Government: The Solution to Our Problems or the Cause?

The debate over this question is the fundamental issue that the future of our nation rests on. The country is clearly divided on opposite sides the argument and the choices that we make in the next two national elections will, I believe, determine whether America, as we know it, is restored or dissolved. I believe in traditional conservative values and I’ve always voted for Republicans. However, I really don’t believe this is as simple as the choice between Republicans and Democrats. The American people have been consistently betrayed by both parties and we have stood by and let it happen. The federal government, regardless of which party controls the government, has ignored the constitution and trampled on our freedom but, the only time we complain is when it’s done by the party we oppose. The government has far greater power than it is granted by the constitution and the people have the means to curtail that power, but we don’t use it. Only a fraction of the population votes and only a fraction of those people put any effort into understanding the issues or learning about the candidates. There is no excuse for this dereliction of civic duty; especially in the information age that we live in. The fact is the vast majority of leaders in both parties believe that they are more capable of deciding what’s best for the people than the people themselves are. Sadly, in many cases this is probably true. However, I happen to believe that even stupid people have the right to make their own decisions. If it could be shown that government intervention was likely to improve most situations; though I would still be against it, we would at least have something worth arguing over. In most instances however, I find little evidence that government meddling has done anything other than worsen the situation, either directly or indirectly. Take, for example, the most hotly debated issue of the past two years; health insurance. Proponents of expanding government’s control of health care argue that it’s necessary because the high price and limited access prevents millions of people obtaining insurance. The first question we should ask is: why is it so expensive and why is access limited? I think the answer begins with government meddling. In 1942 the federal government passed legislation which allowed tax deductions for health insurance premiums to businesses, but not to individuals. This amounted to a government subsidized trend of transferring the purchase of health benefits from individuals to employers. There is no logical reason to involve employers in such a personal aspect of their employees’ lives other than possibly providing a boost to insurance sales. This was the first step in removing the patient from the decision making and cost control process. In 1965, following the lead of President Johnson, congress created Medicare which made private insurance for people over 65 obsolete. The free and unrestricted benefits under Medicare lead to much higher use of services and greater costs due to the lack of patient oversight and the addition of the government bureaucracy. In 1973, in response to lobbying by the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, President Nixon signed the HMO Act which mandated employers with 25 or more employees, who offered health benefits, to offer an HMO as one choice of plans. The increased use of HMO’s further reduced the choices of individuals and took away all incentive for patients to monitor the cost of care and in turn established contractual relationships between the insurers and doctors which limited the treatment options physicians could prescribe. The popularity of HMO’s lead to a steady decline of the more affordable catastrophic policies and the extreme cost for HMO policies left the self-employed and those whose employers didn’t offer benefits with extremely limited options. In addition, Medicaid and laws prohibiting hospitals from refusing treatment to the uninsured have given many people who could afford coverage an incentive not to buy it. The cost of the free treatment that hospitals are forced to provide is passed on to the taxpayers and policy holders. In one area in which legislation actually could help control costs, limiting the scope and amount of malpractice suits, they refuse to act in deference to trial lawyers. Given all of this, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the government’s meddling in a private sector industry, where they had no constitutional authority to begin with, has caused or contributed to the very things they now say are wrong with health insurance. Typically, their proposed solution is more meddling. This is, by no means, a lone example. Since the Department of Education was created in 1980, the cost of public education has skyrocketed while test scores and graduation rates have steadily declined. The Great Society of welfare programs was established in the sixties for the purpose of raising low income earners above poverty levels. It has, instead, caused generations to become trapped in poverty; dependent on government programs for survival. It should come as no surprise that government has failed in so many attempts to manipulate the private sector; that was never their intended purpose and no government in history has ever succeeded in creating the utopia they claim is their goal. What does come as a disturbing and disappointing surprise is that such a large percentage of Americans are content to let them keep trying despite the failures. I challenge anyone reading this to present a realistic argument for how any policy enacted by the president or congress in the last five years can possibly be good for the long term prospects of the country. But, if you’re argument is that Obama is just trying to clean up Bush’s mess, then you need to pull your head out of your ass. Bush was terrible, Obama is worse, and congress, over the last ten years, has been worse than those two combined. It’s time that all Americans woke up and took some ownership of their country. I’ll make my confession right now. I voted for George Bush twice, loyally defended him, and sat by like an idiot while he signed massive spending bills and racked up huge deficits, never once sending a letter, an email, or making a phone call to protest it. I neglected my civic responsibility, along with a helluva lot of my fellow citizens and I’m not even talking about the ones who were too lazy or too stupid to get out and vote. Thankfully, I believe a lot of Americans have awakened and will begin to trying to turn things around this November. But, it’s going to take more than one or two elections. This is going to be a long battle and we’re going to need to bring more people to the fight. If government was even reasonably limited to the powers authorized by the constitution, it wouldn’t be nearly as critical who we elected. In the words of James Madison: “All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.” Humans are imperfect; some more than others. Shame on us for foolishly trusting them with so much.