I woke up today to a different America; one in which the relationship between citizen and government are profoundly different.
One of my oldest liberal friends asked on facebook where all the anger was coming from. It's just health insurance, she said. She compared this health reform bill to Social Security and Medicare, as the Democrats and the President have been doing for quite some time.
The very comparison can explain some of the anger; both Social Security and Medicare had pipartisan support and large public support by the time it passed. The only thing bipartisan about this bill is the opposition. Think about that for a moment. Democrats and Republicans both stood against it and yet it passed.
Contrast that to one of the most disturbing images I've seen in a while; the phalanx of Democrats headed by Nancy Pelosi tightly gripping a large, ceremonial hammer, a fixed grin in place, as they forced their way past ordinary Americans, who were begging them not to pass the bill, who had kneeled in the grass, who had turned out, over and over again to protest this bill and had turned out one last time. The majority of the American people stood against this bill and it passed.
If this were merely about health insurance, then of course the intensity appears out of place. Clearly this is about more than health insurance, it's about the mother of all culture wars. It highlights the difference between those Americans who still stand along with Thomas Jefferson-
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," and those who say-
"We hold these truths as they are taught to us, that all men are created equal and should have equally, that we are endowed by our Government with certain Rights, among which are Wages, Housing and Affordable Health Insurance."
But why not have both, both unalienable rights and equal things? Because in order for the government to ensure that everyone has equal things, like afforable health insurance, they have to take from people who have and give to people who don't. By giving the government the power to bestow, we have also given it the authority to take. We have traded our liberty for things.
When Social Security and Medicare were put in place, the political landscape was very different from today. Government programs, especially in the case of SS, were a novelty. Today, they clutter the entire landscape. Government is involved in almost everything we do, it oversees almost every endeavour and takes money from us at every turn. We are reaching that point where what the Government is taking from us is overwhelming what good we can see in return.
Do I want people to have access to good care? Of course I do. Am I just fine with the fact that some people go bancrupt because they get cancer or some other disease? Of course not. I'm not a monster.
I've been thinking about this for a couple of days; why it appears so easy to be liberal. They're easy positions to take.
Who wants to save the Earth, for example? What, everybody?
What if in order to save the Earth, you'll have to pay ten to twenty percent higher energy bills? What if the science isn't settled and the Earth might be simply in a natural swing, one which dwarfs the effect humanity has on it? What if cap and trade bills have failed already in Europe and are ready made for political corruption?
But we all still want to save the Earth; we all live here.
We all want life to be fair, but what if in order for life to be made fair, we must give more of our money to the government? What if in return it means the government now sets the guidelines for what is fair, who gets what, how much health insurance, for example?
If the American people had moved away from individual responsibility and liberty and were ready and wanting a nanny government to hand out to us our portion, then there would be nothing much left to say. But much of the outrage is due to the fact that we are not ready. In fact, we are moving away from such government. I have looked at my pay checks and saw the increasing portion of hard earned money that got sucked up into the vortex of a massive, chaotic and dysfunctional government.
In fact, I have a brilliant idea. What if the government simply gave me back all my taxes? I could pay cash for any health care needs I might have. My doctor would lower the price of my health care because he doesn't have to pay a portion of what he gets to the insurance company and to the overhead it costs him to manage all that paperwork. Even more significantly, he doesn't have to raise my costs in order to make up for what he loses through Medicare reimbursements.
Everyone gets quality care at a better price and doctors gets more profit, which they can in turn invest in their business, either more learning, better technology or more staffing. I would purchase only catastrophic health insurance, it would cover only those terrible things that no one can ever believe would happen to them, but sometimes do. Accordingly, it would be affordable, because it's not covering anything else.
I'm sorry I keep going on and on about this; believe it or not I have have edited this and cut out a great deal more of my heated ramblings on the subject. I think ultimately that the Democrats have won this battle, but they have in the same stroke lost the war. To quote:
"Sure, they may get the votes to pass the Senate bill tonight, but ultimately they will be defeated. A representative democracy cannot long endure a political class that is so out of touch with the populace. In some respects, what happens tonight is almost beside the point. The politics are set. Some Democrats are deluding themselves that they can put this behind them and somehow survive in November. They are most assuredly wrong...
"...A victory for ObamaCare tonight, it will spark a public revolt that will wipe clean the progressive agenda for at least a generation. In battle, it is critically important to have clarity; to understand the fight you are in. If the Democrats pass ObamaCare tonight no one will have any doubts about the battle ahead. So, my political instincts say, “Bring it On. Let’s sort this out once and for all.”
-Obamacare: To Pass or Not to Pass, by Mike Flynn
Hell yeah.
