Virginia Libertarian

Townhall.com By Walter E. Williams

Problems with our health care system are leading some to fall prey to proposals calling for a nationalized single-payer health care system like Canada’s or Britain’s. There are a few things that we might take into consideration before falling for these proposals.

Personally I think the answer should be a resounding “NO!”, or maybe even a “HELL NO!”. I’m not sure why anyone thinks that the government can get this program right, where they have failed with every other program they have instituted. I will grant you that some of their programs may look like a good idea on paper, or may even look successfull when first started, but all of them, every single one of them, turns into a failure. Look at social security. Some may have seen it as a good idea when first conceived. There were plenty more people working than would ever have retired, so there would be plenty of money to take care of our elders. Look what has happened to it now. Politicians refuse to do anything to account for modern changes in lifespan (such as raise the retirment age accordingly), or to allow people to opt out of this patently illegal (if you or I were running it) Ponzi Scheme . So why does anyone think that government is the way to go with our health care? Read Dr. Willams’ article, look at what they face in the UK and Canada with government run health care, is that what we want? Again, “HELL NO!”

Yahoo! News

Seven years after being rebuffed by the Supreme Court, anti-smoking advocates are again seeking federal regulation of tobacco, a step they say is needed to deter children from lighting up and to get smokers to quit.
“It would have a huge public-health impact. This is a product that when used as directed is lethal,” said Wendy Selig of the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network.

The group is among those pushing to give the Food and Drug Administration authority over cigarettes and other tobacco products - just like the regulatory agency already has over countless other consumer products. A bipartisan group of lawmakers was to reintroduce legislation Thursday to do so.

“We are quite excited about the possibility that we may very well get it done this time around,” said Joel Spivak, a spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Here we go with the nanny state again. How fed up with this are you going to get over the next two years? Maybe enough people will be tired by then of the Democrats trying to control your money, and the republicans trying to control your morality that we will put some people in office who want to change things for the better. I’m not holding my breath on that though, it seems that we have too many people now that want the government to take care of them from cradle to grave.

Socialized Medicine in a Wealthy Country by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

There are two popular images of socialized medicine. I don’t think either captures what the reality is in our prosperous and largely capitalistic country.The first image is that held by the delusional left. They imagine that if most health care were publicly provided and administered by the state, people of all social classes, age groups, and races and sexes, would have equal access.

Enlightened public bureaucrats would make the essential decisions about health priorities. Leftists imagine that this will save money in the long run because people will be prevented from doing things that cause them to get sick and die prematurely, such as smoke, eat fast foods, and fail to go on long nature walks.

Mostly the left-wing view is of the negative sort. It makes them crazy, and offends their moral sense, that the rich can afford better health care than the poor. They believe that it violates a sense of fairness that the rich have the means to live longer, healthier lives, than the poor, who are left to the mercy of life’s exigencies.

But let’s say that we can show that under a capitalist health market, the poor will be better off in absolute terms. I doubt very seriously that this will satisfy the true socialist. What bothers him is not so much bad health as the unequal access to good health.

For the same reason, the socialist is not persuaded by the argument that the poor will be richer under capitalism because they are aware that inequality will continue to exist under capitalism. It is more important to them to reduce the well-being of the rich than it is to improve the lot of the poor, so long as the poor still constitute an identifiable class within the population.

The second view of socialized medicine sees the problems with socialism, that it leads to building up a state apparatus that has life-and-death control over the population. Because bureaucrats have no strong incentive to see to the wellbeing of people, they make decisions based on politics.

And because entrepreneurs are cut out of the picture, innovations cease to be brought to the health-care market in a way that makes them accessible. We end up with a bureaucratically controlled nightmare in which no class in society receives the level of medical attention it would receive in a marketplace.

This is an excellent article by Lew Rockwell on the woes of socialized medicine, I think everyone should read it.  I also think that unless a lot of people get out and start actively fighting it, socialized medicine is coming to us.  It just gives too much power to the state for it to resist, so we must take that power off the table.

Count Us In! Campaign

Tell Congress to stop ignoring the future for our generation…

Tell Congress YOU want a choice in your retirement and ownership of your savings…

Tell Congress to count YOU in for meaningful reform…

Tell Congress to leave the funding for personal accounts in the FY 2008 Budget!

Every day we wait to reform Social Security is a tax hike on our generation. WE ARE GETTING RIPPED OFF. Our generation will pay billions into a “trust fund” that is nothing more than a pile of government IOUs.

Personal accounts offer us a better future. They would allow you to actually see a real return on your investment and leave your savings behind to your family. For the first time, entire demographics of Americans would have real savings. Congress, COUNT US IN!

Here’s your link to sign the petition directly.

This is a freaking awesome video, spread it around.