AMERICAN ISSUES PROJECT

When President Obama promised during the presidential campaign that he would transform America, the American people did not anticipate that this transformation would manifest itself through a comprehensive overhaul of the American system that has provided so many people comfortable and fulfilling lives. Then-candidate Obama's soaring rhetoric about hope, change, and "yes we can!" appeared to be so optimistic and Reaganesque that voters naturally interpreted his words to mean that he would make America better and more exceptional than it already was.

Then the financial crisis occurred in September of 2008, shaking America to its core. Americans who had been financially responsible and squirreled away money in their 401Ks and IRAs were terrified as they watched the stock market drop precipitously for what seemed like days on end. Large, seemingly stable financial institutions failed. Barack Obama's talk of change and transformation became even more appealing as the crisis worsened. He was elected easily.

It is now nine months after his inauguration and the American people are coming to the realization that the man they hired to fix the country's problems is actually making those problems worse. The Administration promised that unemployment would remain below eight percent if the $787 billion stimulus bill was passed, but the rate is now at 9.8 percent and climbing. Meanwhile, President Obama has traveled the world busily apologizing for America's attempts under past administrations to protect its national security and economic interests. America is not getting stronger or more exceptional. Rather, it is transforming into a limp-wristed nanny-state not much different from those in Europe, complete with approximately forty czars who have as much if not more influence and power than the cabinet secretaries they serve under.

With dramatic increases in the size and scope of government, Americans fear there will be an unprecedented intrusion into their lives.

The laws of physics tell us that no two objects can occupy the same space at the same time. This principle also applies to the question of government versus freedom. Freedom cannot thrive when government continues to grow and takes over industries and services that were previously in the hands of the free market. As government control, regulations and taxes increase, freedom of choice retreat at a similar rates. As government control, regulations and taxes decrease, freedom grows and fills the void that government once held.

Nothing embodies this struggle better, perhaps, than the president's proposed health care overhaul. Very few people would argue that our health care system should remain as it currently is. Virtually everyone acknowledges that it needs reform; however, the kind of reform the president and the nanny-staters want to achieve is centered on government playing a much larger role in the delivery of health care. Many nanny-staters want a public option, which is just another way of defining government-run health care. Several liberal members of Congress have insisted that the health care bill that will land on the president's desk will have a public option. If the president signs a health care reform bill with a public option, the American people will see their freedoms and choices slip out of their control.

The Baucus health care proposal that was just passed out of the Senate Finance Committee will artificially drive up the cost of private health insurance premiums for two reasons. First, health insurance premiums are more expensive than the penalty for not purchasing insurance. At the same time, the cost must be the same whether a person is healthy or sick, leaving no incentive for young, healthy individuals to purchase insurance until after they have become sick. This will leave primarily sick people who are paying into and drawing from the system, driving up costs. Second, insurance companies will be hit with a 40 percent excise tax for the more expensive health care premiums, a cost that will be passed onto consumers. What makes matters significantly worse is that the new tax policies associated with employer provided health insurance will drive down wages. The Joint Committee on Taxation admitted this fact in two separate letters issued on October 13th.

The consequence of these policies is that millions of Americans who want to live their lives independent of government largesse will be forced into a government run plan. But more than that, this kind of government control gives bureaucrats a say in the amount of health care that will be provided and to whom it will be provided. Naturally, the American people, particularly our nation's senior citizens, are very concerned that their access to much needed procedures will be based upon the metric of whether it is financially beneficial to the collective.

We would all be well advised to examine what is happening in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts health care overhaul is experiencing such runaway costs that bureaucrats are now proposing a new pay structure. According to a report in the Boston Globe, this new structure will place an annual limit on what state will pay for individual health care expenses. Not only will this regulation limit which hospitals and specialists patients can see, but those with challenging and expensive medical needs will be especially affected. What happens to chronically ill patients when they reach their allotted yearly expense limit? It is those persons the states sees as undermining the needs of the collective the most and whose care will need to be restricted to keep costs down.

The proposals currently in Congress do not have measures as draconian as those being proposed in Massachusetts. But the plan that was originally implemented in Massachusetts only a few years ago didn't have those draconian measures either; they are the inevitable result of the unintended consequences of government control and regulation.

There is so much concern about the direction the president wants to take America that San Francisco Bay area residents are planning to protest him and his policies when he arrives in San Francisco for a fundraiser on Thursday. When President Obama and his fellow nanny-staters see resistance to their plans in of all places San Francisco, probably the most liberal city in the country, you have to know that Americans in Peoria are scared out of their minds.

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