ObamaCare. Free birth control! Or is it?

Upon debating the new government health insurance reform bill (ObamaCare) then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi stated; "We have to pass the bill to know what's in the bill". Scary stuff from an elected official who has the ability to run roughshod over our liberties. But as it turns out, she was right. The most recent affirmation happened this week when it was revealed that starting August 1, 2012 birth control pills for women will be free. Insurance companies will no longer be able to bill you for the pills nor charge you a co-pay. And it wont count against your deductible either. Great news, right? After all who doesn't like free stuff. Hell, our whole country is built on free stuff paid for by others. (Look up "social justice") Well, free may not exactly mean free. At least not in the end.

The cost of providing free contraceptives to women (but not men, Hmmm) will cost you a bundle in increased insurance premiums. The insurance companies will take a financial hit in the billions. Did you expect them to just absorb such a loss? Uh, no. They will pass on the cost to you, me and if you have a job - your employer. But it's worse than just that. Since the cost of providing health care insurance to employees will rise, one has to wonder how many employers will be eager to hire new personnel knowing the additional costs they'll incur. More job killing legislation.
But why stop at free birth control? Why not free aspirin? Or free ACE bandages? Maybe even free valet parking at your next Dr's visit. And make the evil insurance companies pay dearly for it.

There is such a thing as the cost of unintended consequences. Apparently, our illustrious leaders in Washington aren't familiar with this notion. Or maybe they are. The idea has been floated that the whole idea of the feds massive intrusion into the health care system was its eventual complete takeover. Sound crazy? Well hold on. Barack Obama stated in 2006 that he would like to see a single payer (government) system. But acknowledged that it would be too difficult to implement in one fell swoop. So it would have to be implemented "incrementally". In fact, many on the left were not in favor of the ObamaCare legislation precisely because it didn't offer a single payer option. Once the government controls your health care, they've got it all. When combined with your retirement (Social Security) they will have you dependent on them for nearly everything. And they'll be no other option for you once they eliminate private competition. The feds can crush private business either through legislation like this or by competing with them directly with a government plan. Since the feds can run massive red ink and a private company can't... say goodbye to private insurance. If you think private insurance has its problems (mostly because of government mandates & regulations) wait till the government controls it and they're your only option. They've done such a great job with everything else.

In countries such as Canada where health care is the exclusive domain of the government, patients cross the US border to have procedures performed here rather than wait for months and months for surgery. The wait time for a mammogram in Italy is 6 months. In England you must be seen by a doctor within 1 hour of your arrival. But the clock doesn't start till you actually enter the hospital. So ambulances are stacked outside in the parking lot. And to pay for this magnificent privilege of government run health care, the average wage earner gets to pay massive taxes.

There is no free lunch. Everything costs something and you usually get what you pay for. Unless of course you're talking birth control pills. And why no free condoms? This smacks of sexism to me. Sometimes additional lubrication might be required. Why not free K-Y jelly? It only makes sense if your mandating free birth control. Sound crazy? Well, Washington is the home base of crazy and the White House is it's current epicenter. If only Barack's Mom had access to free birth control.

The end of America. Death by suicide.

I tend to be a pretty optimistic person. But events of the past few weeks leave me with very little to be positive about regarding the future of our Republic. (And yes, it's a Republic, Not a Democracy. Look it up) The debt ceiling has been raised, yet no one who crafted the deal seems particularly happy about the arrangement. Well, neither am I. This elevation of the debt ceiling allows the government to borrow even more money it doesn't have without serious spending cuts. Currently the federal government borrow 40 cents of every dollar it spends. Go back and re-read that last sentence. Go ahead - I'll wait here. If that isn't frightening to you then you may not quite understand the implications. Imagine borrowing 40 cents of every dollar your household spends. How long could that go on without experiencing serious financial repercussions? Exactly. But that's what we're doing to satiate our appetite for federal spending. The annual federal budget is about $3.7 trillion. We borrow via the sale of treasury bills about $1.3 trillion.

Entitlement account for the largest share of that $3.7 trillion. And for many elected officials - those entitlements are "off the table" because they don't want to alienate a specific constituancy - the elderly, families with kids in school, unions, etc. (Apparently they're not concerned with alienting the constituancy that will actually have to pay for those entitlements - the next two generations because they'll be long gone by then). Thomas Jefferson said that each generation should pass a debt free nation on to the next. Yeah. Good luck with that. That ship has sailed and is on it's way to sinking.

Fixing the problem and not kicking it down the road would require telling the American people things they probably don't want to hear. Within the next 10 years our debt may match our Gross Domestic Product. If you're guessing that that's not a good thing - you're correct. Move ahead two spaces but don't collect $200. because we don't have it. Increasing taxes upon the rich seems to be the target du' jour. I only wish we had enough rich people to pay for the debt as some people think. But the truth is we don't. Not even close. In fact if ALL the wealth of everyone who makes over $250,000 were confiscated by the government - it would only be enough money to run the government for 3 months. Everytime the eggheads in Washington crow about saving $10 billion just remember, that's about 24 hours of federal spending. It's that bad. Federal spending has increased 39% in the last 3 years. Are you 39% better off?

The solution is bitter medicine. Medicare has to be restructured completely in the near future. It is by far the biggest chunk of the budget & has unfunded liablities of $33 trillion. Tinkering around the edges wont cut it. Social Security isn't quite as bad off but it's close. People are living much longer than the life expectancy of 65 when the program was initiated. That means people are collecting for a much longer period than the program was ever designed for. The retirement age must be raised and benefits trimmed - and soon or there wont be anything available for future generations. As it stand now - we only have IOU's in the form of Treasury bills in the Social Security fund. It was drained of actual cash long ago. Like most Ponzi schemes, you had to be there at the beginning to get your money.

Since the President says everyone must sacrifice, I assume he means everyone. That means trimming Medicaid entitlements and other programs the federal government never was intended to enact. (Read the 10th Ammendment) When the ailment is life threatening, the medicine must be strong. But don't worry.
None of this is going to happen.

Why? Because most politicians vote according to the wishes of their constituants so they can get re-elected. And who's going to vote for somebody who levels this truth at them? It's not a very pleasant truth. Certainly not one most people want to hear much less have to deal with. But facts are stubborn things and the math is pretty simple. So enjoy the ride as much as you can. America is doomed to flame out all because our greed for eating at the government trough couldn't be satiated. Not because we didn't pay enough in taxes. We just assumed someone else was going to pay the bulk of our benefits. Someone who could afford to pay more than us. And we assumed that those grand fellows and ladies in Washington we elected must be so much brighter than the rest of us. Surely they have it all figured out, right? Yeah, they've got it figured out alright. Invoke class warfare. Keep factions fighting with each other. Claim the "other guys" don't care about you. Maybe no one will notice you're giving them sugar cookie treats that their kids & grandkids will be paying for.

America could never be conquored by a foreign army. Instead it will die at it's own hands. Not with the bang of a cannon or thrust of a bayonette. It will wither and succomb under it's own financial suicide. The funny thing is - most of us saw it coming. But nobody wanted to arrange an intervention.