‹ Beware the un-American, unpatriotic, treasonous health care mobster, like that Token Conservative •
In a speech on government insurance/health care that is eerily reminiscent of the issues raised by ObamaCare, Ronald Reagan dissects the arguments and tactics of supporters of government care. He correctly notes the relationship that exists between government single-payer insurance and socialized medicine. He warns of the dangers of the “foot-in-the-door” strategy of supporters of state power. That again plays itself out today, as one listens to the declarations of people such as Representatives Betsy Markey and Barney Frank and President Obama himself. If they can get the basic idea accepted, they can expand the program dangerously later. That happened with Social Security. It also happened with Medicare, the program against which Reagan is speaking. The program was expanded considerably since its inception. Initial prohibitions in the law against government interference with medical decisions were eroded by subsequent funding restrictions as the government began to try to control the spiralling costs as the number of enrollees expanded significantly. Other costs were borne by privately insured patients, resulting in a heavy subsidy to Medicare. Even so, the program has been pronounced unsustainable by President Obama. Things have turned out as Ronald Reagan predicted, and the path that got us here is being retrod by way of the same appeals to unrestrained emotionalism that characterized the liberals’ approach last time around.
“The facts of life are conservative.” - Margaret Thatcher
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