NOBAMA! KEEP THE CHANGE!
I believe the reason for our country’s success has been the American people, not the American government. The founding fathers and the divine documents that they founded this country on, instilled power, liberty, and freedom for the individual. Our success has come from our freedoms. In particular liberal economic freedoms and a principal belief in the free market system and capitalism have led us to become the most prosperous nation in the history of humankind.
At first glance, Obama’s health care plan seems to be some wonderful magical program. Everyone has health insurance! The average American’s premium goes down by $2500 per year (according to his campaign speeches). It’s wonderful; everyone has free or affordable health care! The truth is far from the rosy picture that Obama is painting.
Competition is what drives the quality of our goods and services. Without compensation and profit incentives there is no reason to produce better products. There is also no incentive for cost reduction for consumers. What results from government run anything is a bloated, wasteful, inefficient, bureaucracy. Rationing of government made goods is inevitable just like government rationing of services such as social security and immigration. Walk into any government agency from the DMV to Social Security, and take a number. The time you wait is determined by the priority of your visit. Of course waiting in line at the Post Office or the DMV in an inconvenience we have come to learn to accept. Now imagine going to a government run clinic. Waiting on a heart transplant may turn to be fatal.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the total cost of Obama’s health care plan will be over $1 trillion and that it won’t bring the costs of health care down. Wait, I know what you’re thinking, “It won’t bring the costs down!?” That’s right, it absolutely will not. Remember Obama’s campaign promises to lower our premiums by $2500.00?! Did he lie to us… pull some number out of his @ss? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!? THE CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE SAYS IT WILL NOT LOWER THE COST OF HEALTH CARE!...Which brings me to my central point. Americans are most concerned with the cost of health care, not the uninsured or some government utopian run universal health care system. The facts speak for themselves. Most people are happy with their current health care program. Rasmussen polls show that by a margin of 3:1, when Americans’ were asked what their number one concern with health care was, CONCERN IS WITH COSTS, not the lack of universal coverage! 61% to 21%
One of the figures that politicians and especially Obama love to throw out is the 46 million uninsured Americans. Obama gets this figure from the U.S. Census Bureau. This number is very inaccurate. Let me start to tear is apart. By the U.S. Census’ own confession, an estimated 10 million illegal aliens make up the 46 million total. So under Obama we will use tax dollars to provide health care for people who aren’t even suppose to be here. Talk about more incentives for illegal immigration. Now that we have the figure down to 36 million, it’s very important we know how this figure is measured. Who the hec makes up this figure? Is it people who have not had insurance for a day, a month, a year? The figure is simply a snapshot of time. At the moment the figure is compiled, that’s how many people currently do not have insurance. It fails to take into account frictional unemployment. The reality is that we have no idea how many of these so called uninsured are simply in a transitory phase and at the time don’t have their health care benefits. The 46 million are never the same people (except for the illegal aliens). 18.3 million of the uninsured are under 34. They decide they’re young and healthy and opt not to have health insurance. So under Obama’s plan we’re going to tax people (don’t worry they’re those nasty evil rich people.. I’ll get to why this idea is b.s. a little later) and force health insurance on people who do not want it. Oh it gets better! We’re going to fine those people who decide not to have health insurance for whatever reason $2500!!! WHAT?!?1 I AM GRINDING MY TEETH AS I WRITE THIS! IS THIS GUY INSANE?! Luckily the American people are waking up this populist bull ish. NO INDIVIDUAL SHOULD BE FINED BY THE GOVERNMENT IF THEY ELECT NOT TO PURCHASE HEALTH INSURANCE! NOW WHY SHOULD ANYONE BE TAXED TO HELP PAY FOR SOMEONE’S HEALTH INSURANCE WHO DOES NOT WANT IT IN THE FIRST PLACE?!
