Do I Really Want to Discuss Health Care Reform?

Well, I’ve been sitting back and watching with amusement the chaos surrounding the health care reform issues – from the crazy town hall meetings, to the yapping on talk shows, to the Congress which looks more lost than ever, to tea-baggers, to the President who seems to be losing ground.

Let me start by admitting I’m fundamentally predisposed to be in favor of Universal Healthcare, because I just believe that if we’re going to be the greatest nation on earth, we need to take care of our citizens. I even thought so when Hillary Clinton first brought it up. Unfortunately, her pictures could have been labeled “polarizing figure” the way Brett Favre’s could today be labeled “wearing out his welcome.”

In retrospect, in the 90’s it would have been easy. We’d be down the road. It’s way more complicated today. In fact, it’s a virtual inferno, a minefield in a terribly divided America.

Let’s start with “How the hell would we pay for it?”

I received this not long ago in an email:

”The inheritance tax, Accounts Receivable Tax, Building Permit Tax, CDL license Tax, Cigarette Tax, Corporate Income Tax, Dog License Tax, Excise Taxes, Federal Income Tax, Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA), Fishing License Tax, Food License Tax, Fuel Permit Tax, Gasoline At x (44.75 cents per gallon) Gross Receipts Tax, Hunting License Tax, Inheritance Tax, Inventory Tax, IRS Interest Charges, IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax), Liquor Tax, Luxury Taxes, Marriage License Tax, Medicare Tax, Personal Property Tax, Property Tax, Real Estate Tax, Service Charge Tax, Social Security Tax, Road Usage Tax, Sales Tax, Recreational Vehicle Tax, School Tax, State Income Tax, State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) Telephone Federal Excise Tax, Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax, Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes, Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax, Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax, Telephone State and Local Tax, Telephone Usage Charge Tax, Utility Taxes, Vehicle License Registration Tax, Vehicle Sales Tax, Watercraft Registration Tax, Well Permit Tax, Workers Compensation Tax
STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.”

That’s the exact email I received, and I thought “Man, that’s a lot of taxes.” The writer almost had me.

Except for one thing.

100 Years. Wait a minute, 100 years! That would be 1909. Who wants to go back and live in 1909 except for a Chicago Cubs fan?
And wait a minute – in 1909 were we really the most prosperous nation in the world? Could you consider anyone prosperous except for a few famous rich railroad, steel, or bank barons back then? And middle class? I thought the middle class (as a rather mysterious concept) started in the 1950’s.

So, let’s look at the difference between 1909 and 2009 and see what the taxes have bought us: Roads coast to coast, an interstate highway system that is phenomenal, bridges, schools, airports, army, navy, air force, marines, coast guard, parks, monuments, city and county buildings, police departments, fire departments, post offices, social services, prisons, welfare, medicare, medicaid, sewer systems, clean drinking water, regulatory agencies, the GI Bill, the Veterans Administration, Nuclear plants, Nuclear weapons, homeland security, FEMA, FCC, CIA, FBI, SBA, Foreign Embassies - I could go on and on.

Hell, in 1909 they were still getting water out of streams. (Check out the movie “There Will Be Blood.”) Sorry, I use a lot of movie references.

Today, new industries, often requiring government rules and regulations, are born every day. During the past 100 years we’ve fought 6 major wars against opponents who could not keep up with our technology – funded by taxes. We won the cold war by just threatening Star Wars. We’ve weathered a depression, and numerous recessions. Tax revenue has been there for the government to use to bail us out when we needed it, even though I realize “bailout” is a dirty word. Sometimes the collection falls behind the expenditures and that’s called a deficit – but we’re always able to borrow, because our tax base is there. It’s not pretty, and it’s not ideal, but so far we’ve made it work. I consider myself a fiscal conservative, so I hate the deficit. But, that ship has sailed.

The fuel to all this has undoubtedly been an economic engine unlike anything the world has ever seen. The incredible wealth that has been produced in this economic juggernaut and the monumental advances of the last 100 years will undoubtedly go down in the history books with a name of its own – maybe “The Economic Revolution.” Like the Industrial Revolution it has totally changed the way the world operates.

So, my question is, “why didn’t every nation do what America did?” Did they not have the mind power? The will power? The natural resources? The brains? The guts?
What set this nation apart?

Well, many factors. We all know what they are. But I can’t discount the role of this government. Let's give them a little credit - just a little. Remember most countries during this period were dictatorships. With one man at the helm, who could compete with our democracy and our capitalism? We sometimes forget what an incredible creation our 3 branch system of government is. I just toured the Library of Congress and I read again about the battles of the thinkers of the Continental Congress to devise a government that would work. We don’t appreciate it and its role in our lives. Many of us think of it as a nuisance – an intrusion. And sometimes it is.

Our government isn’t perfect and has made an incredible number of mistakes. It’s bloated and there is a lot of waste. There are boondoggles, bridges to nowhere, and earmarks that make any reasonable person sick – outside of the area receiving the largess.

