Liberty Maven

In Sheldon Richman’s commentary at The Future of Freedom Foundation today, titled “When Will the Health-Care Debate Start?” he discusses that fact that, while there’ s been a lot of noise on the subject of “Health Care Reform” lately, there’s really been no debate.

To be of value a real debate requires fundamental disagreement. But this pseudo-debate is between one side, led by President Obama, that wants more government control than the large amount we already have, and another, the Republicans, that thinks we already have the right amount.

And in fact, Obama isn’t calling for “change” — he really wants the status quo.  Quoting Robert Samuelson of the Washington Post:

One of the bewildering ironies of the health-care debate is that President Obama claims to be attacking the status quo when he’s actually embracing it. Ever since Congress created Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, health politics has followed a simple logic: Expand benefits and talk about controlling costs. That’s the status quo, and Obama faithfully adheres to it.

Of course virtually nobody is arguing for a free-market solution, because, while patently false, the general consensus is that the free market as already failed.  And given that insurance companies are really just state-run (in typical Fascist style) government monopolies, they, along with pharmaceutical companies, are salivating over the prospect of having the government compelling everyone to buy their products.

Read Sheldon Richman’s commentary here.