. . . don’t they understand?
The house just passed the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” a.k.a. Obamacare. They should not have.
No authority in the Constitution
Nowhere in the Constitution is health care even mentioned. The word health is not even in it. There is No Constitutional authority to provide this ’service’ to the American people. Every member of the House and Senate took an oath to support and defend this document. Here is the tenth amendment of the Constitution.
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Health care is among the powers NOT delegated to the United States. Those powers are listed in Article 1, section 8 where you will find the following:
“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States . . .”
It says the “ . . . general Welfare of the United States . . .” NOT the general welfare of the citizens of the United States. The people are to take care of themselves, not rely on the Federal Government to provide for them. Think about it. It is a simple fact that the more people rely on the government to take care of them, the more government employees are needed and the more taxes are needed and the more productive jobs will disappear. Productive jobs are the only way to create money. When they go away or get greatly reduced in number the result is no one to pay the taxes and no one to pay the government employees. This will cause the economy to collapse.
We have no money
Our economy is already in a shambles from the exportation of manufacturing jobs due to NAFTA, CAFTA and other such government programs. Add to that the trillions of dollars given to the banks and two of the domestic automakers and it is easy to see why the our deficit is growing faster than the number of rats in a newly abandoned house filled with food in cardboard boxes.
No government interference will make it better
You can read that two ways. If there is no government interference, the health care situation will be better. Or – No amount of government interference will actually improve the health care situation. They are both correct. Government already interferes a great deal and it is responsible for the mess we are in now. There is not room here for all the details but it was government actions that are the reasons insurance has become a part of your employment package.
You should be paid a wage or salary for your work. It should be high enough that you can purchase your health care and insurance as well as put aside for your retirement. It is then your responsibility to take care of yourself. You don’t expect to get your house and auto insurance through your job except as wages that you can take home to make your choice of purchases in those matters. Likewise you don’t expect to get your utilities and food through your job. Nor do you expect the government to provide these things.
Insurance should be for catastrophic events. Little things should be part of your health budget. Again, to compare with auto insurance, your auto insurance does not cover oil changes and car washes. Health insurance should not be for routine doctor visits and minor injuries like sprained ankles.
When the public uses insurance for the minor things they use more services. More use of services drives the prices up. Government programs like Medicare and Medicaid also drive up the cost of medical services. The mere fact that these programs exist causes more use of the services when not really necessary and that pumps up prices.
For more on the problems with this act, see “A Viral Email from the White House.
There should be no exemptions
If the American people are forced to live with this massive program, it should also be the health care program for the congresspeople and ALL government people, employees, elected officials, etc. They brought it to us but they exempt themselves. This is a shortcoming in our Constitution in that it did not spell out the justified requirement that the elected officials be treated equal to the rest of the population.
No freebies for illegal aliens
There should be no exceptions for those in the country illegally. As I understand it they will not be required to have the same insurance as American citizens. But they will get the same health care at no cost. Of course that means that those of us who are American citizens will pay the bills for those who are not. And the deficit gets bigger.
No secrecy
One of Obama’s campaign promises was to be open and above board in government matters.
“My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.”
The above quote came from a White House “Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies” about transparency in government. This health care bill was crafted behind closed doors. Deals were made to get reluctant congresspeople to back it. It is so long I would be willing to bet, were it provable, a sizable amount of money that less than 25% of those who voted for it actually read the entire act.
At the beginning of 1934 there had been only 2500 pages of federal laws written since the adoption of the Constitution. The Senate version of this bill alone was 2400 pages. Who can possibly know all of what is in it. If the “Read the Bills Act” was in place, bills like this would have to be made smaller and more manageable – therefore more understandable.
Americans said no
Overwhelmingly the American people spoke out against this bill. They said it at town hall meetings. They said it at the office of their congresspersons. They said at their state houses. They said it at Washington DC. They said it by email. They said it by snail mail. They said it by phone and they said it by fax.
The minority who favored it tried to claim racism by those opposed. Nothing could be further from the truth. Some saw that it simply as not allowed in the Constitution, some saw how government interference in the past has not accomplished what was promised.
Most saw many provisions that will reduce our freedoms by giving government control over what we may or may not do relating to insurance and health care. They saw that the cost of health care will rise as it always does when the government gets involved. They saw that the quality of care will go down because of government interference. They saw that it was not good enough to stand on its own so secret deals were being made behind closed doors. They saw it as a bad deal all around for the American citizen.
They said NO.