Sunday, March 21, 2010

The Economic Consequences of THE BILL

The Health Care Bill will pass today. While it may hurt the Democrats politically come November, it will, in the long-run be a net positive for their Party, at least until the effects of this and the accumulated entitlements of the past 70 years catch up with them (and the Republicans) and ruin our currency and our economy.

How have we gotten to this point? It’s a drug called entitlements. It started innocuously enough as a scheme to provide some minimal money to the elderly poor in their declining years. It passed with only 35 or so votes against it. It had vast bi-partisan support. But instead of just providing support for a specific poor group, it was decided to make it a “social insurance” program to which ALL would entitled. In this way the initial recipients would not have the stigma of receiving charity. And since everyone would benefit eventually it guaranteed support (purchased votes) from the Republicans. With that vote we began our gradual slide to economic Armageddon.

The vote today provides another opportunity to addict the American people on the Entitlement Drug. It is a difficult drug to eschew. As more and more people become addicted to the new entitlement the power of the Democrats will grow. Given in small doses over time, it can hook the even most moral, liberty loving citizen.

For example, the Tea Party movement professes to be a lover of liberty and individual responsibility. But, how many of them are willing to give up their Social Security? I think, not many. They know full well there is no account in their name that is their money. They know full well that they’ll be taking money from their younger fellow citizens. They will rationalize their position because they’ve been taxed for 40 years and are therefore entitled to the benefit. And by law, they’re right, but morally, money taken from them by force should not entitle them to extract money from their fellow citizens by force.

Earlier this week Rush Limbaugh mentioned a group of seniors who traveled by bus to Washington to spend a single day lobbying their Representatives. Their complaint is the $500B cut in THEIR Medicare. They’re concern that expanding this entitlement will reduce THEIR entitlement…..this is what we’ve become, a bunch of pigs at the public trough fighting for our morsel.

The cost of this Bill is astronomical. Instead of the almost $1T estimated cost over 10 years it’ll probably be closer to $2.4T; this on top of an estimated $1T ANNUAL deficits EVERY year for the next 10 years. With a current debt of $14T, we’re facing a potential debt of $26.4T DEBT by 2019. And this may be low. At some point the only choice will be printing money to reduce the debt through inflation. Our currency will then devalue at an accelerated pace, leading to a monetary and economic crisis.

If there is a positive side to this vote it is a rather macabre one; an extreme economic crisis brought on by government greed MAY wake the people up to the brilliance of our founding principles; individually responsibility, limited government, economic liberty and peace.

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