Posted by
Steve on Saturday, September 26, 2009 11:53:12 AM
The latest outrage on the Obamacare debate is the requirement that everyone have Obamacare insurance. If you do not have Obamacare insurance you can be fined (taxed) $1900. If you do not pay the fine you can be charged with a misdemeanor and fined (taxed again) $25,000 or go to jail. Since Obamacare insurance is undoubtedly going to be more than the $1900 tax, you should not get Obamacare insurance. When they come after you, pay the $1900 fine (tax). But, do not purchase Obamacare insurance. That way you only pay a $1900 tax per year for no insurance instead of $4000 for insurance. But, always comply and pay the initial $1900 fine (tax) or you could be charged with a crime. You do not want that to go on your record, mainly because the next fine is really stiff and jail is no fun.
I am being sarcastic in the preceding paragraph. They would undoubtedly have some provision that would require compliance upon paying the $1900 fine (tax). The Republicans almost killed the requirement in committee, but Olympia Snowe (RINO – ME) came to the rescue and voted with the Democrats. You can always count on Olympia Snowe to come in and stab you in the back when you think you have a hard fought victory in the bag.
In this Obamacare debate, we are not starting at the right place. The debate always starts with the supposed agreement that we must “fix” our damaged healthcare system. We never start where we should start. That is: Should we “fix” the healthcare system at all? After all, we have the best healthcare system in the world. Thousands of people come here from socialist countries to get healthcare that is unavailable in their countries.
Everyone talks about how expensive healthcare is in this country. That is true that healthcare costs are out of control. But, even so, our healthcare costs are less than in any socialized medicine country and we get better medical care for that reduced cost. If you want the truth, the reason our healthcare costs are increasing as fast as they are is the government is too involved in the system. The fastest way to reduce our healthcare costs would be to reduce the government’s involvement in healthcare. Big government types would hate to see that last statement. They like socialized medicine as it gives government total control over the lives of every citizen in the country. Removing government from healthcare would promote freedom and individual responsibility. That is something a statist would hate to have happen. A statist wants a nanny state governing our lives from cradle to grave.
The other night, I was talking to some students before class. I made the statement that in general, less government is better than more government. In reading the “5000 year miracle” by Cleon Skousen, he said that the Founders were trying to find a balance between no government and total government. We have moved the ball far toward total government. We need to get the ball back toward the center of the chart. That means removing government involvement from a whole host of things. Ronald Reagan said it best when he said, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problems. Government is the problem.”
In looking at everything proposed by the Democrats and the Obama administration, their solution to every problem is to inject more government into a government caused problem. That will not solve anything. It will cause the problem to get worse. If government caused the problem in the first place, more government will not solve the problem. Less government will solve a problem of too much government involvement.
Glenn Beck said the other day that the older he gets the more Libertarian he gets. I feel the same way. I started out as a Democrat and became more conservative. So I became a Republican and a conservative. Now, I wonder about the big government Republicans that have so much power in the party. We need small government Republicans to lead the party. Then we can have the revolution that is long overdue in this country.