Taxation without representation. That was one of the important reasons why the US split away from Britain two and a half centuries ago. We were being treated as slaves, our resources were plundered, and we had no say in the matter. Today with the Obama Health Care package, we are facing that problem once again. If you would listen to all news sources, you would know that there is serious opposition to having a government health care or health insurance program. A recent poll found that 53% of Americans oppose the government health care legislation. Obama’s approval rating has falling to below 50% in part because he is trying to push this on us. People don’t want to have to wait 8 months to see a doctor. People don’t want to be put on a waiting list for two years because their condition is considered non-critical. People don’t want the government to have the power to deny treatment to our seniors because it is too expensive and old people are considered too unproductive to be worth it. The US already has a socialized health care system. It’s called the VA. Treatment from the VA isn’t always the best. Often it is far too poor for the people who were willing to sacrifice their life and their health for the rest of us. Remember the Walter Reed Hospital scandal? Is that where you’d want to go for health care? Is that were you want to take your children and have to worry that roaches aren’t crawling over your sick kid or getting into his food? If you don’t want to get health treatment in the Canadian/British style healthcare systems that our government is trying to force on us, which country are you going to for health care? America is usually the place from other countries that people come to in order to make sure they get the treatment they want or need now, even if it costs them their house, because they value their lives more. They should have the freedom to make that decision on their own. Now you might argue that there will be private healthcare or employer provided healthcare but that won’t last forever. How is a company that only makes 1 billion dollars supposed to compete with a government that spends trillions annually and has the (unlawful) legal power to force out the little guys? If you were running a company, would you pay extra for private insurance for your employees, or put them on public health care because you are already paying for that? Even if you would, would your boss make the same decision? Would your neighbors’ and friends’ bosses opt for private health insurance? Look at pensions. Since social security was enacted the number of companies that offered pension plans for the average folks has dwindled to almost zero. If an employer these days offers you a pension he is a rare exception. As pensions have disappeared so will private health insurance options. Even if you support private health care, we can’t afford it right now. Right now Medicare is so much in the red that in the next 20-30 years it will probably cost the US over 50% of the entire national budget. As of today, the US is running a 1.2 trillion dollar deficit (1.8-2 trillion projected for the rest of the year) and is fast approaching the 12.1 trillion dollar national debt limit. To put it simply the US government owes more than the entire nation makes in a year. There is no fiscal responsibility in Washington. At this rate, foreign countries will stop lending us money. Think of it like this, your friend makes $40k a year. He owes you close to $50k (let’s say this is a year’s salary to you). Now he’s asking to borrow another $10k or so. It’s been ages since he’s not borrowed money from you and he needs to borrow cash from you to pay the interest he owes you. Now would you lend that friend more money? Unless you owe him your life or a huge favor, in all likelihood you probably wouldn’t. That’s the problem the US is facing. Now it could print money. But if it printed 1.2-2 trillion dollars that $20 in your wallet today would only be worth about $16-$18 tomorrow. If the government prints even more money, two years from now it might be worth $12 if you are lucky. So even if you would lend that financially irresponsible friend 2 months salary, would you put him in charge of running your kid’s health care? That’s what the government is asking of you. They can’t balance their budgets at all. They weren’t able to properly regulate the banking industry to prevent the collapse of last year. In fact some argue that it was the federal government which told banks to lend money to people who couldn’t pay back the loans: it was the government you are going to trust your and your children’s healthcare to who killed your 401k. The government can’t even accurately predict costs. It put $1 billion into the cash for clunkers program. That was supposed to last the rest of the year. One week after the program started it needed another $2 billion injected into it. If this were national health insurance, the $100 billion yearly price tag would be $300 billion. So who’s going to pay for all this? Stop the war in Iraq? It cost less than $100 billion a year and it’s going to be over this year. Tax the rich? If we took 100% of the income of every millionaire and billionaire in the US we still probably wouldn’t have $100 billion dollars. If we did, we would lose a lot in investment and charity money. Plus do you think the rich people will not find away to pass their costs on to you? Remember they are the ones who give congress huge campaign contributions; there will be a loophole or ten for them. Tax the rich corporations? Do you mean the rich corporations that helped our politicians get elected or the rich corporations that got billions in bailouts because they are buddies with someone in congress? Tax