Hypocritical Health Care Debate: A Cautionary and Scary Tale

It's funny where our principles go when money is involved. Indeed, everyone does have their price. When the amount involved is trillions of dollars, everyone's principles are not only thrown out the window, they are stuffed in a burlap sack, weighted with rocks, driven to a rural railroad bridge, and unceremoniously dumped into a fast-flowing river. Everyone wants a slice of a trillion dollars. It's a heck of a lot of money. But nothing is free. This is my main issue with the current health care reform debate.

Everyone is clamoring for a slice of the trillion-dollar health reform pie. Everyone seems to have lost sight of how we are going to pay for it. Even if your slice is simply that you don't have decent health care now, but you'll have basic care after, how are you going to pay for it? Oh, that's right, you're getting something for nothing. We'll tax the rich to pay for it.

Kids, there aren't enough rich folks on the planet to cover the kind of money we're talking about. Even if you define rich as "you have a job and own a home," there aren't enough of those to pay for everyone's health care. And if you think the government has that kind of money, you're just plain dumb.

The government only has our money. If the government prints more magic money, supply and demand rears its ugly head and makes the dollar worth less. Then you're right back where you started because it doesn't matter how much money is available, prices will rise to eat that supply. That doctor's visit that used to cost $100 now costs $200, but you still think it's not your money so you're happy.

The funniest thing I've seen yet
Liberal people pushing health care reform crack me the hell up. These are the same people who used to shout, "Keep the government away from my body!" It made perfect sense to them when they thought anti-abortionist might overturn Roe v Wade. When they thought their right to an abortion was threatened, they wanted no part of government controls.

Now, those same people are shouting down the exact same concerns voiced by those who understand the economics of the proposed plans. Conservatives and Libertarians alike are saying, "Keep the government away from me and my doctor and while you're at it, keep them out of my wallet!" The starry eyed Obamatons just shake their heads and tells us, "Lie back and relax. It will only hurt for a second. Then you'll enjoy it." Well, there's is a trillion-dollar pie involved and who doesn't like pie?

The hypocrisy astounds me. If the government wasn't good enough and smart enough to debate abortion, why suddenly is this same government (I don't care who is currently in power; it's still the same government) smart enough to handle the entire health care system? If you didn't trust them to decide what you can and can not do with your womb, why are you suddenly willing to give them your heart, liver, and spleen?

If you do want to argue that this is a new government, that Barack Obama and the Democrats have all the answers, that their compassion and concern will carry the day, think about this: they won't be there forever. You may feel good about turning your body over to this administration, but there will be other elections.

One day, there may be *gasp* another Republican president. If somehow, simultaneously there is *gulp* a Republican majority in Congress, what's to keep those crazy conservatives from taking the new precious health care system over towards their own ends? Once you give your body and soul to Washington, you'll never get it back.