- Sept. 25, 2019
- 3 min read
One of the many truisms about the political debates in America is how incredibly predictable they are. If you look at any of the positions of Democratic candidates for president, and their counterparts in Congressional leadership, and ask what position they are likely to take on any issue, the answer can usually be found by answering this question: what will give them the most power?
The key motivator for those on the left is not to improve lives, make the nation stronger, or curb the heartbreak of psoriasis; it is to increase their power. Examples to the contrary are as hard to find as the tooth fairy, Sasquatch, or moderate Democrats.
Nearly every position they take ensures their election, makes government bigger, appeals to some special interest group, and takes freedom away from you. Consider health care.
For years it was widely accepted that health insurance was too expensive and out of reach for many Americans. Total health care spending at all levels of government grew from around 10% in 1960 to about half in 2010. So, seeing government control, spending, and prices increase exponentially together, Democrats decided that the answer is to keep trying more of the same thing. So, we got Obamacare, which was supposed to be the solution and passed without a single Republican vote.
Now, the Democrats still say we have a crisis. That is, the government takeover of healthcare, which they championed, is now criticized as a disaster. So, their solution is… more of the same. Many of them want to eliminate private health insurance, taking it away from the 90 million people who currently have it, and put the whole country on a government plan. All the time, their power increases, government grows, and your freedom is diminished.
We’re not particularly fans of Mitch McConnell (although he is hugely preferable to the alternative), but made the same observations previously, here. Every legislative debate ultimately revolves around how much it will cost and how much government will grow.
Other nations often spend more on health care. Total governmental spending has roughly doubled in fifty years. Those who think government is the cure to every problem and that every nation with socialized medicine does a better job than we do will think this is an argument in your favor. If you like massive tax increases and rationing of health care, you will be right.
Note two sleights of hand; the first is the assertion that health insurance is a “right,” something that is so essential to human life that only Nazis, trolls, and Amway salesmen could be depraved enough to deny it. For some reason, things like food and shelter are not considered a “right,” even though you will die more quickly when denied food than you will when denied health insurance.
The other switcheroo is the phony notion that somehow health insurance equals health care. It does not. Many millions who technically have insurance can’t get care because they have huge deductibles. We have personal experience with Obamacare, which covers us once we’ve spent $5,000 out of pocket in one year, and if the doctor’s visit or procedure we want covered took place during a total solar eclipse.
Again, the goal of the Left is not to provide care; the goal is to make Americans dependent on government for insurance. If their goal was to provide care, they would allow the sale of health insurance across state lines, implement market-based reforms, increase competition, and allow the importation of cheap drugs. They oppose these proposals.
It’s an axiom that is tired (like “tropes,” “axioms” seem to always be tired; they need more sleep) but generally holds true: insanity is doing the same thing but expecting different results. Nothing more accurately or succinctly sums up the approach of the Left.