the gas companies? Ok, let’s say we add a $1 per gallon gas tax today. Tomorrow you will pay an extra $1 a gallon for your car and have to pay an increased fuel cost on everything you buy. I mentioned slavery in the opening paragraph because it is relevant today. It is you who will be the one who ends up paying for the debt. It is your children who will be slaves tomorrow because you had to have the government enact another program today. The money has to come from somewhere to pay back 12 trillion dollars and it will be the people who pay. It is always the people who end up paying. So why do you want to pay even more than you already do? Why do you want the government to take $2,000 out of your pocket and tell you which health insurance you can have and when you can have it instead of paying that money yourself and getting the one that you want… or saving the money if you prefer? You are a free person and you have the right to decide these things for yourself. There’s an even more insidious slavery than the one that will involve your children being put in chains to pay for the government’s mismanagement and long waits. You see socialized medicine is a twofold slavery. The second slavery is that of dependence. Once the government gets control over all healthcare because they will have power over you. If they are the ones who give you healthcare they are the ones who can take it away. They will be able to manipulate you because you will be scared to lose your “free” healthcare and won’t have any other options. Look at the elderly. A lot of them depend on their social security checks. That means a lot of them will go a long way to protect that little check that can barely keep them feed. If the government gets complete control of your health care and your children’s health care, you too will put up with a lot of crap just to protect that little bit of health care. Kiser Wilhelm (I think he was the Kiser who said it) of Germany once noted that as long as the people have a little food in their stomachs and a few other basic things, they will tolerate an incredible amount of hardships and tyranny. Take the French Revolution; the French didn’t revolt until they were starving to death. Giving the government any control over anyone’s health care is just another small step towards American tyranny. Fascism will spring up over here if we aren’t careful, but it will do so slower and put on a friendlier face. It will come as your friend even though it means to enslave you. Once you give the government control or power, you can’t easily take it back. Often you need blood to spill in order to regain your freedom. Yes our system is imperfect and yes it can be very expensive to get healthcare, but at least we can get it when we need it. At least we have freedom to choose. Remember liberty as the founders meant it was freedom from government because they knew that governments were evil things which tried to steal as much power and gain as much control as they could. America was once called the Hope of the World because it was an exception to the rule of tyrannical governments. It was a place where you could live your life on your own terms, for better or worse. You could succeed or you could fail, it was up to you. Look at congress and the president today. They don’t hear the dissent. They don’t hear the outrage. They and their friends in most of the media try to denigrate the people who have valid concerns. If you disagree with them, you aren’t a voter and a tax payer you are just some crazy from a special interest group. Instead of waiting they try to force it through. Instead of having fiscal responsibility they put it on the tab once again. Instead of making the legislation understandable they make it 1000 pages long and so convoluted even a congressman needs two lawyers at hand to understand it. Have you read all of it? Did you pay for two lawyers to tell you what everything in Obama Health Care means? Are you sure you want to put blind trust in the government and support this no matter what? Are you willing to bet your freedom and that of your children’s on it? Are you going to let your hearts and passions rule you or are you going to sit down and think about it and all of its implications? If this is a bad thing, even if it has nice intentions, even if you feel sorry for some people, those don’t make this a good thing. If it is a bad thing then it is a bad thing no matter what and it must be stopped. I’m telling you now that this is a bad thing be crafted by bad people to put us in a bad situation. Here is the biggest indicator why Obama Health Care is a bad thing. No one in congress will go on the government health care. No one in congress will put their children on government health care. The president isn’t going on the health care package that he is a primary advocate of. His children will not be on it. That is a huge warning flag that something is up. I mean you don’t see congress putting their kids in the government run public schools. No, their children get the best while in some major cities there is a graduation rate below 50%. Here's another indicator: the government is now compiling an enemies list. They want to know who is saying what for future reference. If this issue was a good one, if this government was a good one, it wouldn't be telling people to snitch on anyone who offers a voice of dissent. The fact that they aren’t slowing down or listening to the people means we are getting dangerously close to becoming a nation of taxation without representation. We are becoming a nation of tyranny and slavery. If we want to be free, if we want our children to be free, we have to draw a line in the sand. We can’t let this or any other measure like it to pass.