PrintApril 19, 2010
Plan B: Privatize ObamaCare
Plan A should be "Repeal ObamaCare."
Plan B should be "Privatize ObamaCare."
Here's why.
Now that the Left is set to take over our medical economy, they think that they have America hooked forever. A federal monopoly over life-saving medical care will keep everyone in thrall to Dopey-Changey forever. That's why Obama is smiling today, even while his numbers are tanking. If the Dems lose in November, they think that they need only to promise more and more medical freebies to get back their power. That's how the Left has controlled Europe for half a century. It is also why Europe's medical care is often second-rate, and why it sometimes kills people.
The answer is to Privatize Obama. Privatize General Motors. Privatize health care for veterans. And privatize all that medical armed robbery by Harry and Barry and Nancy. Better call it "re-privatize," which is what it is.
One enormous benefit of privatizing GM, vet care, and medical piracy is that it's the only way to balance the budget in the foreseeable future. As Milton Friedman never tired of pointing out, privatization through vouchers also empowers individuals, and it helps to return the beneficiaries to the values of ownership, long-term savings, and personal responsibility. If you steal from your neighbor with the help of the demagogues and their tame media, it looks like magic money from God. If instead of that, you have vouchers that add to your life savings, suddenly you think like a human being again. That undermines the group narrative the Left has used for decades to split America into the poor vs. the rich, blacks vs. whites, women vs. men, the sexually adventurous vs. the breeders.
The Democrats would love it if the GOP just went for straightforward ObamaCare repeal because Obama can demagogue that to death. They're killing old people and the sick! The demagogues have run that scam forever, and all they have to do is go back to their ancient script. Not so for Privatize ObamaCare: That's visibly empowering individuals, not Obama. If Obama opposes privatization, he reveals the power-hungry pol he is, along with all the other Democrats.
Just as Nancy and Harry and Barry violated every rule in the book to get ObamaCare, they will do anything to keep it from being repealed. They have half the country on their side -- the Takers and the Suckers. The Takers know that they get more and more freebies without ever paying taxes. The other big liberal voting bloc are the Suckers -- well-meaning liberals who fall for the propaganda. Liberal suckers think they're doing the right thing by voting for whoever topples the best medical system in the world. Between the Takers and the Suckers, the Democrats easily swing a majority of voters. If they ever need any more, they will import aliens by the millions, just like the Left has done in Europe.
I know a liberal on the Sucker side: a really nice person, but pure fish-bait for the propaganda machine. His justification for Obama's daylight robbery is that insurance companies should never make a profit. This is so stupid that it's not even susceptible rational debate. And yet, this is a person with graduate degrees.
Invincible ignorance is the biggest part of our problem. But as hard as we try, keep in mind that blind ignorance is not going to go away. I've never seen a single liberal make a change. Have you?
The harsh truth is that straight-out repeal of Obama's MediGrab is not going to work. I'm sorry. I know that good conservatives will hate that. But just think about the people who put him in power in the first place, and remember that they will never, ever change. They are the Takers and the Suckers. The media will twist every single one of Obama's failures into a fake narrative of success. Telling the truth is not their job. If it were, they would have jumped from the top of the New York Times building a long time ago.
But suppose a miracle happens in November, and the GOP gets a majority in both Houses. Even then it would take a solid two-thirds of both Houses to repeal ObamaCare as long as any Democrat is president. That means we have to wait until 2012 at the best, and then hope that a Reaganite president and an unprecedented Republican majority in Congress will get elected. That's happened only once in the last fifty years. Don't bet the farm on it.
Repeal is therefore going to take years, and even then, it will be the bloodiest fight we've ever seen. The Democrats see pure gold at the end of this rainbow -- power forever, political careers, sex, money, media adoration, and political payoffs as far as the eye can see. They will do anything to hang on to that power. It's everything they live for.
That's what happens when the Left can buy off half the voters in the country. It's reality now. Half the voters now believe they're entitled to free medical care. Don't be in denial.
Privatization of federalized medical care is therefore the only practical solution. Voucher plans have been worked out by economists like Milton Friedman since the 1950s. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has proposed the Roadmap for America's Future, including the transition of Medicare to a voucher system, meaning that individuals would receive a voucher which could be used to purchase health insurance in the private market. In countries like Chile, retirement plans are privatized, and they are doing well. Massachusetts' Deval-May-Care is even now beginning to tilt as insurers are driven out of business. If Mitt Romney wants a tiny chance at the GOP nomination, he has to propose a privatization of his capsizing medical plan in Mass.
Privatization can whittle down this whole act of piracy, step by step, and return power to the patient and doctor. Privatization also makes for much smarter politics to elect conservative Republicans. You may not love the GOP, but you can't win without them. So you have to make the GOP love conservatism by privatizing Medi-Grab. It gives GOP politicians -- that necessary breed -- something very concrete to promise the voters. Convert federal control to private control and cut out the middleman.
Once millions of people see the advantages of privatization and vouchers, over the long term we must battle to privatize Fannie and Freddie, major causes of the banking crisis and the current Big Recession. If necessary, privatize them piece by piece. Sell their good loans first. Then they will be seen as the welfare agencies they are, and we can slowly whittle away at the rest. The economy is in big trouble, but new economic productivity will still expand the pie -- new computer products, new bioengineering, maybe new energy supplies from shale.
Smart conservatives will advocate privatization of all the federal takeovers of the private sector. Other conservatives will get stuck on the ideal of total repeal. I wish they were right politically. They're not.
Sorry, folks.
Plan A is Repeal.
But don't forget Plan B.
