Freedom of Speech

From Juneau it might have been difficult to contribute some cogent thoughts on health care, but freed from those constraints and relocated onto the national stage, former Gov. of Alaska, Sarah Palin waxes eloquent in the Wall Street Journal:

Ignore the Past, Embrace the Dream

She points out the obvious and in the process demonstrates the distortions of the administration. The Messia seeks measured discourse, talking "with each other rather than over each other." She smacks him down with common sense, quotes from the congressional budget office and a large dose of common sense.

How can anyone accept the proposals of the President? Take what you know and apply it. Medicare has all workers paying to insure a few, the elderly. That insurance is barely adequate as most folks will need a supplement to really pay the bills. It is already a band-aid solution (no healthcare pun intended.) Many doctors opt not to accept Medicare patients because of the inadequacy.

Now, you are asked to believe that healthcare benefits will be extended by this same bureaucracy to everyone. That necessitates acceptance that the existing base of payers (i.e. all workers) will be able to insure a group five times as large without getting a huge tax increase in the form of Medicare withholding.

Then accept that existing Medicare coverage will be improved while at the same time reducing costs. That is the classic conundrum of doing more with less. Maybe spinning straw into gold would be a better metaphor for our presidential Rumpelstiltskin.

Top the whole sundae with the requirement to believe that a non-profit, bureaucrat operated, mandatory-or-be-fined, public option insurance won't damage private insurance options. Remember that the government will regulate, mandate and handicap the free-enterprise companies along the way.

Listen carefully to the discussion which has gone on regarding "death panels." Throw out the inflammatory nickname. Simply consider the end-of-life options. Is care efficacious at that point? If you are concerned with cutting costs won't you inevitably ration?

Examine all of the other national healthcare experiments. Check numbers to evaluate. Still believe it is a good idea?

Read Gov. Palin, then get involved.