Terry Kinder
- If government competition in the health insurance industry is a good thing, then why not allow competition with the Post Office for delivering the mail?
- If the government has identified billions of dollars in fraud and abuse where it can save the taxpayers money, why doesn't it end that fraud and abuse now and then issue a public report?
- If government competition in the health insurance industry is necessary, should the government provide competition to charitable organizations such as Red Cross by establishing a competing organization?
- If government wants competition in the health insurance industry funded with taxpayer money, then why doesn't it support increased competition in education and public schools?
- After Cash for Clunkers, and the late payments to dealers that participated in the program, do you trust the government will pay as quickly or more quickly than your insurance company?
- Who would you rather discuss your insurance options with - an insurance agent, or an employee of the government?
- Government spent rather than: a) investing or b) saving the money entrusted to it by the taxpayers in the Social Security Trust fund. Despite this bad faith on their part, they won't allow you to control even a small percentage of your own retirement money. Do you trust government to spend your health care dollar better than you could yourself?
- Government programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid often restrict your ability to earn a living - making you dependent on government to survive. Would Health Care Reform be different?
- Health Care Reform includes provisions to unionize hospitals. High union benefits were part of what made General Motors (GM) uncompetitive with other auto makers and, ultimately, bankrupted them. Will health care reform yield the same results in our health care system?
- Bureaucracies are often "captured" by the very businesses they are designed to regulate. Will government health care run this same risk and result in a bureaucracy that does the bidding of the very people they are supposed to regulate?
- At what point does compassion to do for others what they can't do for themselves become doing for those that could, but don't, because we do it for them?
- What are rights?
- If government provides my health care, can it tell me how to live my life? Can it tell me what to eat, drink, and more?
- With 100 trillion or more in unmet Social Security, Medicare, Medicare Part D, and Medicaid obligations, should we meet our current obligations first before we take on new ones?
- Inflation is defined as an increase in the money supply. The law of supply and demand is central to determining the prices of goods and services. Government controls the supply of money. Is it wise to give government the additional power to regulate health care and significant influence over the supply and price of health care? If a private company had that much power, would we accuse it of being a monopoly?
- Will government health care attempt to reduce budget expenses by controlling price? Past government efforts and imposing price controls throughout history have failed, resulting in shortages and higher prices.
- Life often requires us to make choices. We have limited time and money. If Health Care Reform is important, should we consider eliminating less important government programs, or making cuts to current programs in order to finance it? What programs would you cut?
- Has Congress done any in-depth evaluations of state efforts at health care reform? If so, what were the conclusions? If Congress hasn't taken a look, why not?
- If Health Care Reform is a priority why not:
- Roll out a pilot program in one state.
- Allow the state to be chosen by a vote of the people. State with the highest percentage of voter in favor of entering the pilot program would be selected.
- Freeze all federal spending as well as the debt ceiling during the pilot program.
- If pilot program goes over budget, does not achieve defined results, is not deficit neutral as determined by a third party, then any Congressional Representative or Senator that voted for the pilot agrees to resign from office immediately and retire from public life.
One parting question. When President Obama campaigned using the slogan "Yes We Can," was we just a nice way of saying government? If so, maybe the slogan should be changed to "The Government Can." Luckily, for us, comedian Tim Hawkins has a video parody of the same title sang to the tune of "The Candy Man." Enjoy.
As to your question #12 above, I tried to crystalize an answer to that one a while back at:
http://waronsocialism.com/2009/07/06/hayek-and-de-toqueville-on-socialism/