$1.3 trillion and counting…
Wow! I can’t conceive of anyone buying anything for $1.3 trillion. I can’t even imagine $1.3 trillion. America’s leadership has just managed to spend that much in one single 15 minute vote. They voted on a piece of legislation over 2,000 pages long they call healthcare reform. The promised goals are to insure all Americans, lower healthcare premiums and costs for those currently insured, ensure that people cannot lose their coverage if they get sick and that those with pre-existing conditions cannot be denied coverage. To do that, they find it necessary to create a massive new government bureaucracy to manage all aspects of this ambitious agenda. It is mind boggling, truly. They say that we will begin funding this gargantuan effort immediately but will not see a system in place for the next five years. Where will the money come from? We are already in debt, and many of our biggest companies and banking institutions are on life support with federal money propping it up. Unemployment reached 10.2% yesterday. Small businesses still can’t access credit to expand, or stay above water for that matter.
Would it not be cheaper to just cut anyone who wants health insurance a check which they can spend in any policy they want? If they want? Could we not expand and fund some of the entitlements we already have in place at both the federal and local levels to cover people that cannot afford healthcare? Can we not try to deregulate the industry so more companies can compete across state lines? Get the insurance agencies to compete fro your business, like those online banking commercials?
Whether they even come close to getting any of the results they promise with this bill is of no consequence, because they have already perfected the lines to defend their out-of-control spending spree — “Things would have been worse had we done nothing,” they’ll argue. So remember, when your healthcare costs continue to rise over the next few years, and you wonder why, they’ll let you know that you would be paying even more had healthcare reform not been passed in the historic vote of 2009. When you lose your job and cannot get another one, they’ll remind you that were it not for the fact that they extended unemployment benefits, you would be in worse shape. When unemployment continues to rise in the next few months, they’ll gloat that we are losing less jobs per month than we were when the recession began.
Unless people start getting more involved and angry about this massive power grab by government, we will continue to become more and more like Argentina – where the most corrupt hold all the cards and all the people can do is complain and fend for themselves. When faith in government and its institutions erodes, it affects everything – from people’s morale to their everyday choices. Social infrastructure begins to crumble, lack of respect for authority of any kind becomes commonplace, crime increases, and opportunities for prosperity begin to dwindle. The line between right and wrong becomes ever more confusing, cheating of every kind becomes more commonplace, and people become more focused on money. Where I come from, people try to supplement their income any way they can. It is very common to be on some kind of government aid while working for cash, trading services, or taking money under the table in various ways. This is particularly true of government workers at every level. There is more mistrust, and more pre-payment demands for goods and services. Credit becomes more expensive. And political change is much harder to achieve. Once the machine is in place, it is is almost impossible to move.
They were noble ideals, the ones on which this country is founded. Unfortunately, probably unsustainable in the long run, as the country grew, and the publicly educated masses become more interested in the immediacy of life in general than the long-term repercussions of their actions and their votes.
Brace yourself, America. It’s gonna be a rough ride.