And during this incredible period, two things have remained certain – death and taxes. I hate paying taxes as much as anybody. I would rather keep the money so I could spend it on the next technological breakthrough – like the 85” laser TV that is coming. Hell, I’m still paying taxes from a business that I closed 3 years ago. It hurts.

But, could it be the taxes that have made this country into what it is today? The government has never been shy about sticking their nose into our business and paving it, or telling us what the rules were to make things fair. You may not like seat belts, but we’ve come to accept them.

Maybe the fact that we are so prosperous, even in a downturn, and can afford taxes that make things even better (usually) is what continues to separate us from the rest of the world. Don’t believe me? – watch Slumdog Millionaire again, and realize what could have been. Then, when you go to the pump, and you pay those 44 cents extra per gallon, ask yourself if that interstate you just got off of is worth it. Let’s do the math. If you’re getting 22 miles to the gallon, you’re paying a whopping 2 cents per mile of road you drive for the privilege. Those bastards.

Which brings me to Health Care Reform.
Nope, don’t want to pay for it.
Can’t afford one more tax dollar – which we all know it will eventually come to.
Bad idea. Like it the way it is.

Right? That’s the way most of us, especially the ones with Health Insurance already feel.
I work hard – why should I have to pay for someone else’s Health care? (Even though I know I already do with higher premiums and charges to cover those who don’t pay.)

But, here’s our pesky government, thinking long term again. What could they be thinking?

Like it or not, the world is catching up to us. We don’t have wealth and prosperity and innovation all to ourselves anymore. Every government decision now has huge economic and competitive ramifications. Don’t want stem cell research? Fine – but understand that somewhere out there in another country it’s going on, and they will develop stuff that we will have to pay them for later. So, don’t complain when we have to buy it from Norway.
Think global warming is bunk and we don’t need to encourage energy innovation? Fine – but when we have to pay some Indonesian company for exciting new technology that they beat us to, don’t complain. Or should we all plan vacations to Japan and China to visit our money?

And so it goes. And like it or not, we’re way behind the rest of the modern world in how we handle health care. Does it work perfectly in England or Canada or any of the other countries that have it? Of course not. We’re supposedly ranked 37th in the quality of our health care. Not sure if I believe that. But, I do believe this: Those foreign economies are better off, because the cost is spread and efficiency, bargaining power, and lack of profit motivation hold the cost down.

Here, we’re content to let companies that can afford it absorb the high cost and pass it along to the consumer. But, that’s one of the reasons we don’t manufacture anything in America anymore. Think of all the industries that we’ve lost overseas. The disproportionate way we allocate health care costs is one contributing factor and is one reason business is draining away from our shores. Foreign labor is cheap. Blame it on those unions that built the middle class - blame it on anyone you want, but our labor is expensive and the world's isn't. When American auto companies have $2200 worth of health care cost built into each vehicle, they put themselves at a huge disadvantage to foreign competition that not only doesn’t have those costs, but has their home government assisting them in many other ways. Here – it’s hands off. We have established a certain set of business rules of the game. They're great. Now if we could just get the rest of the world to play by our rules.

So, health care is a long term business issue that’s vital to the continued progress of our economy, and our dominant position. I’m sure I haven’t adequately explained it, but this is a worldwide competitive issue. I’m not naïve enough to believe any of the cost-saving hype that the proponents are touting. I also don’t even believe that taxes won’t go up. They will. They can pretend they won’t but I never buy the government’s fuzzy math. That’s why my first hurdle was accepting that some day I’d pay. We’ll address the funding way too late, just as we’re going to wait until the last minute before we address medicare (even though the solution is obvious – no one wants to say it.) But, we have to look beyond the noses on our face. The future is going to be way more competitive for America in the world economy. If you did not like the government bailing out GM, you’ll like them bailing out hundreds of companies even less. We can’t wait to catch up – we must act now.

So, go back over those taxes at the beginning and think of the services that come along with each of them. Hate taxes all you want, but admit that maybe, just maybe, it’s another reason why America is the greatest nation the world has ever seen. We created wealth, and we didn’t hoard it – we took part of it (by taxing) and built some incredible things, and we reap the benefits every day.

Government run health care is scary – and we can put scary labels (socialism, etc) on it. Revamping health care is going to get ugly. Then it will get uglier. Many mistakes lie ahead, and we’ll screw it up beyond belief. But somewhere down the road, probably long after I’m gone, it will payoff and we’ll have leveled the playing field. This is just the business part of it. Going beyond the business part of it, we will have also proven that we care about all our citizens, because you know the deal – all men are created equal.

So, I don’t look at it as a Race issue, like many are saying. I don’t look at is a deficit spending issue, as many are saying. I don’t look at it as the beginning of socialism as many are saying.

I look at it as a “Business of America” issue, and we need calm heads to predict the next 100 years of competition in the global economy and figure out what we have to do to keep America on top. If this is something that we have to do, then I can live with it. I’ll probably have to wait a year or two longer for that TV upgrade.

If we don’t get started sooner rather than later, we’ll pay by losing.
Don’t know about you, but I like to win.