obamacare

I am dumbfounded by the passage of obamacare. I can't believe that this legislation sneaked through the many legislative stopgaps which attempt to guard against such hubris by a political party hell bent on pushing a social agenda that it perceives is best for the American people, no matter what the majority of the people say or do.

Unfortunately, the deed is now done. We taxpayers will be paying for this bill for decades to come. We will be rewarding those who decide that they are too tired or too lazy to work. We will see more and more workers go to part time status because businesses won't want to pay the fines associated with not providing health care to the workers who don't even want health coverage.

We will see individuals continually opting out of health insurance plans by paying a nominal fine until they do get sick, then arbitrarily opting into the system so that their medical bills will then be paid.

We will generate a growing number of individuals who will rightfully decide that it is easier not to work within the current lawful economic system and not to pay the government anything, because they now have access to all of the necessities of life without lifting a finger. They can now have free food, a free education, free healthcare and free housing. Plus, they can work off of the books to supplement those free resources with tax free income which more and more employers will gladly endorse and provide.

And, the long term elephant in the room is that when we eventually find ourselves in the situation that fifty one percent of the people who vote are on the government dole, the Democratic party will win every national election. When a person gets on the dole, he is not going to want to get off. When that voter steps into that voting booth and stands there trying to decide which lever to pull, he will more likely than not reason that if he keeps the Democrats in office, that gov'ment check will continue to roll in every month. I believe that we are close to this apocalyptic fifty one percent right now. Someone, somewhere, will have access to the numbers and broadcast a doomsday clock eventually. For now, I'll just sit back and wait for the inevitable.

Of course, in the long term, the system will topple over from its own unsustainable weight. If we continue to maintain our current path, we will eventually be unable to borrow any more to equalize our rising debt and will have to default on our obligations. Hopefully, that day won't come. Perhaps we will gain back our sanity and realize that the invisible hand of Adam Smith has truly disappeared into the murkiness and insanity that define current marketplace economic strategies. Perhaps we will discover that the adage, "money for nothing and the chicks are free," was a nice pop song but not a political agenda or ideal that can work in the real world.

I feel that some level of the promise for a bright future has died today. But, I don't know how to stem this tide. When someone wiser than me figures it out, I'll be the first to jump on his bandwagon. But, for now, I can only lament the perceived tipping point toward the dark side.

And, hopefully, tomorrow will bring a brighter day. There may be silver lining in that cloud. It's just that today, those anvil clouds are just barely above the rooftops and I can smell the rain about to fall.