Remember Our Forefathers

So, as I surfed around trying to find more blurbs about the fiasco called healthcare reform, I came across an interesting tidbit which I must have breezed past when it originally was posted. On August 3rd, NJ.com reported that two top Administration stooges, Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers, were caught stating exactly what every honest economist has been saying since this disaster began: “middle-class taxes might have to go up to pare budget deficits or to pay for the proposed overhaul of the nation’s health care system.” Yup, that’s right, you did not read it wrong. The report goes on to paraphrase Summers as saying that healthcare reform needs to be funded from somewhere, and that “[t]here is a lot that can happen over time… it is never a good idea to absolutely rule things out, no matter what.” The most surprising statement, to me at least, was this little gem by Geithner:

“If we want an economy that’s going to grow in the future, people have to understand we have to bring those deficits down (Duh!). And it’s going to be difficult, hard for us to do. And the path to that is through health care reform. We’re not at the point yet where we’re going to make a judgment about what it’s going to take.”

What?! Is he living in a fantasy world? In one breath they say that taxes may have to be raised in order to pay for the program, then in another he says that the reform bill is the path to stabilizing the deficit?! I’m flabbergasted, truly. The only sense that I can make of that is that the Administration has every intention of raising taxes, which was the ultimate goal originally, to pay for all the ridiculous spendulus programs. If that is not the case, then I do not think that I need to go any further in dissecting this lunacy.

I then decided to scroll down the comments to see what others thought of the post. Obviously the majority of the comments were critical of the Administration, namely the blatant lies told during the campaign that taxes would not be raised on the middle class. I was shocked, however to read some comments defending the fools. It is hard to criticize average American support of the plan though. As Bob Murphy wrote in his blog Free Advice yesterday:

“…I think people on “our side” should realize that the great masses of Americans who are for health care reform and climate legislation (and it pains me to not put scare quotes around those phrases) aren’t actually closet socialists who want to bring America to its knees. Don’t get me wrong, it is still perfectly consistent to think the elites in Washington are power-hungry liars. I’m just saying that, as ridiculous as Krugman’s paranoia over old people is, that’s how ridiculous some of our side’s rants against Obama fans must seem to people who know that they are really just trying to stem abuses they perceive in the health care system and so forth. They know they’re not socialists, just like we know “our guys” aren’t Nazis.”

One comment though, got my blood boiling. I felt that what this woman said deserved a proper criticism. For those who do not follow the link, a brief synopsis can be given:

“Pay the taxes and join the modern world with universal care.”

“You are the same idiots who opposed healthcare reform for decades.”

“The real issue is not just paying taxes but seeing to it that they are spent wisely.”

“The problem is that too many Americans are lazy and stupid.”

Senseless and unrelated diatribe.

“You rally against your own best interest…”

“[Y]ou are just a bunch of ignorant yelling yokels.”

For starters, the “modern world” has proven time and again that “universal care” does not work. It is the law of economics which shows us that once government monopoly is established, resources become scarcer and practitioners leave the fold in droves. Professor Thomas DiLorenzo further elucidates that point here. We then see the typical, progressive debate tactic of not educating through example, but of belittling and name-calling. Good work, that’s the way to get your point across. The woman marches on to make the dubious claim that we should not question our obligation to pay taxes, that we should just be good citizens and be diligent of how our money is spent. That idea is ludicrous. Thomas Jefferson once wrote,”[T]he mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately…” (Letter to Roger Weightman, 1826). The idea that we should just shut our mouths and pay whatever fee some bureaucrat decides will help their re-election and aggrandizement flies in the face of that noble philosophy.

I love being told that what someone else decides for me is in my “best interest”. I believe the last time that was an acceptable terminology in my life was prior to my 18th birthday, and I will no more allow some stranger to get away with strangling me with my own purse-strings than I would allow my own parents to do so now. My “best interest” is determined by me, and my market preferences, as I make my choices on a day to day basis. It is certainly not my responsibility to bow to the will of others, nor is it my responsibility to bear shackles for the “common man”.

Again, no thanks.

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