It has been a long and winding road for the health care reform bill as it makes it's way to the Senate floor. The past summer of discontent revealed a strong and loud voice of opposition to the public option and to any plan that would place the health care needs of the American people into the hands of the government. I can understand why people would oppose giving any type of control to the same government that handled Katrina or more recently, the economy. I am certainly not an economist, but John B Taylor is and he writes on his blog about another economist's views:"Cliff Winston of the Brookings Institution carefully reviews three decades of empirical research on a wide range of microeconomic policy studies in his important book Government Failure versus Market Failure. He comes to the same basic conclusion; as he puts it "thirty years of empirical evidence... suggests that the welfare cost of government failure may be considerably greater than that of market failure." I would rather face the consequences of market failure than government failure. When markets fail, the market can respond with innovative ways to find its own level again. When government programs fail, bureaucrats add new regulations to keep it going because, after all, it is someone else's money so the buck gets passed. I cannot think of a single government entitlement program that has made my life more complete. And it is not like I hail from a privileged dynasty. There was a few weeks in the summer of 1996 when I found myself unemployed, between jobs, laid off, as it were, and I applied for unemployment benefits because I qualified. You know what it did for me? It took the edge off of my desperate search and so I sent out a few resume's and headed to Guatemala to experience cultural exploration and to experience real poverty. It did not make me more motivated to seek employment...that came when the "benefits" were about to run out. I am not saying we don't need unemployment benefits. I am saying there is something wrong with calling it a benefit. I am sure it has helped a struggling family get through a difficult time. I am also sure that it has been abused, wasted, and is vulnerable to fraudulent use. But, again, it is someone else's money. I digress. Right now, we are facing government expansion like never before with nearly 2,000 pages of taxes and entitlements and lots of room for fraud and abuse. But, what is striking to me is that it is all coming down to a question of life. The pro-life advocates, of which I am a shameless member, have kept vigilant eyes on the bill. We have discovered that the bill is an expansion of abortion funding and creates a mandate for federally funded abortions. It is unacceptable and I am willing to bet that it will stop this health care monstrosity in its tracks and bring it to its knees. Abortion is not health care and more and more Americans agree. More and more Senators agree, too. We will not back down on this. Health care should save lives, not end them. Right now, American hospitals will not turn away a sick or injured person who cannot pay. But under this plan, we will see the rationing of health care via government standards that decide what treatments are necessary and who needs them. Go here and let your voice be heard.
