Government Health Care is Rationed Health Care!

If the government runs health care, it will ration it. Bureaucrats will set the quantity and price of care, limiting what can be consumed. This is also known as a command economy.

For those of you not familiar with command economies, they currently exist in Cuba, China, and North Korea. Command economies for health care exist in most of Western Europe, Japan, many other states.

If much of the developed world relies on a system of government-owned and operated health insurance/delivery, why shouldn't the US?

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Simply stated, the US is the most demand-driven economy in the world. The understanding of liberty and personal freedom in the US means citizens spend their money on the goods and services they demand, in the quantities they demand, with the government butting out. While this statement isn't 100% accurate, it is pretty close.

In 2009, most US citizens have health insurance, and most are satisfied with it. There is a dispute about how many residents don't have health insurance, yet US law requires equal treatment of all patients, regardless of the ability to pay.

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Americans recoil, rightly, when they read about rationed care in Canada, namely this story out of the Vancouver Sun:

Vancouver Coastal — which oversees the budget for Vancouver General and St. Paul’s hospitals, among other health-care facilities — is looking to close nearly a quarter of its operating rooms starting in September and to cut 6,250 surgeries, including 24 per cent of cases scheduled from September to March and 10 per cent of all medically necessary elective procedures this fiscal year.

So, if you were one of the 6,250 cases to have waited for surgery between September '09 and March '10, well, sorry about that. Perhaps you should get in your car and drive to Seattle and get the surgery you need tomorrow. While I am not going to relate every horror story from socialized medicine, such as the case of the women delivering on a sidewalk due to no ambulance, or the case of Oregon paying for assisted suicide, but not cancer treatment, rather, it is to highlight the loss of liberty in socialized medicine.

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As I have stated above, in socialized medicine, the government, who delivers the service, also sets the quantity to be consumed, and must pay for it. Government will set the budget based on political constraints, and not on the medical needs of individuals. Government also becomes free to regulate other elements of people's lives in the name of "health care." In short, socialized medicine is overwhelming regulation of human behavior and destruction of personal liberty.

To help you better understand this point of view, let late President Ronald Reagan explain it to you. This speech, given in 1961, is critical to understanding what is at stake in today's socialized medicine debate.

BusinessWeek Blows it on India

The Communists may be gone, but the Trinamool Congress Party isn't much better! West Bengal is struggling and all Trinamool has to show is running out Tata and good jobs, but that's not the story out of BusinessWeek.

Mehul Srivastava writes, wrongly:

With its Communist leadership out, the former Calcutta is poised for quick growth

It would appear that Mr. Srivastava hasn't read any of the articles written about the poverty pimps of the Trinamool Congress Party, particularly the Premier of Poverty, Mamata Banerjee.

For review, here are the articles I have written on the subject (here, here, here, and here). Clearly, you will find that Trinamool and Banerjee are not friends of business, nor are they true friends of the poor. Rather, they are true friends of power and themselves! Great fares to Europe and beyond on Air France!

It is quite a laugh to read Banerjee's statement:

Unless [the Communists] are ousted from power, no development is possible in West Bengal.

While there may be some truth in that statement, it has more to do with Banerjee and her cronies finding a way to line their pockets than it does with the Communists. Let's be clear, communism has never delivered on any of its promises, except for tyranny. West Bengal is proof of that, particularly, as BusinessWeek gets right, "Corruption, electricity shortages, and a rejection of foreign capital have left the city in rough shape."

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However, BW gets it wrong when they claim the Communists "seized" land. The farmers were to be paid for their land, and Tata was going to provide new, better paying jobs for the regrettably poor subsistence farmers. At least until Banerjee organized a violent mob.

While there is no evidence that either she or her party were involved in a plant manager's murder, Banerjee was behind the agitation directed at Tata Motors in Singur.

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For now, the problem of good government isn't solely the realm of West Bengal. Rather, it is a great shame that so many suffer at the hands of petty politicians. People are living in grueling poverty, subsistence farming, dirty water and limited educational opportunities. Perhaps Trinamool can stand up to encourage a positive business climate that will create a tide of prosperity. Sadly, they won't, as a struggling underclass provides them what they love most, power.

A Dose of Reality with those Unemployment Numbers

Hooray, only 247,000 lost their jobs in July 2009! What terrific news! Woo hoo! As one of those 247,000 people, give me a break.

People are so eager to see an improved economy that they are willing to accept such a figure as good news. I say, "rubbish!" Look at the facts, despite the fact that unemployment is a lagging indicator of the economy, it should tell everyone that companies don't think the worst is over.

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Additionally, this number should tell you that both demand for goods and services continue to decrease, and employers are not willing to start hiring again.

Here is some of the cheer leading being reported by the Wall Street Journal:

"The economy is at the turning point from the recession as the labor market is starting to heal," said Chris Rupkey, economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi."

But recent data suggest GDP will start growing again this quarter. The Institute for Supply Management manufacturing index ticked higher in July and is now consistent with GDP growth of a little over 2%.

Sorry to be a party pooper, but recent data show 247,000 lost their jobs in July! If that isn't bad enough, from the SAME article,

U.S. gross domestic product contracted 1% at an annual rate during the second quarter. That was the fourth-straight quarterly decline in GDP -- the first time that's happened since the government started keeping track in 1947.

