Merry Christmas...from Congress to your Home

Right now in Congress there a lot of senators and staff members running around in the capitol's halls. Usually the busy-ness of the holidays results from last minute gift shopping. Well, I hate to break it to you, but this year Congress is trying to get you a healthcare bill by Christmas Day. Yes, that's right. If all goes as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wishes, the Senate will be voting on the Healthcare bill at 7pm on Christmas Eve. I'm afraid however that this bill definitely won't be one of your favorite gifts this year. Let's see if I can explain.

A lot of people recognize that Healthcare in our nation needs some kind of face lift. In the United States, 15% of the population is uninsured and more money per person is spent on healthcare costs in the United States than any other country. In addition, United States healthcare spending is currently at 16% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP), second behind only East Timor (anyone know where that is?). The graph below compares our spending with other post-industrial developed countries. Basically, we've got issues.



So how do we control costs while covering more Americans? Much of the debate has resolved around the public option. What is a public option? A government-run healthcare option that competes with private plans. Do we really want the government running our healthcare? They already waste our taxpayer dollars, why give them more? Considering its record with Medicaid and Medicare, I don't think so. Greg Mankiw, a prominent economist and the author of my macro-economics textbook, explains the following about the public option:

"Consumer choice and honest competition are indeed the foundation of a successful market system, but they are usually achieved without a public provider. We don’t need government-run grocery stores or government-run gas stations to ensure that Americans can buy food and fuel at reasonable prices.

Similarly, a public health insurance plan would enjoy the presumption of a government backstop. Such explicit or implicit subsidies would prevent a public plan from providing honest competition for private suppliers of health insurance. Instead, the public plan would likely undercut private firms and get an undue share of the market."

In short, taxpayer supported government-run healthcare would eventually lead to a single-payer system which means less choices and likely more expensive and higher overall spending. But I think my 13-year-old brother-in-law said it best:

Bob (name changed): Do I have to sweep the floor after you cut my hair? Bob's mother: Yes, it's your hair. Bob: Sounds like Obama's healthcare plan. We don't want it but have to pay it for it anyway.

So how do you keep costs down while covering more people? Though I am no healthcare erudite, it seems to me that we want competition among private insurers while providing light regulation to maintain a safety-net for those needing help and preventing excessive pharmaceutical gorging.

Let's leave healthcare to the people by giving them the freedom to choose and to reap the consequences of their choices. Let's keep this country the land of the free...

Why start a blog now?

Welcome everyone to my new political blog. I hope this blog will give you an opportunity to better understand the political happenings in our nation and the consequences of those decisions. Likewise, if you feel inspired to get involved in some way then I encourage you to do so. What this world needs now more than ever is good people who will defend the principles they hold dear. Edmund Burke, an ancient conservative English philosopher, is attributed to having said that "all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." I believe that definitely applies to us as citizens of our communities, nations, and the world. Let us do our part, no matter how small it may be, in improving this world and leaving it a better place than when we entered it. I tip my hat in particular to... mothers who actually take time and effort to teach and love our nation's children...fathers who actually father their children and teach them principles of hard work and discipline...individuals who are honest in their dealings and inspire others to do the same...families who struggle with life's many challenges yet continue to fight on...and many others.

We live in a unique time when for better or worse there is change in the air. The U.S. Congress is currently debating overhauling our nation's healthcare. Do we really want government running our healthcare? We have been fighting an elusive and dangerous enemy in Afghanistan for the past 8 years. What do we do now? Our national debt continues to grow to astronomical levels as tax and spend congressional representatives ignore any sense of fiscal responsibility. Is there any way to turn it around? Issues like these are defining our times and, for better or worse, affecting generations yet unborn.

As I blog and analyze different issues by providing my personal reaction to different events, I hope you the readers will provide comments and reactions to my postings whether you agree or disagree. Civil discourse and debate I believe makes us more educated and thus better citizens. Yes, I consider myself a conservative, but my opinions continue to be refined. While I have personally participated in politics thus far many times through the Republican party, I consider the party more a vehicle for social change than a box in which my opinions must conform. So I invite people of all political and social persuasions to join me in discussing the issues and improving this nation we all love.

Francis Scott Key, while aboard a British flagship during the war of 1812 penned the immortal words, "the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave." Are we going to keep it that way? Join me on this journey...