The answer is NO!
We don't want you to save us, we don't believe in your plan, we don't trust you to do it for us.
We'd rather be free.
That's what they don't discuss on the evening news. Amidst all the sob stories about expensive pills and death panels, completely overlooked is the principle involved -- and that is that government should not compete with or replace private enterprise. Nowhere in the Constitution or in our history is the federal government authorized to take over or run health care. It is not an enumerated power and it is not an inferred power, it is an assumed power.
And we all know what happens when we assume. (TJ - that's ASS U ME).
The problem with a runaway federal government -- the sort of government we've known over recent years and months -- is that it violates the principles upon which our Republic was founded. It's funny, but the most complex problems are often solved by the application of the simplest of principles. When you get the basics right, everything else takes care of itself. If you untangle and encourage the appropriate function of government and society -- if you turn loose individual liberty and the free market -- problems fix themselves and success comes to both individuals and society.
But that's not how things work today, and that's not what the president is thinking.
Instead of limited government and maximized liberty, what the president suggested last night was empowered government and diminished liberty. And it doesn't really matter how many stories he tells to make us feel sympathetic, or how much money he offers us, or how many songs he sings about justice and equality and compassion, the fact is that the government is not an insurance company and it is not a hospital, and it shouldn't pretend it is. To the extent that it does, it will fail and it will take us down with it.
What the president and many in his party fail to realize is that the purpose of the American government is to safeguard freedom. Our Republic is formed around the premise that liberty is our first priority. It is not meant to protect us from every ill, or take away the possibility of failure, or insulate us from our misfortunes and poor choices. It is meant to protect our liberties. Anything that takes away our liberties must not be embrased even if it is done in the name of "compassion" or "justice."
You can't do the right thing the wrong way. You do not liberate one man by enslaving another. To feed one citizen another citizen's bread, you must first steal it from that citizen. Crime in the name of compassion is still crime.
Each enterprise the federal government puts its hands on turns bitter and failed. Bureaucracy, political correctness and ineptitude breed inefficiency and waste. But the greatest waste is freedom -- the freedom to live the way we choose and do our business the way we choose. Health care is fundamentally a private concern. It is not a right, no more than a haircut is a right. Yes, private charity may provide health care -- as it has from the beginning of our nation -- but public compulsion sacrifices a right for a want and must never be tolerated.
The president thought his TelePrompt-tured eloquence could sway the public, that his magic words would sweep away the will of thousands shouted at town-hall meetings. He thought that his glorified touch would make everything right. But he was wrong.
You can't pick up a turd by the clean end, and you can't do nanny government the right way. He is grabbing power for himself and invoking servitude for us.
Government is not to compete with or replace private enterprise -- that includes insurance companies and hospitals.
It is a first principle of our Republic, explained and exemplified by the Founding Fathers and followed by wise leaders since.
It's not about sob stories, it's about freedom. And, simply put, Mr. President, we don't want what you're selling.
