BY RUSSELL TURNER
ALTERED STATES
I have found that it is, for the most part, impossible to reason with someone who is drunk on alcohol or high on some kind of dope. It is a sad fact in today’s world that too many of our citizens have developed dependencies that have clouded their judgment. The first thing that pops into our mind concerning dependency is dope or alcohol, but another thing that is just as addictive is reliance on more and more government programs. One of the biggest addictions is the failed, so-called Affordable Care Act more commonly known as Obamacare.
No matter how foolish it may be, once a program is enacted getting rid of it can be a monumental task. Recently the House of Representatives passed a bill to replace Obamacare; while it may not be perfect, at least the bill removed the mandate that was a critical part of the ACA. On the Senate side the Republicans have not been able to come to a mutual agreement on the health care issue. From what I have heard about the senate bill the mandate may still be in their bill. I don’t care what benefits they claim may be in the bill, as long as they keep the mandate I will never support it. There is no such thing as free health care; someone, somewhere is paying for it. The people who are getting free healthcare are living in an altered reality that the rest of us have to pay for. The mandate removes the element of competition from our system, competition and free enterprise have been the corner stone of our economic success.
When we compare the systems in our nation and the former Soviet Empire, the virtues of free enterprise become apparent. We Americans take for granted all of the choices we have when buying a car or even going to the local grocery store. We citizens are spending our money and there are people competing for that money, thus we have a system where people offer more choices with better quality to gain our business. In a system where the government decides what you need, the quality goes down and you will have fewer choices. It seems ironic that we Americans can understand the need for competition in the auto business, but cannot understand it when it comes to healthcare.
A doctor once told me that we will never get the cost of healthcare under control until everyone has to pay something for their care. Our lawmakers need to realize that when people are living in an altered state they cannot make logical decisions that affect the welfare of our nation. It will be interesting to see what comes out of US Senate over the next few weeks; for the sake of our nation any kind of federal mandate must not be considered.
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