Out of Touch
President Obama is in an interesting position. For the fifth straight week, between 38% and 41% of Americans oppose health care reform. However, as we found out last night when the Senate voted on ending debate over the bill at 1 am EST, a whopping 60% of our elected representatives favor the current health care bill, which will increase government control over medical decisions more than ever before. Obama’s position? Well, he believes the bill falls short of complete reform but is willing to sign it in order to have a political win under his belt.
Being a shameless proponent of a single payer system, Obama now finds his position on health care, a hotly debated issue in the campaign, much farther left than the American public. Just to his right sit the majority of Democrats whose constituents who do not trust the government to run one-fifth of the economy. Farther right of this group sits the majority of Americans; the 57% of Americans who believe that doing nothing is preferable to passing the current bill. Obama finds his policy at least two degrees separated from the wishes of the majority of Americans. If this was a pure democracy (which I am certainly not advocating) a popular vote would render this bill obsolete. How, then, can an unpopular bill be virtually assured of becoming law? Nothing a little political maneuvering can’t fix.
Reid to the rescue
In the words of Harry Reid, “A number of states are treated differently from other states, [...] that’s what this legislation is all about: compromise.” Mr. Reid is referring to one state in particular that will be treated differently from all others: Nebraska. In fact, the citizens of Nebraska, the state of Senator Ben Nelson, will be treated very differently from their American counterparts in the other forty-nine. Sen. Nelson was the last Democrat in the Senate to sign on, apparently holding out in order to be satisfied that no taxpayer funds will pay for abortions. Well, the liberal establishment just could not give that one up, and it is reported that Reid and Obama virtually met daily with Nelson until a “compromise” was worked out. Reid was able to offer Senator Nelson extra Medicaid money and other kickbacks for the taxpayers in Nebraska, for Nelson to become less dogmatic about abortion and support the bill. In case you are wondering if I am questioning the integrity of the senator from Nebraska — I am.
The public choice school, which combines political science with economics, has long criticized the way legislation gets passed. Government Failure, by Gordon Tullock, Arthur Seldon, and Gordon Brady addresses the issue of vote trading and logrolling. The Nelson kickback is a prime example of how Senators are willing to drop their moral convictions when offered a package of goodies by the political elite intended to buy votes. There’s only one problem: that package has to come from other taxpayers. The government has nothing of its own; it must take from someone else. The citizens of other states are, in essence, subsidizing the sweetheart deal Senator Nelson negotiated for his constituents. To add insult to injury, Harry Reid parades around preaching the beauty of senatorial compromise. Logrolling is an old trick, but the fanfare surrounding it is relatively new in American politics.
Where Is The Austrian School?
Austrian economics has a lot to say about healthcare. Don’t believe me? Here is a wonderful lecture I heard this summer entitled “Health Economics”, where Walter Block seeks to show how socialized medicine cannot work and how free markets are a better solution.
I fully intended to wake up this morning and write about the correlation between central banking and war, but I could not overlook the hullabaloo from our friends in Washington. I can only hope that this article will be an eye-opener for our readers, and possibly serve as a call to action for those who are weary about government control in the private sector.