Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Universal health care or newspaper bailout run from both as fast as you can

Recently you might have heard talk about a newspaper bailout.  You might also have heard that President Obama wants to "reform" health care.  The latter is a code for universal health care and the former will trample on first amendment freedoms.  both of these ideas need to be dead  on arrival.      If they show any signs of life run from both of them as fast as you can.
 
I will first deal with the issue of newspaper bailouts.  This is a glaring intrusion on first amendment freedoms as the government would control the content of those newspapers.  At first it will control how the paper should be laid out and how much news content it should have and how much can be made by ad revenue, all of which have been discussed.  Then the control will shift to the actual news content.  In other words, there will not be content which criticizes people such as Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA).  Their funding would be threatened.  In other words, the newspapers would be giving control of the paper to the government and this is something I do not want to see.  We see it in radio with the librals wanting to bring back the Fairness Doctrine which is a code word for knocking conservative talk radio off the air.  They want this because liberal talk shows cannot make it on their own.  Well I am one person who does not want to see them go on the air with government help.  If they can't make it on their own in a free market, then so be it.  It means they don't have a viable product to sell.  The same, unfortunately, is true of newspapers in their current form.  However a government bailout is something which everyone ought to run from as fast as they can.  We need many sources of information, not just one.  You see what happens in places where there is one absolute source of information and I don't want to see this country go there even remotely.
 
The other thing to avoid fervently is universal health care as this is nothing more than rationed health care and PWD will be adversely affected by this as we will be seen as costing too much, a notion which I as a PWD resent strongly.  Under universal health care, we wil be told when we can see the doctor and for what.  Excuse me but I don't want to deal with some government bureaucrat in order to make a doctor's appointment.  Decisions about my health care should be between me and my doctor and there should not be a government bureaucrat involved in that decision.  I work in a facility which serves severely disabled children.  These children deserve a chance to meet their maximum potential which I believe won't happen if we have universal health care.    They will be considered "expendable", something which I strongly resent.
 
Universal health care means waiting months for procedures.  If you don't believe that, just look at Canada or Britain, both of which have major problems. 
 
There are somethings which could be done in this country.  The first thing that ought to be done is allow Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices, something which was not done in the original legislation which I will maintain was largely written by the pharmaceutical companies and insurance industry.  Another thing that could and should be done is a ban on advertising of pharmaceuticals such as nexium, Spereva, Boneva, Lipotor and others.  These drugs ought to be dispensed by doctors, not advertised on TV. 
 
The long and short of the matter is that I want to be able to get information without the government telling me what information I can have and how to think about that information; and I also want to make health care decisions free of government control.  Newspaper bailouts and universal health care are two liberal ideas that scare me to death and ought to be run from as fast as you can possibly do so.  They will change the country forever and not in a positive way either.  Heck, we won't even recognize the country anymore, soemthing which also scares me to death.  I, unfortunately, think we ar eheaded down that socialist path.

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