The Wheels Are Coming Off
This doesn't make any f-ing sense, and I'm not gonna do it.
...I don't get how you can possibly hand me a health care bill with an individual mandate and no public option. If I'm uninsured or poorly insured, and the answer coming out of Congress is that I now have to buy crappy insurance from some private company that has no plan to actually help me pay for my health care without raking me over the coals, then I've gone into this fight an ardent supporter of strong reform, and come out a teabagger.You're going to force me to pay an insurance company for shit insurance that as a free market actor I decided not to even try to buy?
Fuck the hell out of that. Come and get me if you want my money. Paying the government against my will I can understand. It's the government, and it takes things. I might not like it, but I get it. Now, "libertarians" will no doubt scoff haughtily at that, but look, we differ on how much intrusion we'll tolerate. BFD. Welcome to Earth. But if I'm gonna lose that money one way or the other, to my mind it had damn well better be to pay for insurance that actually covers something, and not to be burned on executive bonuses, advertising, or 30% overhead when there's a 4% plan on the market.
Paying an insurance company whose product I don't want? That makes no goddamn sense to me whatsoever, and I want nothing to do with it.
David Waldman and other statists are so fucked up over health care that they're coming dangerously close to endorsing individual freedom.
Says one commenter: "They can track me down and toss my butt in jail before they tell me I have to pay a private, for-profit corporation."
Not that it's any consolation to me. In their view, it is a sincere moral outrage to ultimately have a cop point a gun in your face so you give private companies money but it's "who cares, get your whiny ass in line" when the government is the recipient. The former is grounds for open tax revolts and defiance. The latter is as agreeable as breathing.
They still aren't thinking straight.
They probably never will.
Comments
"us" vs "them" again, huh?
Obviously, civil disobedience is the only discourse when being forced by the government to do something you don't want.
Unless, of course, you're against their policies. Then you need to pay.
The comments on that thread sound so familiar. It's amazing how these people laughingly denounce "libertarianism" (notice the use of quotes) and then go on to promote a position advocating civil disobedience against the government's use of force on them to make them do something against their will or desire.
Some quick examples:
"If we can be commanded to buy health insurance with the stroke of a pen, what else can we be commanded to do? Do we all have to go out and buy a new computer, car, appliances if the congress decides we need to help out other industries?"
As if the commenter completely missed that we just ended Cash for Clunkers, a program of government theft creating economic incentives for a few benefiting the corporations at the expense of the taxpayer. Yes, commenter, your desire for increased statism has lead to a governmental position where they can command you to do just about anything and use force to make you comply.
"The individual mandate without a public option is contrary to the principles of freedom and democracy. It is nothing more than an updated version of the old feudalism where the public is compelled to pay taxes directly into the coffers of the rich."
Yet, no issue with the idea that all use of government to force people to do anything against their will is contrary to the principles of freedom. Currently, the public is compelled (coerced?) to pay taxes directly to the government, often used for subsidies for rich corporations and anti-competitive regulations that squash small business. But, that's cool, because it's government.
"Forcing people to buy insurance from those who are clearly usurious, unrepentant vampires is a step toward slavery. Fuck that."
Oh, the irony. The left out word at the beginning is "Government", because this commenter wants to highlight the evil insurance industry as the source of all problems health care related. If this plan goes through, who is the "evil" one using the force? Hint: it's not the insurance company.
I like this one the most, from the author:
"My serious gripe is that if you pass such a bill and I find that my alternatives suck and I prefer to remain uninsured, you can't just say, 'Well, you have to finance these guys bonuses whether you like it or not, use it or not.'"
First off, the author assumes the government will let him remain uninsured. Likely, his freedoms will be taken from him if he doesn't comply. But, worse than that, the author misses that all government requires people to finance X, whether you like it or not, regardless of what X is. Welfare? DEA? Iraq War? It's "for the greater good".
You're right, this Right/Left thing is really a big circle.
Posted by: AxiomThree | August 25, 2009 04:39 PM
"the author assumes the government will let him remain uninsured. Likely, his freedoms will be taken from him if he doesn't comply."
One only has to look at compulsory auto insurance to see that there will be no way to opt out.
Posted by: Matt | August 27, 2009 09:46 PM