Often I hear people talking about the dilemma of health care in our country and in the course of the conversation, the following question comes up…….”what’s so wrong with the Federal Government taking over and running health care in the United States?”…….So…what is wrong with that question, you might ask? Other than the obvious fact that it contains the words…”taking over”…..”running”……and “Federal Government”…..all in the same sentence……I guess there is nothing at all wrong with it.
The following is taken from a news story that was written by Paul Kane, a reporter for the Washington Post. The story was published on June 9, 2009……
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“Year after year, decade upon decade, the U.S. Senate's network of restaurants has lost staggering amounts of money -- more than $18 million since 1993, according to one report, and an estimated $2 million this year alone, according to another……
…..The financial condition of the world's most exclusive dining hall and its affiliated Capitol Hill restaurants, cafeterias and coffee shops has become so dire that, without a $250,000 subsidy from taxpayers, the Senate won't make payroll next month.”
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First let me say…..”I am SO sorry to hear that”…..Then let me offer up some facts as why this little endeavor doesn’t work very well……..
One reason could be that the average Senate food service worker makes $37,000 per year….keep in mind that’s PLUS full government employee benefits. Another reason for this fiasco was clearly pointed out in a quote by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) "financially breaking even has not been the objective of the current management due to an expectation that the restaurants will operate at a deficit annually."……So let me get this straight….They don’t expect it to even BREAK EVEN?.....Much less turn a profit?.....But at least she explained herself in the next part of that same quote…..it is simply “due to an expectation that the restaurants will operate at a deficit annually“…..Well that makes perfectly good sense doesn’t it?....If you have NO expectation of making a profit…..then you PROBABLY WONT.
That’s the problem with anything the government runs….there is no expectation for it to break even….which means that they plan on EVERYTHING losing money. Here’s another brilliant quote by Sen. Feinstein…”There are parts of government that can be run like a business and should be run like businesses."……Really?....Do you think so?....Here’s an idea…how about all of the government being run like a business?....That means that you don’t pay people for simply showing up for work, they have to actually work to keep their job….if they are not productive…they no longer have a job. How about paying people in the government a wage that is comparable to the same job in a “privately” run business? How about if you can’t at least "break even"….you get shut down…..or you figure out ways to cut costs to bring expenses back in line with the income. (That’s what American families are forced to do every day) How about raising the prices in the restaurants, and telling the Senators if they don’t like it….then they can go out to McDonalds and eat lunch? Why is it that the simple, everyday principles that apply to most families and privately held business, don’t apply to the government?
The following is from another report in the New York Post dated August 6, 2009…”The U.S. Postal Service lost $2.4 billion in the quarter that ended June 30 and forecasts a $7 billion loss for the fiscal year”….Yet another example of a government-run “business”. That’s $19,178,082.19 per day that the Post Office loses (that’s based on being open 365 days per year….which we know isn’t the case) So ask yourself this……Is there any other business in the history of the world that could lose billions of dollars year in and year out….and still be operating? This is just one more example of when the government is involved in anything….the cost of operation skyrockets due to bureaucracy, inept leadership, (dare I say the “U” word?), overspending, waste….and mostly…well…honestly…because it can…..Of course there’s also that fact that everyone expected it to lose money anyway….That way if, and when, it loses billions of dollars a year, no one is surprised and no one loses their job. Again I ask you….would that work in the REAL world? If you were put in charge of running a business and it lost money (a LOT of money) year after year…..do you think you would still get your 6 weeks of vacation and a bonus?....No…you would get fired.
Yet Congress continues to operate in a deficit year after year…..they call it deficit spending…..YOUR bank would call it an OVERDRAFT or Not Sufficient Funds on the check you wrote. Deficit spending is simply spending money that you don’t have…..That is impossible because we all know that you can’t spend money that you don’t have….Right?....Well unless you are the government….
So we have established that the government doesn’t know how to live within its means, when it comes to running any type of program……(There are PLENTY more examples….however these are just a couple of obvious ones)….To overcome any financial shortfalls that they might have, the government has a couple of methods that they usually resort to….First, raise taxes. It’s especially popular to raise taxes on people who have been successful in business…..and then of course, the business itself. Never mind that these people and these businesses were successful because they didn’t run their business the way the government runs theirs…..Some of those successful people sacrificed and did without everything they “just had to have” for a long time before they finally “made it”. But not the government…..Rather than reeling in spending and waste….they would rather take it from those who have succeeded doing things the right way.
So that brings us to Health Care……If they cant run a restaurant and the Post Office…..do you REALLY think that all of those estimates, for how much this little baby is going to cost, are anywhere close to being accurate? Of course not…How about this….You prove to me that you can do something right…before I give you something as important as health care to run.
Another fallacy……well actually not a fallacy…..just an out and out lie….is that having a government option will provide competition and will in turn, bring prices down….Really?...We have seen that anything that the government touches has far more expense associated with it that ANY privately run company. (see the above examples) If the government runs health care like they run everything else….the end result will be that they have to charge MORE than the privately run companies not LESS. It is also a lie that it will bring about competition…..It can’t…What it WILL do is put those privately run companies out of business…..Why you ask?....Because in order for them to stay in business, they have to take in more money than they spend…..plain and simple business. On the other hand the government DOESN’T have to do that….they can lose billions and billions of dollars….year after year…and keep right on going. Everybody gets to keep their job and they just raise taxes or print more money to make up the “deficit”. Of course you understand that when all of the privately run health insurance companies are gone….forced out of business…..the government will raise the prices of your insurance….Why?.....Because NOW there is NO competition.
I am not in the insurance business nor do I have any vested interest in the insurance business (or as Michael Vick would say…”I don’t have a dog in this here fight”)….But I think that before we run off willy-nilly (don’t you just love that term?....I can’t say that I have actually ever used it before….so I hope I spelled it correctly, so as not to offend you regular users of the term “willy-nilly”)…Anyway….where was I?......Oh yeah, although I have no vested interest in the insurance industry….I do have a family…..and personally I would rather have their health care company run by some evil capitalist corporate CEO….than by some politician who cant run a coffee shop without losing millions of someone else’s money. I think it's time to fire some government employees.....and Congress sounds like a good place to start……Then Again….That’s Just Me
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