RON HART: Health care hijacking hijinks

ROSEMARY BEACH — My oldest child plans to use her summer vacation from Vanderbilt to intern for Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss. I know you are shocked; yes, there are still some Republican Senators left.

Since she plans to head to medical school next year so that she can become a freshly-minted doctor saddled with student loans just in time for socialized medicine, she will be working on the “vision” of   nationalized health care currently proposed by the emboldened Democrats. This is their attempt to top one bad idea with another and to undermine the free market that has led us to such prosperity. To quote P.J. O'Rourke, “If you think health care is expensive now, wait 'till it is free.”

After regulating into submission the auto companies, banks and Fannie Mae (thus giving the Federal government large stakes in all of them), the Dems now plan to use their magical business prowess on one-seventh of our economy, the best health care system in the world.  At long last, our banking, car manufacturing and health care will be as efficiently run as Amtrak, the DMV, the Property Assessor's Office and the Post Office.

If the bailout of these industries does not work, don't worry, be happy.  The government has a backup plan to bail out the bailout.

Just imagine how hard the current CEO of GM, Barack Obama, will negotiate with the UAW union on its next contract. Plus, I am sure he will engorge all of the union members' health care benefits and pensions so they are awash in Viagra and gold chains when they retire at age 50. That should be a comfort to you as our budget deficit skyrockets and more of our economy is controlled by politicians.

Let's look at the future of these newly confiscated businesses that government will soon control by using the business model or, as they like to call it, the “service” (just to show they have a sense of humor) model of the US Postal Service.

Be assured, pro-union Obama will do nothing to cost the Postal Workers Union anything. Democrats are more afraid of asking a union to make sacrifices than they are of a registered letter.

In a year when Fed Ex and UPS made billions and paid taxes, the United States Postal “Service” lost $2.4 billion. What makes the loss more interesting is that most of that money was lost in the mail.

Since there is little demand for their “service,” the USPS has now raised the price of a stamp to forty-four cents in response.  Our government will apply the same logic to Chrysler and GM upon gaining control of them. If the 2012 Cobalt does not sell at $13,000, the government will simply raise the price to $92,000 and eliminate two of the cup holders.

The Postal Service is also threatening to end Saturday mail service, so those of you who enjoy getting unsolicited flyers and junk mail on weekends will be left to suffer.

The USPS is all about attention to new and cutting edge ideas. Even as we speak, the Postal Service is looking for ways to save Americans money by sending correspondence and documents almost instantly in a manner that does not involve them and saves fuel and paper. They have an exploratory committee formed and expect a report by 2020. If you have any suggestions on how this can be done, you could e-mail them, if only there were e-mail at the Postal Service. As it stands now, you are asked to send your ideas in a registered letter, addressed to “Occupant,” to the USPS post office box.

As Fed-Ex and UPS have proven in package delivery, free market competition is the answer to affordable health care in America. If health care consumers were allowed to shop for their services, had to pay for it directly, and really understood the pricing, the system would fix itself by sorting out the winners and losers.

It is amazing that government's answer to every problem is spending more of our money to put us deeper in debt. Wow, that is spare “change” we can all believe in.

Ron Hart is a libertarian political columnist. He can be reached at RevRon10@aol.com and www.RonaldHart.com