Let's Quit Talking Stupid

Are you willing to pay $24,762 every year so that everyone gets health care? Then let’s quit talking stupid.   

 

There are 105 million people who work in the private sector - that is where all the money comes from.  We spend $2.6 trillion each year on health care, so do the math: that’s $24,762 each if everybody pays their fair share.

 

If we include public sector workers, the share drops to just under $20,000.  I know we pay their salaries, so it doesn’t change anything, but it would be fun to see university professors and Congressmen put their own money where there mouth is for once.    

   

It is nonsense to keep talking about coverage, access, and rights as if health care were free air.  Rosa Parks sought access to a seat in the front of the bus; she did not demand that the guy in seat 12A pay for it, and she did not call him a racist for thinking they should each buy their own.  

 

No, Ms. Parks did not talk stupid, like our leaders do.  How can we possibly expand coverage to 47 million more people without adding a single doctor, and not have longer waits for appointments? That is talking stupid.

 

How can we possibly cover all those additional people without increasing taxes or increasing the deficit? That is talking stupid.

 

How can we say the 10-year “cost” of reform will stay under one trillion dollars by simply delaying enactment of the bill’s provisions for the first four years and counting zeros in the total?  That is talking stupid. 

 

How can we say there won’t be a board that decides what treatment you will receive under “public option” when it is already written into the legislation? That is talking stupid.

 

And when President Obama still insists again this week, “no one is talking about cutting Medicare” after the House Bill already cut it by $218 billion and the Senate is proposing $377 billion, he is really talking stupid. 

 

But we Americans are not stupid; we are pretty smart.  We know there is no free lunch.  We don’t live on Planet Delusion, and we know stupid talk when we hear it.   

 

That’s why the most recent Rasmussen Poll shows 56% of Americans now oppose the Democrats’ Health Care Reform plan – including a stunning 72% of independent voters. Only 24% of Americans believe it will make health care better, and only 22% of Americans believe Congress even knows what they will be voting on. 

 

But none of that will matter. Congress will vote for something stupid that we don’t want, they haven’t read, and wouldn’t understand if they did.  They don’t care about your health or your wealth; this is merely a way to reward campaign donors by churning out another earmark-laden porkfest.  Quit calling it reform.  

 

If Congress is not going to address the underlying causes that drive unnecessary cost – too much regulation, paperwork, and red tape - then all that matters is who pays, and that question is ridiculously simple: should we each buy our own health care, or should we each buy each others’?   

 

Proponents of universal health care like this bumper sticker: “you should not go broke just because you get sick”.  That would be a great ad pitch for an insurance company, but it is a silly moral premise.  Who should go broke, then?  Or should doctors and nurses and lab techs and billing clerks all have to work as slaves for no pay, so that nobody does?

 

Here is an improved, quit-talking-stupid version: “you should not go broke just because I get sick”.  Treatment of a serious deadly illness can quickly run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.  If I am diagnosed tomorrow with one of these, and I don’t have insurance to cover it, then one of us is going to go broke – that’s how it works down here on Planet Earth, Tammy.

 

Why should that be you, and not me?  That is what Congress is proposing, only they will probably beat me to the punch and make you broke before I get sick. 

 

In Europe, they have universal health care. They also earn 29% less than we do, and they pay twice the payroll tax we do – 30% with no upper limit.  And they pay higher income tax than we do, and they pay a VAT tax that we don’t.  So their disposable income is half of ours on average, and their unemployment rate is double.  President Obama forgot to tell you about that stuff when he was bragging up how old they are in Denmark.  

 

So how about it - are you willing to take a 50% pay cut so the government can run health care?  Is it worth living half-broke your whole life just to squeeze out an extra year or two warehoused in a government home at the end of it?   Not me. 

 

So let’s quit talking stupid about health care - and start talking seriously about real health care reform that will turn loose the power of market competition and give us all better health care choices at far lower costs. 

 

 

Tim Nerenz is the Libertarian Party Candidate for U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin's 2nd District. To support Dr. Tim's campaign, please visit the campaign website at www.timnerenz.com.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

18 Means 18

It is wrong for the government to deny rights of seniors solely on the basis of their age; equally wrong for juniors, sophomores, and freshmen.

 

There is no principled reason to deny adults the right to choose for themselves whether to drink alcohol or not.  This is a matter of personal preference and belief.  

 

Rights aren’t rationed out like some annuity over time; we were endowed with all of them at birth.  They are held in trust for us by our parents or guardians until we reach the age of consent, and the age of consent is 18. 

 

The federal government imposed a drinking ban on 18-20 year-olds through an extortion scheme of the lowest kind in the 1980s.  It required states to adopt a 21 year old drinking age or be cut off from federal highway funds.  Age discrimination has been the policy of both the Democrats and the Republicans ever since.

