Health Care Debacle – On to Wreckonciliation

As all know, late last night the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Senate healthcare reform legislation, along with a reconciliation bill to be passed by the Senate, likely later this week.

As readers of this blog know, I emphatically believe the House majority made a historic, monumental, landmark, unforgettable… mistake. They have arrogantly ignored the peaceful yet forceful voices of their constituents — who elected them and who will later this year UN-elect them. In so doing they have micturated on the Constitution and trampled on the rule of law. One notably candid Congresscritter actually admitted, “All this talk about rules, we make ‘em up as we go along.” 

Yesterday I participated in an e-mail exchange with professional colleagues on the subject. Some agree with me, others go so far as to advocate that the government’s mission is to provide healthcare to ALL, specifically including the — ahem — “undocumented.” Here is my contribution to the thread. The so-called Representative referred to at the end of the post is Marcy Kaptur (D-OH).

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This country, thanks to decades of spend-and-spend policies by Republicrats and Demopublicans of all stripes, is now flat BROKE! As such, it behooves us to be extremely wary of assuming new entitlements we cannot begin to pay for. I particularly object to the widespread assumption that fixing our health care system, which is admittedly imperfect and in need of reform, can only be accomplished by huge injections of governmental interference and regulation. Our mess BEGAN with government meddling, namely the conferring of tax advantages to health insurance premiums in the 1940’s, which led to the decoupling of payment for health services from the recipients of said services. The correct solution is one which relies on less regulation, not more.

The founding documents of the United States do not make mention of a right to government-provided health care, either for citizens or for non-citizens in the country illegally. The enumerated powers granted to the federal government in the Constitution do not include the power to compel anyone to purchase any product or service (viz., health insurance) as a result of his or her breathing air. The courts have been entirely negligent in permitting the other branches of government to muscle themselves into uncounted areas of individual Americans’ lives that would be rightly deemed unconstitutional by the Founders. As a result, our exceptional representative republic has been transformed into just another European-style social democracy, and with the current leadership in the executive and legislative branches, it is in dire danger of sliding into far worse. It is time for true Americans to recall the spirit of the Founders and take our country back. Else, we will have nothing left.

I have been watching the Kabuki theater unfold this weekend on the television. I am proud to say that my Congressman, Jim Jordan, is standing up for the principles that made America great and its residents prosperous. I am greatly disappointed to see another local member of Congress turn her back on those principles, and I will fully support efforts to bring about her involuntary unemployment come November.

DRY