Back To Basics

I think it’s time we get down to the basics.

The President stood before the joint Houses of Congress and caste a stern, accusatory glare at the Republican side of the aisle, warning them that he and his administration will expose and do battle with any or all of them that spread what he deems to be “lies, plain and simple” about his nationalized healthcare plan.

Democrats in attendance nodded approvingly and showed their solidarity through applause.

Republicans sneered at the challenge and rolled their eyes in recalcitrant rebellion, waving printed copies of counter proposals and at one point vocally accusing the accuser of misdirection and prevarication himself.

It all made for some action packed television viewing, but when it was over we were no closer to a solution then we were before it started. For all the sanctimony of Democrats and all the insurrection of the Republicans, the basic question of how the hell we are going to pay for this or any other healthcare plan remains in the realm of magic money.

Never mind the “death panels”. Never mind if illegal aliens will only get the same level of free healthcare that they now enjoy and take full advantage of. Never mind the overwhelming deluge of paperwork that would be required by governmental intervention into healthcare. Never mind the dramatically increased costs to healthcare providers by the never-ending barrage of bureaucratic bungling historically evident anytime the government gets involved. Never mind the reduced payments to healthcare providers and reduced services those diminished payments will mandate. Never mind having most of your healthcare decisions made for you by an actuarial pivot table of synthesized cost versus life expectancy. Never mind that not a single person in attendance at the speech will be forced into coverage of this healthcare debacle like the rest if the country will.

Even if we were able to surmount these insurmountable obstacles, we still have absolutely no clue as to how we are going to pay for it.

We as a nation are projected to be heading into an abyss of a $9 trillion debt. Barack Obama spent two years on the campaign trail decrying the eminent collapse of our economy because of the Bush budget deficit forecasted at $410 billion. He constantly reminded voters that the Bush deficit was close to the historic high water mark set in 2004 of $413 billion. The entire Bush 2009 budget unveiled in February 2008 totaled $3.1 trillion in spending. That included $515 billion in defense spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There was an additional $70 billion proposed for defense that raised the entire spending package to $3.17 trillion. That means that the entire spending package for the United States in 2009, including the war, was one third of the currently projected budget deficit of 2019. And that is before you add in this new $1 trillion in ObamaCare spending.

Because of the weakening economy George Bush froze almost all domestic spending programs in his 2009 budget. The fact that we are even engaged in conversation about a new $1 trillion spending package with the already looming economic catastrophe of a $9 trillion debt would be laughable of it weren’t so nauseating.

Obama spent a great deal of time detailing what he would or would not accept in this package of vitiate socialized medical temerity. But when it came to how it was going to be paid for he switched back into magician mode and brought out the smoke and mirrors.

Claiming to be able to pay for new spending through cost savings is the oldest political trick in the book. It means that the proposer has no idea how things will actually get paid. The President promised that this new program would not add a dime to the national debt. But when it came to detailing the math, well I guess that’s where the Hope he campaigned on comes in.

The discussion needs to stop. We’re broke. Hell, we’re worse than broke. Period. End of story.

It is a shame the rumors of those death panels are supposedly untrue. With a $9 trillion budget deficit we could use them to review the American way of life.