Root: Government Run Healthcare Just Like the Post Office

Wayne Allyn Root, a regular contributor to the Gambling911.com website and the former Vice Presidential runningmate of the Libertarian party, says President Obama has finally got it right:  The proposed Government run health care reform will be exactly like the post office.....not that this is necessarily a good thing. 

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President Obama in a recent Town Hall meeting admitted that FedEx and UPS get it right...but it is the Postal Service that has big problems. Well I've been saying that for 20 years! Obama used that as proof as to why we should support his plan for government-run health care. Huh? His point- a very weak one- was that government cannot compete with FedEx or UPS, so we should not worry about government-run health care damaging private health insurance. 

This is more proof that without a teleprompter and a gifted Kennedy-era speechwriter putting the words of Camelot in his mouth, Obama is actually a lousy speaker and debater. 

A good debater might point out to Obama that the Postal Service has been failing for decades now...bleeding taxpayers out of tens of billions of dollars. And if we killed it tomorrow, it would still bleed us out of trillions more (that's with a T) in unfunded liabilities for the pensions and free lifetime healthcare of retired postal employees. Of course when the government-run Post Office fails, it just means we don't get a letter on time. When government-run healthcare fails, it will mean long waits for medical care, rationing, and death for older Americans.

A good debater might point out how we- the taxpayers- are not on the hook for billions or trillions of dollars in losses from FedEx or UPS...or any private health insurance company for that matter. Why on earth would we want to hand 17% of the U.S. economy to government as a giant experiment that could overwhelm taxpayers with debt for decades to come? So much more debt, than just free healthcare for a measly few million government employees, that universal healthcare could very well lead to the bankruptcy and insolvency of America.

A good debater might point out that if we can't afford free lifetime healthcare benefits for just a few million federal employees, how could we afford to pay for free lifetime healthcare for all 300 million Americans?

A good debater might point out that if free lifetime healthcare for a few million government employees adds up to trillions in debt and unfunded liabilities, just adding 10 to 12 million illegal immigrants to our healthcare bill would surely break the bank. Let alone the entire 300 million population of America.

A good debater might point out that the federal government already runs Medicare and Medicaid, and they are the prime culprits in the future insolvency of America. So if free healthcare for only old people and poor people threatens to overwhelm the entire U.S. federal budget within 20 years (or sooner), can you imagine what providing health care for everyone would do to the budget?

A good debater might point out that government projections and predictions are always off by just a bit- often ten times too low. When Medicare was started, so-called government "experts" predicted it would cost $3 billion per year in 1970. Instead it cost $6.8 billion. They predicted it would cost $10 billion by 1990. Instead it cost $110 billion. So if Obama's "experts" now predict universal healthcare to cost $1 trillion to $1.6 trillion, do you think that perhaps $10 trillion to $16 trillion might be more accurate? You think government "experts" are more accurate nowadays? Really? Like "Cash for Clunkers" where we ran through $1 billion in government funding in 4 days. I predict we'll run through $1 trillion for healthcare in a couple of months (or sooner).

A good debater might point out that government fails and loses billions at everything it touches- from Amtrak, to Walter Reed Hospital (where returning wounded vets faced mold in their rooms), to Ethanol, to the wonderful planning of the Iraq War, to the management of the Hurricane Katrina rescue, to the dramatic failure of the entire U.S. public school system.

A good debater might point out that the Head of Canada's Medical Association now says Canada's system is sick and needs immediate changes. Or that in our own country, Massachusetts has already adopted government-run healthcare and costs have gone up, while performance has gone down. Big surprise, with government in charge.

Obama says we have no choice- "To Do Nothing is not an option." Really? My friends at the Congressional Effect Fund prove that doing nothing is always preferable to letting government do something. A study by the Congressional Effect Fund proves that for the past half century, when Congress is in session "doing something" the U.S. stock market is up 1%...while when Congress is out of session "doing nothing" the U.S. stock market is up a remarkable 17%. 

There are many things we can do to improve healthcare in America- but they all start with getting government out of the way. You can find a detailed plan for improving our national healthcare system in my new book "The Conscience of a Libertarian." But the sad reality is that doing NOTHING would be far preferable to letting government get more involved in healthcare.

Now President Obama says the public option may be abandoned. But we all know what that means- a few moderate Republicans and a handful of Blue Dog Democrats will pass an equally disastrous healthcare compromise- but they'll call it by a different name and declare victory. Facts and history proves that reducing government involvement in the system is the only way to improve healthcare. Any further government involvement by any name ("co-op" instead of "public option") will be bad for consumers, patients and doctors...and disastrous for the U.S. economy.

Wayne Allyn Root was the 2008 Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate. A detailed explanation of his plan for reducing healthcare costs and solving the healthcare crisis is found in his new book, "The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gambling & Tax Cuts." The book is available at Amazon.com or at bookstores across the USA. For more of Wayne's views, commentaries, or to watch his many media interviews, please visit his web site at: www.ROOTforAmerica.com