Why I Hate the Healthcare Bill

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi - smart and capable leader or power monger?

As the time Democrats have chosen to force the healthcare bill through the House of Representatives draws ever closer, I've thought about the real reasons I oppose the healthcare bill. First of all, let me disabuse some of you about my motives:

• No, my opposition to the healthcare bill doesn't have anything to do with being brainwashed by Glenn Beck. (No, I have never listened to any of his shows.) (Yes, I did read his latest book out of curiosity.) (Yes, he had a few good things to say about conservatism in the US.) (No, I didn't agree with many of his ideas.)
• No, I am not a conservative radical (though anyone these days who expressed a conservative thought gets labeled as a radical by loudmouthed leftists).
• No, I don't desire that people should suffer for lack of health insurance. (According to some leftists, I do, however, torture cats in my spare time.)
• No, I am not an unfeeling, brainless turd on the face of public opinion. (Got called this one once and thought it a rather clever insult. What do you think?)

Here are some basic, politically conservative reasons I oppose the healthcare bill:

1) I have absolutely no trust that government can "reform" such a complex system that, ultimately, was complicated by government intervention.
You'd be hard pressed to find industries more regulated that the health care and health insurance industries in the US. (Government Motors doesn't count. That was a takeover, not another regulation.) It is just such over-regulation that has brought on the demise of the healthcare system. Yet, instead of simplifying the government intervention and regulation in the industry, the leftist solution is to compound the problem by adding even more intervention and regulation.

You've heard the jokes, which ring true, asking if a government that has messed up the postal system or Social Security can really be trusted to "fix" healthcare. As Ronald Reagan said, "Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." Whatever you may think of Ronald Reagan, this statement of his still rings true to conservative principles, against a government that now only gives lip service to the people it represents and doesn't pretend to give lip service to the economic principles of free market on which this country was founded.

2) I do not agree with our entitlement, "redistribute the wealth" government.
It is simply not the responsibility nor mandate of the federal government to expand entitlement upon entitlement or to redistribute the wealth in this country. This mentality is purely Marxist and flies in the face of any foundational principle of the US. The problem with this economic model is its basis on the principle of "fairness" instead of such principles as freedom and liberty.

"Fairness" can never be an inalienable right because the very structure of life dictates an inherent unfairness. I have never expected life to be fair. Moreover, I cannot fathom a political ideology which considers that government can somehow legislate fairness. It is the government's job to protect liberty, not fairness.

3) Power, once given away, is never freely given back.
This is a historical truism. All we need to do is to delve back through a few hundred years of history and look at the myriad examples of power taken by governments to come to this conclusion: Russia, Germany, Korea, Somalia, Iran, Cuba, the list goes on and on of countries fallen to despotic governments.

Now I'm absolutely not saying the that US is headed toward dictatorship, yet I feel no need to tempt government with the abuse of power by handing more power to it. Governments are dangerous, unwieldy beasts which must be kept under control by the will of the people. To give up the power and authority of the people, especially for the convenience of creating a huge monster of a healthcare system, only hands over liberty to government expediency and power.

4) Insurance companies aren't evil just because they try to make a profit.
And neither is any corporation evil just because it makes a profit. Yes, unbridled power leads to abuses. The people of the United States discovered that principle during the Industrial Revolution. As the power of corporations and monopolies grew during the late 1800s, the power of the individual shrank. The government rightly stepped in to protect the liberty and freedom of its citizens.

Yet when the government becomes the corporation and the monopoly, who then will step in to protect its citizens?

5) Nancy Pelosi is scary.
OK, I have no conservative principles on which to base this judgment, other than to say that when such a power leader as Nancy Pelosi gains such a megalomaniacal and power mongering stance as she has taken throughout the healthcare debate, we must question her motives in representing the citizens of the United States.

She is scary for other reasons too, but I'll not enumerate those for the moment.

6) President Obama's agenda has proved time again to be statist and unpopular.
Statism is the taking of power by the government. It is not partisan. It pays no attention to party. Statist leaders have one goal in mind - to take power away from the people and give it to the government. Republican or Democrat, statist leaders are a danger to the principles on which this country were founded.

I think that governments are dangerous and must be controlled. Obama fails the test of limited government on every count. I cannot find a single example of his leadership as president of the US where he hasn't grabbed for power. He isn't the first president to do so, yet surely he is the most blatant in recent memory. If George W. Bush was the king of power mongering, Barack H. Obama is the emperor.

7) My aunt's, hairdresser's best friend couldn't get insured and died of cancer.
Finally, I must respond to the bleeding-heart liberals who cannot get past the touchy-feely argument of stories of the personal problems and sometimes tragedies of life. These liberals cannot seem to understand that government, despite claims to the contrary, cannot fix all human ills, nor can it remove all traces of the inherent unfairness of life. Such arguments that appeal to emotion are downright silly when we contemplate the extreme cost and control the Democrats are trying to take from the people in the current administration.

Think wisdom and prudence. Is the government "fix" of the healthcare system really about fixing the problem, or is it a ploy toward more power? Is this huge, unwieldy and expensive bill the answer, or is it just another huge, unwieldy and expensive bill concocted by statist leaders? I'm afraid we may find out sooner, rather than later.