Reckless Endangerment

That's the book by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner. Buy it. Right now. Read it. Schlub will wait...

Okay. Slap the appropriate cover page on this book, and use it to generate indictments. There's a handy list of malefactors in the back. These people need to go to jail. Right, Barney Frank?

Root of all Evil

Government is out of control. Health care is out of control. Schlub admits this may be the linking of disparate topics, but no, not really, and not for the reasons you think.

In 1913, the US amended the Constitution to collect income taxes. In 1965, the US instituted Medicare. How do they relate?

It’s where the money is.

Both changed government and medicine from service organizations to profit centers. Before the income tax, most persons sought government office from a sense of obligation. Yes, yes, often it was noblesse oblige, but, still, they gave up jobs or positions and spent a few years in the swamps of DC Serving the People. And yes, yes, there were notorious exceptions. But for most, it wasn’t a career; for most, it was an annoying but obligatory interruption of their career, to be endured and then forgotten.

Same with doctors. Up to 1965, they made house calls and took bags of potatoes in exchange for treatment. It was a priesthood, a life dedicated to healing.

But, throw in gobs of money, and now, government and medicine are places to get rich.

Off of you.

Where do these people come from?

Some dude on the Chris Plante Show the other morning was bewailing the narrow vision of the Founders: they had no idea this would be a country of 300 million, and their quaint notions of individual liberty, while fine for an agrarian society of a few hundred thousand, doesn’t cut the mustard today.

Uh, wrong.

Concepts of individual worth are universal and eternal. You matter. The state does not. The state can be organized in any configuration necessary for proper management, ideally for maximum efficiency and economy. You, though, are organized around your own existence, and that carries a ton more weight than any deft or elegant governmental structure. When that is ignored, you get monarchy and oligarchy and the accompanying oppression and abuse. But when the individual is paramount, you get freedom and prosperity.

No matter how many people are involved.

And then some guy on Fox News was shaking his head sadly over the coming rise of health care costs. “How are we going to pay for this?” he wailed. “We’re just not able to give people the best treatments possible through their last days.”

‘Give’ people?

Pardon me, your premise is showing. You don’t “give” people their health care. We sort of get it for ourselves. Maybe that should be your first operating principle, that of personal responsibility. Here’s a thought- if you and the rest of the statists would butt the hell out of health care, the prices would fall so far all of us could afford it.

Idiots.

Remagen Bridge

Schlub has been vacillating on this whole budget deal. People I respect like it; people I respect don’t. The most annoying aspect: Baracula gets to push the issue past 2012. Most gratifying: Baracula’s sheep clothing slipped and the raving Marxist underneath came snarling out.

A lot of my fellow Tea’ers are screaming betrayal because the debt limit was raised. I share your pain. But consider this, fellow patriots: we are standing at Remagen Bridge. The way to Berlin lies open. We’re looking at each other thinking this is some kind of trick; why did they leave a bridge intact for our use? The Germans on the other side are saying we better not cross. So, what, we go, “Okay, sorry to bother you.” ?

No. We cross the friggin’ bridge, beat the crap out of the remnant, destroy the MarxoDemocrats once and for all, and raise the Stars and Stripes over the capitol.

And, this time, there’s no friggin’ Russians in the way.