now bankrupt (Only took seven months) Hawaiian program that was set up for children only, all of these programs are a disaster and only a Liberal will argue otherwise.

While I agree that there needs to be reform of some type, I also believe that those reforms must not dismantle our current system and they must be based in a free market solution.  In this article I will lay out my case against Government intervention, in another I will lay out Free Market solutions that I believe are a viable alternative.

Reasons why I oppose Government intervention:
1.  $12,000,000,000,000.00 National Debt and a $1,200,000,000,000.00 Federal Deficit in 2009:
In the most simple of terms, we cannot afford it.  The idea that Socialized Medicine will save us in the long run is simply false.  Eventually we will hit a point at which we cannot borrow any more money, we already can never pay this debt back so we are getting closer to that day.

2.  Profits fuel innovation:
Ever wonder why Liberals want to fund embryonic stem cell research when we have done amazing things with adult stem cells?  I mean there is no this giant push demanding US taxpayers fund adult stem cell research.  We have had great success with adult stem cells and there is not even a shred of research that shows that embryonic stem cells provide more promise than adult stem cells, in fact the opposite is true.  All George Bush ever said is that we would not use Federal tax dollars to fund embryonic stem cell research, nothing prevented private funds from being used.  Don’t you think if there was really a benefit, somebody looking to make a lot of money would have funded the research?  Of course they would have.

The fact is innovation is the result of somebody some where thinking, “Gee I can make a lot of money!”.  Look around you right now and I want you to pick five items that you can see that were developed and created by the Federal Government.  Now pick 20 things that you see were developed private industry and the desire of someone somewhere to make a lot of money.  The odds are you could not find five things, but the 20 came really easy.  That should be proof that this country was created not by the Government, but by the Free Market.

3.  The Government does little well.
I want you to drive around town today and take a good look at the road, now I want you to remember that the same Government that takes care of the roads wants to start handling your health care.

4.  The Government does nothing efficiently.
Our politicians pass laws and make promises to gain power with no thought as to the long term impact of those promises.

Now I want you to remember all of the times you have heard about Medicare fraud and then realize that ultimately what the Government wants is one giant Medicare program.  Finally, go get your last check stub or tax return and see how much money you pay into the Medicare system.  Now realize that as of 2005, Social Security, Medicare and the Medicare Prescription Drug Program represent a $46,400,000,000,000.00 unfunded liability.  What that means is these programs long term are going to cost us that amount and we simply don’t have the money to pay for them.

Our politicians raided the so called Social Security Trust Fund, it does not exist folks, there is a big IOU in it’s place and we cannot afford it.  In other words, our current social welfare programs are impossible to fund and the last thing we should do is give the government more to do because they have obviously failed in doing what they have already taken on.

5.  Without adding a single Federal Program since 2005, we have been on a collision course with a bleak future. (See the You Tube videos in the next post)
Unfortunately, our Federal Government is spending more money at a faster rate than any time in history and the creation of new Federal programs is happening at an almost dizzying rate.  Yet even without all of this we have been heading towards a point in 2040 when we will only be able to pay little more than the interest on the Federal Debt and some of the existing entitlement programs.  We are heading towards a financial apocalypse of mammoth proportions and that’s if we would have stopped spending in 2005.  The reality is we have likely brought that date closer to 2030.

Our Government is like the person who on their way to bankruptcy court buys a fleet of new sports cars.  The politicians of today only care about their power today, many of them figure that in another 20 or thirty years they will either be dead or too old to care which is why they are spending money and creating these programs today.  Now if you don’t care about your children and grand children, then feel free to support all of Obama’s fancy new social welfare programs.  Go ahead and believe him when he says we can just tax the rich to pay for it all or raise taxes on cigarettes, because you are just fooling yourself.

6.  Something cannot be both “Free” and “Unlimited”.
Next time you are in the local convenience store I want you to ask the clerk if the pennies in the little “Take a Penny” dish are free.  When he says “yes”, I want you to then demand 86,000 pennies.  I mean he said they were free, so that means they must be unlimited right?

Countries with Socialized medicine have politicians and bean counters not doctors deciding what care you should receive.  In America, our wallets make the decision but in Britain for example, even if you can pay for it they will not provide it.  America has the most fair system because if you work hard then you will have, if you do not then you will not.  But under socialized medicine you can be denied care which will hasten your death and then after you die they will take your money and use it to pay for someone cannot afford it.

7.  If the Government controls health care then they will ultimately control the wages of health care workers.
People sacrifice tens of thousands of dollars and work thousands of hours to become a doctor and part of what makes them do that is the money, take that away and we will just end up with more lawyers.  The fact is the Government will make the medical field a far less attractive place to work which will cause a shortage of doctors which will then cause a lowering of standards and ultimately bad doctors.  When there are a lot of doctors then only the good ones rise to the top, when there is a shortage the guy who squeaked through medical school and took all his exams drunk will end up as your surgeon.

8.  If the Government takes over health care, what happens to the millions of people who work in the Health Insurance industry?
There are millions of families who make their living off of working in the health insurance industry and if the Government destroys the industry, what will happen to them?  Do we really want to create another industry that through Government intervention has failed?  I mean the Government has taken a bad situation with the automakers and thrown trillions of our dollars at it and made it much worse.  Do we really want them “helping” the health insurance industry?

In closing…
Ultimately, the Government getting into Health Care has proven disastrous in the past with the failures of medicare/Medicaid and the Medicare Prescription Drug program, we just don’t see the disaster now…but it is out there.  The idea that our Government can run our Health Care system better or more efficiently is based on a fantasy.  I truly believe that people who support Government intervention are either bad at math, live in a fantasy world or actually want to destroy the United States.  If you want an America 20 or 30 years from now, you must fight national health care!

Does that mean we do nothing?  Of course not, but this is not the answer.  Coming soon is my solution for health care so check back often.

Written by the Disgruntled Truck Driver and Published at http://disgruntledtruckdriver.typepad.com

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