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| Most of us have heard of the famous sign on Harry S Truman's desk, "The buck stops here." Bill Clinton replaced it with the catchphrase, "It's the Economy, Stupid." The current administration would like you to think they are the direct descendants of those lines of thinking. They ask us to believe they're the heirs of President Truman even as they mouth phrases like, "we inherited this recession". They ask us to suspend disbelief while tax cheats run the Treasury Department; while this administration embarks on an unprecedented, multi-pronged attack on the free market economy. The means used to date include so-called bailouts, stimulus programs, and nationalization of banks. They now have proposals on the table to tax carbon dioxide emissions (the stuff that comes out of your lungs when you breathe). And last but not least, they intend to nationalize the health care system. "Nationalized health care" is such a neat, clinical term. It really doesn't convey the essence of what they are trying to accomplish. Yes, a government take-over of the health care industry would likely bankrupt the nation for the foreseeable future. Yes, within a short time it would destroy the best health care system in the world. Yes, the US health care industry, responsible for the vast majority of medical breakthroughs in the world, would shrivel and die. But at it's root, the nationalization of health care is about you. It's about who controls what doctor you see, who decides what treatment you receive, and how much your life is worth. But that's OK, because surely the nameless, faceless bureaucrats on a health commision in Washington know the answer to those questions far better than you do. How dare you think that you can approach to the level of their intellectual superiority in dealing with life and death issues! How can you hope to calmly make a dispassionate decision, in the best interests of the community as a whole, when it is your life on the line? The truth is, what we are calmly discussing under the guise of "health care reform" is a wholesale repudiation of the "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" that our forefathers died to give us. No, it's more than that. Thomas Jefferson said, "The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time." This proposed government takeover of health care is a complete contradiction to the Bible command in Galations 5:1, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." (Never fear, I know that civic liberty is not the primary application of this verse. But I believe nevertheless that it is a valid application of the principal. Who is responsible for our civic liberty, if not Jesus Christ?) What we see today openly debated and espoused in our Congress is the very philosophy of statist socialism that our nation defeated in the cold war. No doubt, I sound alarmist for using those words. But please consider the meanings of those terms, and see if it is not the correct description: Socialism, to quote Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, is “any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.” Ask yourself if that sounds like the Congressional Record of recent days. According to the Political Science Dictionary, statism is the political viewpoint “that sovereignty is vested not in the people but in the national state, and that all individuals and associations exist only to enhance the power, the prestige, and the well-being of the state.” Since power and prestige are not objects that politicians discuss as goals with the general public, the public well-being is their usual foil. For those who remember the fictional Mr. Spock, statism can be summed up in the maxim, “The good of the many outweighs the good of the few, or the one.” It is the essence, not of sound logic, but of a sick automaton fulfilling the lines of his programming. It is anti-American to the core, and reeks of the spirit and philosophy of Anti-Christ. Jesus Christ set us free spiritually, paying the price for our debt, and asking (not compelling!) us to follow Him. Likewise, He is the author of Liberty in America. From the King James Bible to the Mayflower Compact. Through the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. His influence and gentle hand has guided and nurtured Liberty in the land of the free. And now we are asked to turn over the Liberty that Christ died for. We are told we must forsake the freedom that millions of Patriots have paid the ultimate price for. For what? Free insurance for all. Government subsidized doctor visits. (And government subsidized abortions. Read the fine print.) As Mark Steyn wrote in his recent article, A Liberty Issue, “How did the health-care debate decay to the point where we think it entirely natural for the central government to fix a collective figure for what 300 million freeborn citizens ought to be spending on something as basic to individual liberty as their own bodies?” We’ve been led a long way down the primrose path, but it’s not too late (by God’s grace) to do an about-face. Congress is adjourning for their August recess, and coming home to their districts. Many of the Congressmen from Iowa, and across the nation, are planning to hold town hall meetings to discuss the health care issue. I urge you to find out your Congressman’s schedule and meet him, whether at a town hall, at some other forum, or one-on-one. They need to know where you stand, and what you intend to do to their chances for re-election if they vote the wrong way. Gary Bauer, President of American Values, put together an excellent primer on questions and concerns to bring up to your Congressman and Senators. I encourage you to download it and read it through, and then go make your voice heard! And remember, in the end, it’s not about health care, nor about the economy. It’s about Liberty. |