This is the type of double speak we’ve come to see as the norm in the U.S. by many politicians. V.P. Joe Biden stands up before an audience and pontificates about a new world order and how this or that should happen in some litany of empty words and unfulfilled promise.
Words like, we need to lead, we need to level the playing field, it’s not a zero sum game. All of these words are meaningless the more government action removes the profit incentive and strangles the entrepreneur. Politicians in our country are not satisfied with hurting small business, they have further entrenched themselves into the health care industry. Describing in a broad stroke how they are giving access to a larger group and reducing costs. Most of this isn’t true, however nicely worded. The effects will be seen in a more exaggerated way than in the past. In the past 25 years as government, working closely with insurance providers has set medical procedural orthodoxy and what types of services they will reimburse. Combine this with the escalating costs of malpractice insurance and we see how the costs to the consumer have sky rocketed.
These new attempts at “leveling the playing field and providing wider access”, will drive more doctors out of the business and increasing the size of mega-medical facilities. People will become less able to find a personal care physician and for the average citizen they will become cattle in a long line of fellow bovine.
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I want to mention someone of great significance passing today. A politician of a far different character than that we typically see. She spoke her mind with laser clarity and carried forth her business as disciplined as a Marine Corps drill team. Margaret Thatcher passed away at an age when many of her colleagues on the world stage have either left or are in their last days. She took over a government and a people that forgot who they were. The people of the United Kingdom found themselves long past the stage of world leadership. The pound sterling was lost as a world currency, labor strikes were frequent, Ireland was on a never-ending cycle of chaotic rampage among themselves and sometimes spilling over into Britain.
Her detractors said she was rewarding greed and privatization of government-owned services was the start of problems Britain faces today. In reality these were the problems the U.K. had in abundance. Government was asked and most often sought the continuous cycle of providing services on a cradle to grave basis. Private charities were becoming window dressing for public relation campaigns and churches a place for the old to shuffle in and out of in some quaint way while the labor government welcomed their increasing role into everyday life. The tax burdens were enormous of course to provide these increased demands on the treasury and if anyone spoke out against the cost, there would be a ready campaign of hundreds perhaps thousands now on the dole or payroll which decried their limits or curtailment.
When Margaret became Prime Minister, she not only was setting precedent in becoming the first woman to lead a party, she was someone with sufficient verbal and intellectual skill to meet the huge problems head on. This upset the many so enthralled with hands in the treasury till, that she became one of the most controversial leaders in the world. As much as anyone called her derogatory names for her tenacity and ability, these qualities were what was needed to stem the tide of socialism and economic decline. I find it interesting there are those who criticize her for a decline in manufacturing, housing or any other you wish to name. The reality as expressed by others willing to admit the truth, Britain was in decline since WWI. This decline was amplified by the protracted conflict of WWII. When this terrible war ended and the rebuilding started many government leaders took the U.K. on the path of increased government control of the economy including health care. Trades Unions grew with increased power but the decline of manufacturing was exacerbated by strikes and less control in quality of manufactured product. Margaret Thatcher moved Britain forward to meet the 21st century all while many of the people kicked and screamed their way in.
English: The house where Margaret Thatcher was born (Grantham) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
