CHOICES

During President Obama’s Sunday Morning Talk Show Tour, host George Stephanopoulos [of ABC] was questioning the Max Baucus's Senate bill (that Mr. Obama supports), where everyone would be required to buy health insurance or else pay a penalty as high as $3,800 a year. Mr. Stephanopoulos asked when “the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don't [buy insurance]. ... How is that not a tax?”

“Well, hold on a second, George,” Mr. Obama replied. “Here's what's happening. You and I are both paying $900, on average -- our families -- in higher premiums because of uncompensated care. Now what I've said is that if you can't afford health insurance, you certainly shouldn't be punished for that. That's just piling on. If, on the other hand, we're giving tax credits, we've set up an exchange, you are now part of a big pool, we've driven down the costs, we've done everything we can and you actually can afford health insurance, but you've just decided, you know what, I want to take my chances. And then you get hit by a bus and you and I have to pay for the emergency room care, that's...”

“That may be,” Mr. Stephanopoulos responded, “but it's still a tax increase.”

But according to Mr. Obama: “No. That's not true, George. The -- for us to say that you've got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase. What it's saying is, is that we're not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you anymore...”


Please read over this exchange once more, its important………….

Now, the odds are, I don’t have to say a word. The questions should be ringing in your mind.

What about those people that OBAMA says, “if you can't afford health insurance, you certainly shouldn't be punished for that. That's just piling on”? How does Obama decide who can, or can’t afford to pay for insurance. Does he come and audit you to see if you have $3,600 available?

Wouldn’t you say that anybody that has earned $3,600 COULD have chosen to buy insurance with that money. But the odds are that they first chose to eat…and then to pay for lodging…and then to pay for water and power bills…and maybe then to put gas in their car…and so on. But aren’t these all simply CHOICES? I mean, doesn’t Obama make it clear that he believes that some people are choosing NOT to get insurance so that they can cheat the system?

So if Obama believes that people are making choices to NOT get Health Care, then having Health Care is a choice. And if it is a choice, then it is not a Right. If it is not a Right, then why are we arguing about it?

Let’s face a simple reality: it is a mistake to decide that people, as a result of their failure, will get something for free. This is why we live in a Free-Market Capitalist System. People get what they earn, unless it comes as a Gift or as Charity. And our government should not be involved in giving Gifts or Charity.

People LISTEN. This debate is about POWER, and whether it should be in the hands of Politicians in Washington DC, or in the hands of the consumer that gets to choose how to spend the money he or she has earned.