When marginally attached and involuntary part-time workers are included, the rate of unemployed or underemployed workers was 16.3% last month, down slightly from June.

Do you see that things are still pretty lousy and that our economy is bleeding jobs? So why all this "glass half full" optimism? A simple way to answer this question is ask who benefits.

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If I were a politician, I would tout these numbers as positive to demonstrate I was "doing something" about the economy. If I were a CEO of a public company, I may want to discuss these numbers positively to encourage optimism and boost my share price. If I just couldn't take that our economy is in shambles and government programs are making things worse, I might just accept the positive spin to sooth my broken spirit.

However, I am a realist. As I have written in the past (Financial Crisis Primer), we are suffering the effects of market distortion of the credit markets and the aftermath. Financial positions are being unwound. Companies are de-leveraging, and lenders are beginning to remember risk management not merely as an academic pursuit, but a requirement to stay in business.

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Will the economy recover? It should, provided that Congress and President Teleprompter don't pass this crushing ObamaCare abomination. It should recover, provided tax policy doesn't punish small business and success. In other words, the market will heal itself if the government keeps its' hands out of it. The inflation damage will soon be with us, since the quadrupling of the national debt beginning in January of 2009.

To all of you who have lost your jobs, I am with you and pray you find new, meaningful work soon. To all of you with a job, keep working hard, but be ready for a double-dip recession. Finally, to all US citizens, contact your members of Congress and strongly urge them to reject ObamaCare.

How Quickly We Forget

Well, well, well. It seems like President Teleprompter can't take a little public ridicule. The Daily Mail, out of the UK, has an article stating that Obama backers call the image "...mean-spirited and dangerous." I guess the "tolerant" left just can't abide by dissent. Chuck Norris wants YOU to get into shape! - Total Gym® Official Store. Try Total Gym® for 30 Days for only $1 - FREE Shipping.

How quickly they forget, however, that on July 29, 2008, Vanity Fair posted a piece of art depicting then President George W. Bush as none other than, you guessed it, the Joker. Cheap? No. 100% Free. Trade stocks for free on Zecco.com. The Free Trading Community. www.zecco.com

Huh, how about that? I don't recall anybody, especially the left, calling that image "mean spirited and dangerous." What I did see in the comments are these gems of kindness and adult conversation:

"I'm saying Bush is just an idiot thug who has been used by Dick Cheney to meet his ends." - Posted 7/30/2008 by deadaluspark

"Bush is obviously the antithesis of this. He can't even construct a freaking sentence without sounding like an idiot." - Posted 7/30/2008 by deadaluspark

"I should add that .....no further evidence of dubya's psychopathology is needed after yesterday's final appalling press conference." - Posted 1/13/2009 by something

I hope everyone has enjoyed this trip down memory lane and the love that comes from the left. Includes 300 FREE Fax Pages per month

Please also note, on a different topic, that the White House wants you tell them if somebody is emailing or talking in opposition to ObamaCare. Here it is, with the link:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Wow, rat out the dissenters! Resistance is futile! Tell on your neighbors! When is Hillary going to stand back up and say:

I'm sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and disagree with this administration, somehow you're not patriotic. We need to stand up and say we're Americans, and we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration.

I also wonder if any late night, or any comic for that matter, is going to start making fun of Obama? He's had almost 8 months of media and comic immunity. Maybe this poster will loosen them up. Have some fun. Even Bill Clinton was a good sport.

One Single Dime? More Like Thousands!

"...you will not see any of your taxes increase one single dime."

Does anybody remember the flowery rhetoric of Candidate Teleprompter and his claims of tax stability? Lest you still believe the nonsense coming off the Presidential teleprompter, perhaps you should listen to what Treasury Secretary and tax cheat Tim Geithner has to say.

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Geithner, in an interview with George Stephanopoulos, refused to rule out tax hikes. Rather, he stuck with the rhetorical flourish of, "We’re going to have to do what’s necessary.”



CBS5 explains it this way:

President Barack Obama's treasury secretary said Sunday he cannot rule out higher taxes to help tame an exploding budget deficit, and his chief economic adviser would not dismiss raising them on middle-class Americans as part of a health care overhaul.

One more time America, Obama and his enablers in the Congress are tax and spend liberals! Obama has definitely gotten the spending part down, now he is moving in for the taxes. Whether it is his ObamaCare albatross, "stimulus" package, or "Cash for Clunkers," this administration and Congress have spent this nation into the ground. What's worse, is that they are foolish enough to believe they can tax their way out of this spending crater.

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When American consumers have less money with which to consume, the economy suffers and revenue to the US Treasury decreases. Their no disputing that fact. When Americans are engaging in economic activity, whether it is spending or investing, the economy grows. When the economy grows, tax receipts grow.

However, when taxes are increased, economic activity decreases, as does revenue to the Treasury. No amount of government spending or "stimulus," can replace the multiplier effect of the American consumer. Keynesian economics just doesn't work.

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If you are serious about reducing the budget deficit, contact your elected representatives. Tell them to quit spending like drunken sailors (apologies to drunken sailors)! Also tell them to keep their hands off of the best health care system in the world. Finally, register to vote, if you are legally eligible to do so. The 2010 elections are just a year away. Do you have a message you want to send?