I wasn’t going to get political till the campaign got under way but seeing what is happening around the country is pissing me off. Seeing people acting against their own self interest scares me. Seeing history being rewritten by the likes of Michele Bachman and Sarah Palin that is even scarier because there are many who are buying their distortions. Let’s face it, Newt Gingrich really wants you to believe that he cheated on his wife while she was stricken with cancer and in the hospital because he loved America too much. He was loving America one American slut at a time.
For years – since Ronald Reagan – we have heard that government can’t solve problems, government is the problem. I know he wasn’t talking about the rise of Hitler. I know he wasn’t talking about the great depression or the interstate highway system. He could not have been talking about Social Security for the eldest part of our society, or the National Health Institute or even the Internal Revenue Service. He could not have been talking about the US Army, the US Air Force, Marines or Navy – even the postal service gets the job done, under government supervision. We are protected by the FBI, the CIA, the FDA and other agencies without any consideration for having to pay a dividend to stockholders.
Locally, your fire department is government run. In one community, not long ago they did privatize the fire department and the department let a house burn down while the firemen stood there because the owner didn’t pay his $50. What happens when you have to call Dirty Harry’s Police Services? When you add “for profit” to public services you get less service, higher costs to feed the profit motive. In the recent healthcare debate it was documented that private insurers use only 70% of their income to provide services while Medicare (that boogy man entitlement) has an overhead of 2% or less. Imagine what kind of healthcare we would get if we all paid premiums where 98% of them would be used for services.
Here is another one you will love. They want to privatize prisons. Can you imagine how small an offense you will have to commit to be sent to Sampson and Son Incarceration, Inc.? They don’t make any money unless the prison is full. Don’t pay your credit card on time, go to jail. If it is government run, we try to keep people out of jail, rehabilitate, etc. The immigration law in Arizona keeps their private prisons full! The prison companies are a growth business paying good dividends. Are we then going to outsource executions, too? They can sell the cable rights for a profit.
Then there is the argument that we don’t want a government employee making decisions for us. Don’t call 911 when you need it because that government employee is going to decide whether to send the ambulance or not – as government employee they have choice but to do so. BUT, if they were employees of a private company they would have to decide whether it is cost effective to send that ambulance based on distance, or is it another firm’s area or maybe the injury, according to the employee handbook, is not severe enough.
Your medical claims, under private services, are always denied at first. Then you have to go through the appeal process because it is better for their stock holders if they don’t pay. There is the profit motive that could kill you. So, is a government trained employee who is taught to serve the public better than an employee who gets a bonus for not providing services?
Mr. Reagan did us all a disservice by making sure we hated government. Yes, we should be vigilant about government. Understand the role that government plays and the roles that ONLY government can play. For the past two centuries our government has done a pretty good job – it could it have done better, of course, but here we are anyway!
Remember, when they take away our public services they take away our rights to them. Privatize schools, we have no right to education, privatize health, we have no right to healthcare. Privatize police we have no right to security. You decide!
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