I would like to now move on to the ridiculous notion that American health care is somehow lagging. The U.S. has the best health care in the world. We have the best doctors, the most innovative technology, the most advanced procedures, and the best medicines. People from all over the world come here to be doctors and to have the top health care. There is no problem with health care in America. We have one of the highest life expectancies in the world even though our diet is the worst. To prove this point only………. are you ready for this? 8% of the total population with or without health insurance ranks their health care as poor. 70% of Americans rank their health coverage as good or excellent. 23% rank their coverage as fair. So you have at least 92% of Americans that have no problem with their health coverage. Once again, the main concern for Americans is not the quality of their health care, but the costs of health care. Nothing in Obama’s plan is going to reduce the costs. The Congressional Budget Office says his plan is actually going to increase the cost! 3:1 say their main concern is cost vs. the lack of universal health care. If Obama is going to have some government run health care program it has to address the issue of cost which it does not. Obama is not going to be able change the behavior of bureaucratic government sloths, doctors, or insurance companies. As long as we continue to develop state of the art technology, more expensive drugs, and more innovative procedures, the costs are going to continue to rise. Health care is much more sophisticated than it was 40 years ago. Just like the prices of cars have increased even adjusting for inflation over the years, so has health care. The main driving force is technology and the scientific advances that are costly. We expect the best heath care yet we don’t seem to want to pay for it. We can’t have our cake and eat it to. If wee keep pushing our life expectancy and demanding the best medicine available, costs are going to continue to rise. Once the magic of science happens and some new procedure comes out, we all feel entitled to it. There is no government scheme that will equalize coverage for everyone. It is absolutely impossible. You can regulate and nip and cut here and there, but you will never lower the costs of innovative health care. Innovative health care costs money! The government won’t talk about it of course because it defeats the purpose of their entire existence. People are living longer as well. Baby boomers could bankrupt the nation.
Obama’s idea for coming up with the costs of this failed program are to tax the rich. Taxing the rich is nothing new. It’s the battle cry of the Democratic Party. 1.4% of American taxpayers pay 45.2% of the total income tax already! Now with state budget crisis (ironic the states in trouble are the blue states) the “rich” are paying over 50% in taxes. When will it ever be enough??! 60% 70%??!?! The knee jerk Democrat reaction is to tax the rich.
People were against the auto bailouts, against the bank bailouts, against greenhouse tax cap and trade, against this health care system. The majority of the public is not as far left as the congress and the president are right now. Democrats defeated an amendment that would leave the illegal aliens out of this. What really is troubling me is that we are in the most serious recession in a generation and this administration seems bound and determined to make exactly the same mistakes that Hebert Hoover made that turned the depression of 1929 into the depression of the 1930’s You ask any economist what were the biggest mistakes. The first answer he’ll give you is the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act that was a tax on about 20,000 imported products. The Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade tax is the same kind of tax on an infinitely larger number of domestic products on a scale that utterly dwarfs Smoot-Hawley. This measure will be financed with a massive increase on upper income tax brackets. Well guess what?!?!? That’s exactly what Herbert Hoover did in 1932 with Emergency Relief and Construction Act! It increased the marginal tax rate from 25% to 65%. This measure in most states will increase income taxes in combination with the state taxes to well over 50% So the two biggest mistakes that Herbert Hoover made into turning the recession into the depression, this administration has now embarked upon.
He promised that the economic stimulus would hold unemployment to 8%. It’s now 9.5%, 11.5 % in Cali. Obama announced he wants to make Cali a model for the nation!!!! A model for what, Fiscal incompetence??!?! He was referring to the cap and trade tax. We heard the same promises from Schwarzenegger when they imposed AB-32 in 2006. It was going to create this new explosion of green jobs and nothing happened! That’s when we went from the national average in unemployment to two points above the average unemployment rate!!!!!!!!! Raise taxes in the middle of a deep recession? Should we taxing anyone in this county at a marginal rate of 54%? At what point is it unfair? At what point is it wrong to grab 54 cents out of every dollar right off the top!?!?.
I would like to now present a recent radio conversation between a caller and John and Ken: (KFI AM 640)
Caller: Just like the government gives us a lot of other things like public schools because they need us to be educated, this is a necessity it’s not a luxury. And I feel they should pay for this also.
John and Ken: Who should pay for it?
Caller: The government!
John and ken: Well, the government has to get money from somewhere.
