Words of Truth

I read an article for one of my classes in grad school today. The article says that in July the Supreme Court settled the question of whether health care is a right. I don’t believe the question is settled at all.  I spoke with another nurse a few weeks ago who said health care should be free. I pointed out that people paid her for healthcare, because that’s her job.  So if health care is free, she wouldn’t get paid.

Here’s a parallel: I think we would all agree that it would be a great thing if food were free. You know, walk into the store, pick whatever food you want, and walk out.  The only question is: who pays the farmer? Who pays the guy who makes the equipment the farmer uses?  Who pays the truck driver bringing the food to market?  Who pays the owner of the building where the market is for electricity, heating/cooling, etc?  Who pays the employees that stock the shelves?  Who pays the people who make the packaging for the food? Who pays the inspectors that ensure the food is safe?  The list goes on, and none of these people work for free.  The same is true for health care.

Ultimately what it comes down to is this:  Health care is a service, and services cannot be guaranteed to anyone. Services are paid for.  Can anybody name one service that is 100% free? I can’t think of any.  Oh, sure, there are things that certain people don’t pay for, but they aren’t really “free” because someone is paying for them.  And that’s what we have with our healthcare system: care that is paid for by other people.  So when Jim goes to the hospital, and he has no money, he tells his Uncle Sam that he can’t afford health care, and his Uncle Sam gets Bob (who has more money than Jim) to foot the bill.  So ultimately the question of health care comes down to economics:  does the government have the right to take your money away and give it to someone else who they think needs it more than you?

I read “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand for the first time last year. While I don’t support everything in the book, the basic idea is that there are two types of people:  workers and looters.  Workers do just that:  they work hard to provide a living for their families, and want to enjoy the fruits of their labor.  Looters live their lives always trying to figure out how to get something for nothing. In other words, looters want to enjoy the fruits of OTHER people’s labor.

When I read the book last year, I understood that our country was at a crossroads, but I had hope that all we had to do was wait another year, and we could begin to correct the problem in our country: get some conservative people in office that believe in limited government, individual property rights, and fiscal responsibility.

We all know how that turned out.  And for the first time in my life, I find myself believing that there is a very real possibility that our country will not survive.  We have too many people with grabby hands that want to take what other people have worked for. We have too many politicians willing to promise free stuff in order to get elected.  Hard choices need to be made, and that isn’t popular.

One of my favorite movies is “I Remember Momma.”  There’s a scene where the oldest son wants to go to high school, but they don’t have enough money.  The members of the family make financial sacrifices: some promise to work to bring in extra money, the father decides he will give up the luxury of his pipe tobacco, etc.  That is the American spirit.  If that play were written today, it would have ended with the family crying about the fact that Old Man Wilson who lives across the street is rich enough that he could pay for all of them to go to school. Then the kids would have “occupied” the Wilson’s front lawn until they paid for Nels to go to high school.

Atlas Shrugged is the story of a country where the workers get fed up, and leave the looters to form their own community.  They allow the country to collapse in on itself simply by their absence.  They refuse to continue to have their hard work and innovative ideas bled dry by those who have nothing to contribute.  I can certainly see Rand’s point of view. The party that is the United States is coming to an end, and we will be left with the check.

I sit here five days after an election where half the country chose to reelect a President that has spent the past four years spending money that we don’t have hand over fist, and giving away free stuff at record rates.  It is only after the election that we are hearing about the “Fiscal Cliff.”  This country is indeed on a precipice, and I am afraid that the man at the wheel is putting his foot on the gas.  I know my liberal friends will disagree with me, but that is how I see things.  If any of my liberal friends care to respond, please tell me how I am wrong, not just that I am wrong.  How can I believe that a President who sunk us into more debt than we have ever had is going to somehow reverse this trend and bring us back from the brink?

I’m tired of arguing with people who refuse to see the truth that is right in front of them. I’m tired to trying to explain things to people who won’t listen. I’m tired of having half my income taken away from me and given to other people.   I’m just tired of this whole thing.

I have talked to people in the past few years that say our country (and therefore, the world) is headed for economic collapse. I used to smile at that, since I had faith in the American People.  I had faith they would see the light, and realize that something needs to be done.  I don’t have that faith anymore.  Now I believe there is a very large chance that our country could collapse in the next decade.   I now believe my father’s advice, that in the new economy, food and firearms will be the currency of the day. If you have food but not firearms, you will soon have neither.  If you have firearms but not food, you will starve.

