Tea at Trianon: The "Medicare for All" Nightmare

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, April 11, 2019

The "Medicare for All" Nightmare

From The American Thinker:

For 240 years, the U.S. life expectancy went up without Obamacare, and most people were happy with their health care. After a few years of Obamacare, where freedom of choice was taken away, life expectancy unexpectedly dropped for three straight years despite massive premium and out-of-pocket costs. And now Democrats want more government. They always want more government.

Politicians are willing to destroy millions of jobs related to health insurance along with hundreds of billions in stock values and real estate values. How much would states, cities, and pension funds lose if these millions of jobs were destroyed to give government more power and control of our lives? Revenues from sales taxes, income taxes, and property taxes would go down substantially. Democrats seem to want more people to be dependent on government, and single-payer health care would certainly contribute to that.

Think of how much federal government employees make in salaries and benefits compared to the private sector, yet replacing private sector employees with federal bureaucrats is what is being proposed. What would the government costs look like for Medicare for all if they had to reflect the cost of future pensions, along with accrued sick and vacation leave? What if the agencies had to reflect the interest expense along with depreciation costs in their budgets? There would be no incentive for government to hold down costs, and they would just continue to jack up income or payroll taxes for the shortfall. Think of what happened to college costs when government started throwing money at colleges. I have never seen a government program that reduces costs or comes in even close to expectations, and single-payer health care would dwarf all others. (Read more.)