 

Think for a moment what message this sends to our young adults.  Their first interaction with their government as vested citizens is to have their rights taken away through an unconstitutional encroachment of the federal government over state sovereignty.  Goodbye civics class; hello mob rule.

 

Liberty denied should not be the first consequence of citizenship.  So this will be the first bill I introduce as Congressman from Wisconsin’s 2^nd District – the Universal Age of Consent bill.     

 

Now, before the blissfully inebriated students in section O at Camp Randall break into chants of “Tim, Not Tammy”, let me say this: don’t think I am a champion of 18-year-old drinking, because I’m not.  I am a champion of 18-year-old Liberty.  Don’t vote for me so you can drink; vote for me so you can choose for yourself how you will live.

 

And that is really what this all about; the idea that you don’t have to ask permission to live. 

It is difficult to imagine now that we were once a nation that lived by that simple proposition.  We were proudly independent; our demand of government was to be left alone, not to be taken care of.  Our Declaration of Independence insisted upon the right of the individual to pursue happiness; not to be immunized from the consequences of our pursuits.      

 

Libertarians believe that each of us has sole dominion over our persons and property, and that any voluntary exchange between individuals is just.  We believe that any act of force or fraud that interferes with voluntary exchange is unjust, including prohibitions on adult alcohol purchases by the State. 

 

Vote Libertarian.  Vote for Tim, Not Tammy.

 

 

Tim Nerenz is the Libertarian Party Candidate for U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin's 2nd District. To support Dr. Tim's campaign, please visit the campaign website at www.timnerenz.com.

 

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Thou Shall Not Steal

There are only two ways to get the money to pay for government: either tax Americans who are living, or steal it from generations of Americans not born yet.

Deficit spending is stealing from future generations; in the fiscal year coming to a close this month, we have stolen nearly $2 trillion more of their money, and Congress will take another heaping helping when they pass the 2010 appropriations bills in the upcoming weeks.

You don’t need a Ph.D. in economics to grasp the issue here: it is wrong to steal money from your kids.

If you don’t get that, you might as well stop reading now and go knock off a liquor store or beat up a homeless person or whatever it is you do for recreation. I won’t be able to fix you; maybe my Pastor Paula could take a crack at it.

This year, we will only pay for 58% of what government spends; we will borrow the rest, leaving it to future generations to repay the debt. Are you ok with stealing $5,400 from your grandkids and their grandkids? That is your per capita share of the deficit this year – the amount of spending you did not pay for. No different than driving away from the pump, or skating out on the waitress.

To pay for the government we have, each one of us would have to take a 70% hike in every single one of the taxes we pay. Is anyone willing to do that? If not, then the ethical thing to do would be to cut government spending down to what we are willing to pay for ourselves – to cut it almost in half. It is not as difficult as we might think, but the “how to” is another post for another day.

We could have (and should have) an honest political debate over how much to tax ourselves and what to spend that money on. People of good will can disagree over the proper scope and role of government in a free society. But we don’t have honest debates anymore; we have mindless shouting matches where each side calls the other side evil for thinking differently, and they both tell you someone else will pay for the promises they make to get your vote.

The one lie that is evil is the lie of the free lunch; it doesn’t matter whether it is democrat or republican baloney between the bread. There is no such a thing; we are stealing our kid’s lunch money to buy happy meals for ourselves. That is morally reprehensible – it is shameful when Republicans do it, and it is shameful when Democrats do it, and it is shameful when we let them both do it.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates it will take 100 years to pay it back the $24 trillion of debt we will have accumulated by 2019, just 10 years from now. I will be retiring about then, but you young people will still have a lifetime of paying to look forward to, and so will your heirs. Your share will run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most of your taxes will go to pay interest on the debt. This is what happens when you don’t vote.

Oblivious to the fact that we can’t afford half of the government we have now, the socialists want to impose even more government. It is still a free country, sort of; if they do not think they are being taxed enough, they can write a check to the IRS and pay more. That would be the honorable thing, and I would admire them for it.

But they won’t – they insist on putting your money where their mouth is.

We are tired of other people telling us what to do, what to say, and what to think. We don’t need government’s permission to live our lives. We have had it with moralizing hypocrites – of both parties - using the power of the state to shove their beliefs down our throats.

Government is not our master; it is our servant, our Cabana Boy. The Cabana Boy doesn’t tell us what to do. The Cabana boy picks up the cigarette butts; he doesn’t tell us we can’t smoke on our own private property. So shut up and go fix a bridge, Cabana Boy – and quit stealing my grandchildren’s money.

Congress is supposed to represent, not to rule; and most certainly not to steal. We need to elect Representatives who understand that. Tammy Baldwin doesn’t.

Liberty is the absence of government in choice. Tyranny is the absence of choice in government. Choose Liberty. Choose Tim, Not Tammy.

Tim Nerenz is the Libertarian Party Candidate for U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin's 2nd District. To support Dr. Tim's campaign, please visit the campaign website at www.timnerenz.com.