Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Obama touts benefits of ACA (but not costs)


Here’s the scene: Speaking from the Rose Garden, our president, flanked by a few poor souls who lack health insurance, decried that Republicans were trying to thwart some Americans’ access to healthcare.  The implication is “why would anyone want to deny someone access to healthcare?”  Why, that’s inhumane!  The president went on to say that thanks to him, these folks now have access to affordable care.

I guess we’re to believe that benefits such as healthcare flow like honey from government coffers.  “Why, without someone in Washington fighting for us, we’d have no healthcare!” many might proclaim.

The undeniable and inescapable fact, though, is much less appealing:  the government must first take from Group A and then give to Group B (here, in the form of health insurance).  Some will be made better off ONLY at another’s expense.  If I robbed John at gun point and used the stolen cash to visit the dentist, I’m still a thief.  Theft is theft.  However, our government can perpetrate the same crime except now it’s legal theft.  What was once considered outright stealing has been deemed humanitarian, compassionate, civilized, etc.
  
A more honest approach would have been for the president to man-up, face the cameras and accept partial responsibility for the lousy economy and lack of jobs – jobs that could have provided these folks with affordable health insurance.

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