I don’t know when the economy will collapse.  I don’t know if our country will rise from the ashes, but I do know that I am simply tired of fighting.  Half of you out there agree with me, and the other half thinks I’m an idiot.  I can live with that.  Can you?

You know how when someone runs for President and loses, and they crawl off into their hole, only to be heard from rarely?  I wish the entire party leadership would do that. Let me explain:

Here’s the list of the Presidential losers for the past three decades (not counting Carter and Bush 41):

Mitt Romney, John McCain, John Kerry, Al Gore, Bob Dole, Michael Dukakis, and Walter Mondale.

All of these guys crawled off and did not assume any kind of party leadership position.  Some did commercials, some made movies about fake climate problems, and some just faded into obscurity.

I wish the current party leadership would do that. I’m looking at you, Karl Rove.  I’m looking at all the people who are at the head of the Republican party.  They all need to go now, because they have failed.  Promoting two moderate Republican candidates (with token conservative VP candiates) two elections in a row and losing should tell them this strategy DOES. NOT. WORK.

On another note, I found this website tonight.  It shows you the vote tally (popular AND electoral) for every election from 1789 onward.  For instance, did you know Henry Clay ran for President three times (1824, 1832, and 1844)?  I thought it was interesting he didn’t run in consecutive elections (like Ross Perot), but he took time off.

I always thought that the Whig party was around from the beginning until the Civil war period when the Republican party started.  Nope. The Whig party didn’t come about until 1836, and only lasted until 1856. Twenty years.

I also found it interesting that the southern states almost always voted Democrat until 1960 when Barry Goldwater turned the entire southern bloc (from LA over to GA) red. With very few exceptions, these states have voted Republican ever since.

I think it’s interesting that today we KNOW that the entire left coast (CA, OR, and WA) is going to vote Democrat, and yet it wasn’t that long ago that it almost always voted Republican.  As a matter of fact, with only four exceptions and not counting the FDR years (when the entire country went Democrat), California was red from 1988 all the way back to 1860. But they’ve been blue since 1992.

This all makes me wonder what’s going to happen in the future. Will our country continue to get more and more blue?  Will something happen to change people’s minds? Who knows (short answer: God does)?

In other news, evidently Puerto Rico had a referendum yesterday where they expressed their preference to become the 51^st state.  So there’s that.

The problem with this election is not that our only choices are Romney or Obama. The problem with this election is that some people believe that one of these two men are the answer to our problems.

Assuming this thing is settled tomorrow night, half the country will wake up Wednesday morning happy that “the right man” was elected.  Half the country will wake up despondent because “the right man” wasn’t elected.  Which half is correct?

It is my position that the people who think the right man got elected are fooling themselves.  Neither of these guys has the power to fix this country.  I don’t know if either has the will or the drive to do so, but they don’t have the power.  That’s because our country’s problems cannot be fixed by government.  THAT is something that Ronald Reagan taught us.  I always laugh when a candidate tells me he is like Ronald Reagan, and he’s going to fix my problems, because Reagan said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

Reagan also said, “The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much. To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last – but eat you he will.”

On Wednesday morning, no matter who gets elected, we will wake up with a one trillion dollar deficit (meaning we are spending a trillion dollars a year MORE than what we make), and a 16 trillion dollar debt.  In 2011 our government had revenue of 2.3 trillion dollars.  Our expenses for that same year totaled 3.6 trillion dollars. This is like a family of four that makes fifty thousand dollars a year, spends 82 thousand dollars a year, and has outstanding debt of 350 thousand dollars.  And that debt is growing by 32 thousand every year.  This is unsustainable.

So I pity whoever wakes up on Wednesday morning as the new President-elect (or reelected President), and I pity equally whoever wakes up thinking they will be able to solve our problems.  Because I truly believe it’s just a matter of time for our country.  I am thankful that I was born in the United States of America, and I am still hopeful, that, should Jesus not return by then, I will be able to tell my grandchildren what it was like living in a free society.  I am thankful that I have a wife and children who love me and a God who cares for me and has a plan for my life.  But I do not put my faith in politicians, and neither should you.