Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Bipartisan False Choice On S-CHIP

The Bush budget expands spending on S-CHIP, the health coverage program for children from low-income families who don't qualify for Medicaid, by $4.8 billion over the next five years.

The Louisville Courier-Journal and liberal media elites across the country are too busy convincing everyone that we really want government bureaucrats controlling healthcare choices in America to quibble with facts:

If Mr. Bush ignores compromise, it will prove that, rather than just staunchly conservative, he is reactionary.


To compromise, the lefties want Bush to set aside his $4.8 billion increase in favor of the Senate's $35 billion or the House's $50 billion increase.

Unfortunately for us, even Republicans in Congress are going along with the scam.

What we need is more real "reactionaries" to make the case for getting government to at least slow down its takeover of American healthcare.

The fact is the American tradition of freedom combined with our growing appetite for free stuff is giving us expanding numbers of people who abuse their bodies with junk food and sedentary lifestyles and then run in for their taxpayer-supported medical attention when the damage has already been done. It would be cheaper and more humane to incentivize healthier lifestyles by allowing natural consequences to run their course.

That's one reason I'm not a candidate for anything in the current environment. I would let S-CHIP expire this fall. Weaning working, able-bodied Americans off the government teat is critical to our nation's future.

The liberals' exit strategy from this war -- which we are losing -- is to leap head-first into policies China and the former Soviets are running away from as fast as they can. Congressional Republicans who go along with this are no better than useful idiots.