We hear it time after time: “The system we have isn’t working, so we’ve got to do something.”
As though anything, no matter what, would be better than what we’ve got. It’s a false argument. But nobody seems to challenge it by simply saying, “That’s not the point. The point is how good or bad would the proposed plan be.”
Most, probably all, doctors don’t like the present Medicare plan. But wait ’til they start chopping out a half-trillion bucks. They say that’ll only be the part that’s waste. Doesn’t anybody realize that if that were true, they could have already chopped that? Doesn’t take a new law to chop waste and fraud. But we’ve been hearing about that stuff for years. Some news organization does a story on how the government watchdogs are being outwitted by a rotten piece of meat, we all throw up our hands and marvel at how stupid those who run the thing are, and then on to some other news story. And the problem just gets worse. What miracle will suddenly strike and make a government that invented opportunity for waste and fraud suddenly reform it and wipe it out.
If they can’t run what they’ve got, quadruple what they’re supposed to run? That’s better than the broken system? Who broke it to begin with? If, as the blame shifters in government say, it’s insurance companies, simply change the rules they have to go by.
But, of course, that doesn’t give government enough control. And doing something simple doesn’t give anybody hero credentials.
Heros? The Obama Gang? Does nobody remember the definition of crazy? Something about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? As in assuming government can run things better than the ingenious individuals who make up America?
But we’ve got to do something, even if it’s wrong. They don’t outwardly say the last part. But the rest of us should.
