Problem Number 2: Cost

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the estimated cost of implementing H.R. 3200 would be aproximately 1.042 Trillion dollars over the first 10 years. The report suggests that they would offset $219 billion of the cost through savings in other areas. Another $583 billion would come from increased revenue(i.e. taxes). So what about the remaining $239 billion? There is no plan to pay for that at all. It would simply be tacked on to our nations perpetually growing debt.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention one small detail. The initial estimate of 1.042 trillion only covers the plan itself, but "does not include federal administrative costs or account for all effects on other federal programs," according to the CBO's report.

You can read the full report here:
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/104xx/doc10464/hr3200.pdf

Whether you like the idea of government run healthcare or not, I ask one simple question, "Where is a government with a current debt of 11.7 trillion dollars going to get this money?"

Problem Number 1: Unfair Competition

I've been so busy lately I haven't had time to sit down and put together a well written entry on the Health care bill, but I need to at least thow out a few thoughts.

The health care bill, as it currently stands, would create what is being called a "Public Option." Public Option basically means a government owned and operated insurance company would be created and insurance plans would be offered to anyone who can't get, or doesn't want, an insurance plan from a private insurance company. Problem number 1: Unfair competition. President Obama insists that private insurance companies would not be affected and that it is not the intent of this bill to put anyone out of business. Unfortunately, what one says, and what actually happens, are not always the same thing. I would ask any sensible person to consider the following scenario and then explain to me, if you can, why you think this scenario is not possible.

Scenario:
The Government health plan is put in place and is up and running. It is in direct competition with private companies. The government wants more people to switch to their plan so they offer a better plan for a better price; possibly even free. Private insurances lower their prices and alter their plans in order to compete. The government continues to be more competitive even though it is losing money. The government plan stays afloat because it is paid for by tax dollars. If they run out of money they simply raise taxes, print more, or move money from other areas. Eventually, private companies can no longer compete and they go out of business. People have no choice but to switch to the government plan. Now the government has complete control over all health care in our country.

I suppose it's time for me to write on Healthcare reform (Otherwise known as Universal Healthcare, Socialized Healthcare, Nationalized Healthcare). It is one of the biggest domestic political issues our nation has faced in a long time but I have held off addressing it until now because, until recently, there has not been anything official. We knew what politicians were in favor, and which against, but now we finally have a bill to look at. Of course there may be other bills proposed later, or the text of one bill may be included in a new bill, but for now, here is what we have:

Number: H.R. 3200
Full Title: To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.
Short Title: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009
Status: Reviewed by Committee and recommended to the House
Size: 1017 page as an Adobe PDF file
Full text: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h3200ih.txt.pdf

I have only done a little research so far, but already I have found some very disturbing details to discuss. However, because the bill is so long, I will simply give the general info here, then create a seperate entry for each individual topic. Stay tuned...

The Tenth Ammendment, What's That?

There is something very interesting going on at the state level of government that could be very significant in protecting our rights and freedoms. It has to do with the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution. In the early days of our country there was a lot of debate about how much control and authority the new national government should have over the States. In fact, it was one of the major topics of concern during the three and half months that state representatives spent debating and designing the Constitution. Three years after the Constitution was completed, the Tenth Amendment was added as part of the “Bill of Rights” to make sure there could be no misunderstanding as to limits of Federal Government power. Nevertheless, more than 200 years later, this debate is still going on. Once you have read the amendment, there can be no misunderstanding as to its meaning. It reads,

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

In other words, the federal government can do nothing except what is specifically granted them by the Constitution. All other issues fall to the State. The federal government has, many times in the past, exceeded this limit, but never more so than now. Even the States themselves are beginning to worry, as evidenced by the actions of the State of Alaska. On July 10th of this year the Governor and legislature of Alaska signed a joint resolution officially declaring their sovereignty and reaffirming their rights as expressed in the Tenth Amendment. The resolution “claims sovereignty for the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.” The resolution passed the House and Senate with a total of 77 in favor and 0 opposed.
Common sense would question whether this resolution was even necessary. After all, The States already have these rights, with or without the resolution. Yet, for obvious reasons, they felt it was necessary to remind the federal government that the States have not forgotten the Constitution, and that they intend to uphold it.

It is important to note that at least 36 other states have already passed, or have in the works, similar resolutions.