We Can't Afford Another Entitlement

Within days of his inauguration President Obama asked Congress to pass an economic stimulus bill. He said that it had to be done quickly and he wanted it to be bi-partisan, but left the details up to the Democrats in the House of Representatives. When Republicans offered to confer on what should be included in the bill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "we won, we'll write it". The result was a bloated bill, filled with virtually everything on the Democratic wish list they have been wanting for years. Most of the spending in that bill would not take place until long after the immediate crisis was expected to end. Because of the perceived urgency in the economy, the bill was passed without most in congress reading it in its entirety.

In the midst of what has been called the worst economic crises since the Great Depression, The President asked that a cap and trade bill be passed by congress. The house has passed that bill which, if passed by the Senate, will reduce greenhouse emissions in the United States, and move those emissions to other countries who will get the jobs we will lose with less regard for the environment than what we have here in the United States. So global warming will not be helped & a weak economy in the USA will be weakened further.

Now the President wants us to pass a healthcare bill that will establish another entitlement in our system. We are facing the bankruptcy of both Social Security and Medicare, and he wants another, more pervasive and costly entitlement. He says it will help our economic predicament, as if his saying so will make it true. It will not.

Each of these bills deal with goals that most Americans can agree need to be addressed. But they can be done in a way that is reasonable rather than partisan. The healthcare bill before congress is something we can't afford. Remember when we didn't buy things we couldn't afford? This is one of those times. There are things we can do to improve the healthcare delivery system without creating a universal entitlement. Because the Democrats won large majorities in both houses and the Presidency does not mean they ought to rule as despots. They can try ruling as statesmen.