There was only one thing scarier in last night's presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama than Obama's assertion that "healthcare is a right." That scarier thing was McCain's proposal that the federal government should bail out homeowners stuck with "bad mortgages."
McCain must have been really itching to get this idea out there, because he wasted no time waiting. Of course, the first question from the town hall audience pretty much set him up for it.
The question, coming from one Alan Schaffer, typified the "what can my government do for me" attitude that is plaguing the American citizenry of today. He asked: "With the economy on the downturn and retired and older citizens and workers losing their incomes, what's the fastest, most positive solution to bail these people out of the economic ruin?"
First of all, the government should have no responsibility whatsoever to bail people out of their economic hardships, but that is a topic for another post.
McCain's response is what I really want to talk about here. With a totally straight face, McCain uttered the following two sentences in the same answer:
"As president of the United States, Alan, I would order the secretary of the treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America and renegotiate at the new value of those homes -- at the diminished value of those homes and let people be able to make those -- be able to make those payments and stay in their homes."
"We have to keep Americans' taxes low. All Americans' taxes low. Let's not raise taxes on anybody today."
What is this guy smoking? The McCain camp, today, issued more details on his masterful plan which includes the price tag of $300,000,000,000 (that's 11 zeroes). Sure, compared with the recent $700 billion Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, $300B is pretty affordable. But when you think about it, the costs are outstanding.
Unlike the $700B "bailout" package, which would allow for the eventual sale of toxic securities in order to reduce the final cost of the legislation, McCain's plan is pretty much taking taxpayer money and throwing it away. Imagine you live in greater San Jose, CA. You outbid 14 other potential buyers for the right to buy your 1500 square foot house for $950,000. Two years later, you find yourself with a $950,000 mortgage on a house that's only worth $800,000 today. You are 150 Gs in the hole, and feeling down. Wait! Here comes Uncle Sam to get you a new mortgage for $800,000, essentially paying you $150,000 with the funds provided by your fellow Americans' taxes. Taxpayers will never see that money again, but you'll feel "secure" and be able to keep living the Dream.
Further, this would require the national debt ceiling to be raised once again. As part of EESA2008, that ceiling was raised to $11.4 Trillion. This would mean it would go up to $11.7T. And, despite what McCain says about raising taxes being the absolute worst thing a government could do in a down economy (and he's right), there would be no choice but to raise taxes.
So what was he thinking? With under 30 days left until E-Day, and Obama still ahead in the polls by 3-5%, McCain seems to be getting a little desperate. I think he's hoping that he can pander to the American public who are hungry for a Big Brother rescue and steal some votes from Obama, who has had a pretty good lock on the Take From Peter To Pay Paul story.
While he may have taken some of the Independent or Undecided votes with this plan, he's sure to have sacrificed many more of the Conservative votes, including mine. Congratulations John, you just lost the election.
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And another thing... I recommend doing a little research into healthcare before dismissing the idea that it should be a right. Any family like yours is one bad car accident away from catastrophic medical bills that will bankrupt you within months. Your family has equal chance of having a beloved child stricken with cancer or the rupture of a brain aneurysm at ANY TIME, which will bankrupt your family within months. Children die every day because their parents are employed in jobs that no longer provide health insurance benefits, but who don't make enough money to afford the astronomical premiums to cover their families. Medicare and Medicaid are patchwork systems that help but that do not provide comprehensive coverage. The blessings that you count on for your family are not necessarily available to all families. What makes yours better or more deserving of healthcare? Why not invest in the healthcare of your neighbors when the benefits to society are so clear? This is the greatest country in the world, but we can't make sure that a ten year old in DC doesn't die from a dental abscess? He had Medicaid, but his mom couldn't find a dentist who would provide him care for that coverage. Nice.
Where does one draw the line? Why not throw everything and the kitchen sink into the list of "rights" that we are entitled to by our government? Healthcare, comfortable retirement, steady work, college education, affordable housing...
I'm not saying that the current health care system does not have its deficiencies; it's obvious that it does. But the paradigm that health care is a basic right to be afforded to the people by their government is just plain wrong. You can throw all the real or hypothetical stories in that you want. You can stir up all the emotion that you want. But government should not be the hand that feeds.
"Investing in the healthcare of my neighbors when the benefits to society are so clear?" That's socialism in a nutshell, and it's not an investment. It is taking money from me, despite my independent will, and giving it to others.
When you open the door for government to be the provider of these "rights," you are also allowing the government to call all the shots in your life. Since the government enables these facets of your life, you essentially have ceded all control outside of that which they allow you to have. You substitute one broken system for another.
Again, I'm not saying there aren't huge problems with the current system, vis-a-vis health care. But handing over the reins to government is NOT the way to fix it.
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