Caller: Ok and we all pay taxes. It’s a necessity! You think we want this?
John and ken: You’re looking at a 54% tax rate on some people here in California.
Caller: You don’t think I wish I could be the one paying that 54% tax? I just can’t make that much money.
John and Ken: 54% and you think the government is going to run this efficiently? You just mentioned the school system. 50% of the students drop out in the Los Angeles school system. So why do you have faith in the government?
Caller: OK I understand what you’re saying about that but they…
John and Ken: NO NO NO! This is a central point. Why do you have faith that this is going to work considering it’s going to plunge us so much deeper into debt?
Caller: Because President Obama is going to change that and I think….
John and Ken: How’s he going to change that? How is he going to change the collective work habits and intelligence of a government that fails in so many other ways? How can he do that?
Caller: OK that’s something else.
John and Ken: No that’s not something else! That’s it.
Caller: The same way the government gives us schools because they want us to be educated.
John and Ken: And the public schools are terrible. Absolutely terrible. Again you look at Los Angles Unified. Government schools. 50% drop out rate.
Caller: You guys are looking at health care as a luxury. It’s a necessity
John and Ken: It’s a necessity and everyone is entitled to it even if they abuse their bodies for decades. They’re entitled to my money? So they can get the greatest health care on the planet? Why are they entitled to it if they spent years abusing their bodies? What’s’ the fairness in that?
Caller: There’s always going be those types of situations so why. So why are they providing public schools to everyone? Why are they…
John and Ken: That’s a good question. Why are they providing it if they’re failing so badly in education?
Caller: You need to have educated people in a society.
John and Ken: But they’re not educated. They’re dropping out at a 50% rate. So your premise is all wrong. They’re not getting educated. They’re dropping out.
Caller: Well bottom line is it helps the entire economy and society to have healthy people. All these people in nursing homes and the health care industry that are making a lot of money.
John and Ken: Does it benefit society to spend enormous amounts of money on people in the final months of their lives in their 80’s. How does that benefit anybody?
Callers: You keep on bringing up little examples.
John and Ken: No. They’re huge examples!
John and Ken: Government entitlements like Social Security and Medicare are absolutely bankrupting the country and this guy comes on and says lets just add health care and health insurance right on top of that; another government mandate. Where does the trust come from? Where does the belief come from? I don’t understand it. I think were a country that was built more on private business and the ability to grow and entrepreneurship than we are on the government paying for things.
FAQ
Those of us who have health insurance won’t be affected right?
WRONG! Ultimately we will be! The reason is the federal government is setting up its own health care plan to compete with the private sector. Now what happens in that case is that they’re taking our tax money (and one of the proposals is to actually tax the health benefits of everyone else to help pay for this) and running up the cost of private heath care insurance and dipping deeper into our pockets as tax payers to subsidize the federal plan and drive all of the private insurance carriers out of business. As your taxes go up and as surcharges go up, your private health insurance will go up as well. We’re seeing the same thing right now with the government takeover of the automobile industry. Using our tax money, the federal government is basically subsidizing 0% loans for GM and they’re starting to drive Ford under.
How can they sell us a program that is not going to save us money?
When the Congressional Budget Office says the opposite, that it’s going to drive us deeper into debt, it’s a lie really. It’s a grand lie isn’t it? One of the biggest takeovers of private industry by the federal government and it’s based on a grand lie that it’s going to reduce costs. Don’t forget what Ronald Reagan warned us. “If you get into bed with government be prepared for something more than a good night’s sleep.”
Is there an alternative plan?
Yes. The Republicans have an alternative which is to take the same tax advantages and same tax benefits that we currently give to employers to buy health care for their employees and to provide those benefits to the employees themselves with vouchers that will bring within the reach of every American family a health plan that they could select according to their own needs that they could change if it failed to meet their need that they wouldn’t need to worry about who their employer is. Interestingly enough the bureaucratized plan that Obama is pushing is conservatively estimated at about $100 billion a year. Providing vouchers to bring within the reach of every family a health plan they can control is about 55 billion, or about half of what the bureaucratic plan would cost. According to the Democrats’ own admissions it will cost about half.
