The Damage We Can't Measure

By now we've had enough time to go through all the stages of grief over the Obamacare ruling. We have seen what the tax increases are going to look like once this abomination is implemented but what isn't being talked about are the unquantifiable costs that are bound to follow. There is the obvious cost of conservatives feeling more and more alienated by the professional left that sees us as nothing more than backwards folks who live in flyover-land but there is a much more serious consequence that must be considered; that of young people considering becoming doctors.

I have been talking to a few friends of mine who are thinking about going to medical school in the coming years and all of them are rightfully very concerned with what the ACA will mean for that profession. Most of them are not very political but, when it comes to this one issue, they are forced to be. This law affects every single person who is currently in or thinking about med school as it is a huge investment of both time and money. What the ACA has effectively done is introduce a huge element of uncertainty to the medical community, it has politicized medicine. I don't know about you but I want our best and brightest to enroll in med school but now the smartest people considering medical school are balking at making the investment because the prospect of being a doctor just got a whole lot hazier thanks to this law. Quoting one of my friends considering medical school: 

I love love love medicine. I would love to do surgery...but is it worth it? I don't want the government dictating how I run my practice. It will be a cold day in hell before I go to school for an additional 9 years to have that sh*t happen.  

Now you can try to argue the point of the author here about "the ACA doesn't dictate how doctors run their practices" but that would be missing the point which is that any intelligent person considering med school is trying to make a wise financial investment. The ACA has essentially raised the risk element of that investment to a high enough level that bright potential doctors-to-be are opting for more certain career choices and who can blame them? The effect of this won't be felt in 2013 or 2014 but much further down the line. The end result is a smaller pool of doctors, an overall lower quality of care, and generally less available healthcare for ALL Americans. This runs completely counter to the intentions behind the ACA, which was to provide healthcare to more Americans. I think a certain Milton Friedman quote sums it up:

One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.

I understand the good intent behind the law and I think conservatives embrace the good intentions (despite the left characterizing us as heartless) but we understand that there are better ways than using the sledgehammer that is the federal government to do the job of a scalpel.

I truly hope that the mistake that is the ACA is realized by those on both sides of the aisle who are rational enough to realize that this was not the way to achieve this goal. I fear, however, that too many folks are happy to blindly say that because the ACA is a victory for the political left that it is good policy. I fear that kind of stubborn political pride is going to keep this policy in place long enough to cause the American medical commnity irreparable damage. 

As they say, the path to hell is paved with good intentions....


And a final thought, here is an apt quote considering recent events: 
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." - Reagan

How the Administration Hoodwinked Us

This segment sums up how the President lied to all of us by selling us a bill of goods (the bill is not a tax, not a tax, I REPEAT, NOT A TAX) and then turning around and called it what it really was in court. It does it better than I ever could:

The Only Positive Message To Conservatives Today

Today is a rough day in the world of conservative politics. The Affordable Care Act has just been upheld as a Constitutional tax even though the Obama administration has stated repeatedly that it isn't a tax and the bulk of the House Democrats walked out on the the Holder contempt vote. 

But, if I may be cliché for a moment, remember that the night is darkest right before the dawn.... and our dawn is coming. Now it seems that the march towards bigger and bigger government has been in full swing for quite some time now and that lately it has accelerated exponentially. But, with that being said, us true conservatives can look at the extreme version of government control that has been championed by the Obama administration and see a silver lining. Bear with me here...

As the federal government starts doing things that are increasingly distasteful and unpalatable to the average American (who tends to be center-right), more and more of those average folks sit up and pay attention. If we look at what has happened just in the past year or so, we have seen the Obama care spectacle, the Fast and Furious insanity, the National Defense Authorization Act, the Department of Justice refusing to enforce federal immigration law in AZ, the Dept. of Homeland Security cutting ties to AZ law enforcement after the SCOTUS ruling about the AZ immigration law, the awful solar company investments, the Gibson guitar raids, SOPA and PIPA, Obama having a private "kill list", and the list continues on. If we just look at those few stories, we can see a steady march towards centralized government control that involves armed raids, turning assault weapons over to foreign criminals, detention of Americans by the military, and a standoff between a state and the federal government. These are all incredibly divisive stories for anyone keeping up with politics.     

But let's remember that elections are not decided by those of us who have our homepages set to Drudge, FreeRepublic, or DailyKos (shudder). Elections are decided by cabinetmakers in Indiana, farmers in Iowa, factory workers in Ohio, web-designers in CA, and little old ladies in Florida. These folks generally don't give a damn about what the DoJ is doing or how many rounds of golf the President has played during his term (its up to 101 as of today) but they do care when they hear about the head of the nation's law enforcement has been held in contempt by Congress. They do care when they hear that their money is being wasted on junk investments. And they REALLY care when they are forced to purchase something or face a penalty.

So what we have in the year or so behind us are a ton of instances of average folks hearing more and more about how far left the federal government has gotten. For those of us who have lived and worked in DC, we know how bad it has been for quite some time but now that has risen to the "in your face" level. These kinds of stories are covered on nightly news and in local papers. They are impossible to ignore. 

So let's get back to today. Everyone was watching DC today and the liberals certainly didn't disappoint. Between gloating over the SC decision (and some more gloating) over the ACA and the House Democrats creating a circus featuring race as its main attraction, those on the left of the aisle look like bullies who are spiking the proverbial football after scoring a touchdown. (Side note: I always say that you can judge a group who competes by how graciously they win. If you look all over Twitter and Facebook today, you'll see how gracious the winners today are.) This won't sit right with the average folks. For the most part, people do not agree with Obamacare so they lost today. When people lose, they don't like their noses rubbed in it and that is exactly what is happening here. This drives people away from the message of the President and the DNC and the only other game in town? Romney. (I gagged while writing that)

Before today, I said I would vote for Ron Paul come hell or high water but today has changed my tune and I imagine I am not alone in this. Today has turned the November election into more aggressive Left leaning policies versus ?. I say ? because that is what Romney is, he is a giant question mark, an enigma. He flip flops, changes his tune, and avoids taking a position like it’s his job (oh wait, it is his job). But more and more folks (you can include me as of today) are willing to role the dice and vote for the unknown over the known commodity of Barrack Obama. The logic is something along the lines of "I know I can't stand what Obama has done while in office and there is no possible way Romney could be worse than this." I, for one, am willing to roll those dice and take that bet. I know that in his first term, Barrack has made giant strides towards "fundamentally transforming" America. We have to keep in mind that Obama, who always has campaigning on the brain, championed all of the above while still worried about being re-elected (kinda). So what is going to happen when he isn't concerned about re-election? That is what scares me and that is why I have changed my tune and have decided not only to vote for Romney but also to donate to his campaign. I saw a quote today along the lines of "donate to the Romney like your future depends on it..... because it does." After the exhibition of today, I can not think of a more appropriate sentiment on which to end.

Thank you for reading and I HOPE things begin to CHANGE.