Posted by
Thomas Gagne on Wednesday, May 21, 2008 7:12:04 AM
We've come a long way from John F. Kennedy's inauguration speech of January 20, 1961. It is from this great speech that President Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country." On a Townhall-like telephone conference with Congressman Sander Levin a few weeks ago this was the last thing on questioners' minds. All they most wanted to know was what the federal government will do for them.
According
to the conference moderator, over 2000 people from the congressman's
district were on the phone. It was the congressman's staff's job to
screen questions. Maybe Kennedy's words were the last thing on the
screeners' minds. The only questions I heard asked were basically:
- How can the government pay for my health insurance?
- How can the government pay for my child's education?
- How can the government lower gas prices?
- How can the government pay for my mortgage?
After
answering a few of these, I could have easily taken the congressman's
place because his answer to each was basically, "Democratic leaders in
the house and senate are working to provide (fill in the blank) but
we'd make better progress with a friend in the White House, instead of
President Bush."
From
the congressman's point-of-view, the only thing stopping Democrats from
paying for everything was President Bush. If that's the case, I'm glad
President Bush is there, and am not optimistic for either an Obama or
Clinton presidency.
The
high cost of health insurance, education, and the so-called mortgage
crisis are likely the product of government interference in the first
place. Many who get the joke chuckle when the hear,
patient: Doctor, it hurts when I do this
doctor: Then stop doing that!
If
government interference helped create the problem, why do so many
expect more government interference will remedy it? I had a grandmother
that used to over-cook meat. She thought the solution to any tough,
unchewable roast was to put it back in the oven.
When someone
else is paying our tab we tend to be less careful what we put on it.
This is the case with corporate expense accounts as much as it with
insurance. Healthy people are perfectly capable of fighting off
infections without antibiotics, but since they're made less expensive
with insurance we're seldom reluctant to have them prescribed for us.
This is an unnecessary medical subsidy that inflates the prices of
medicines and contributes to the antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.
Government subsidies also remove the pressure on colleges to yield to the economics of supply and demand.
Administrative and staff salaries, building and maintenance expenses
are all increasing faster than inflation, and both state and federal
governments are racing to back-fill their budgets so the cost to
families might remain affordable. Though universities teach supply
& demand, as well as the basics of capitalism and free markets,
apparently they prefer a more socialist funding mechanism.
Gas
prices? Punish the oil companies. None of us are individually
responsible for our nation's dependence on foreign oil. We have a right
to live wherever we want, drive whatever we want, heat our homes and
pools to whatever temperature we want, and exercise our recreational
vehicles however we desire. The preferred mechanism to affording our
wants is to have the government pay for it--which is to say taxpayers.
And while income taxes are graduated--have "the rich" pay for it. In
fact the less we pay in income tax the better the deal it is.
Congressman Levin also promised to rescue homeowners at risk of foreclosure or upside-down on their mortgages. Even before 2005 economists warned home prices couldn't keep going up.
Everyone that lived through the Internet Bubble of 2000 or the savings
& loan scandal knew the economists were right--but that didn't stop
them from buying more home than they could afford or speculating that
interest rates wouldn't rise.
So
what else did President Kennedy say in that speech? Read it for
yourself. You might notice he used words similar to what President Bush
used in Israel that so upset Democrats. A good speech, like a good
constitution, is as relevant today as it was when first composed. The
only difference I see today from 47 years ago is that that speech seems
more conservative than progressive, and more likely to come from Bush
than either Clinton or Obama.
So I wonder to myself, have Republicans become more like Kennedy or have Democrats become less like him?
Cross posted at Everyone takes their turn.