It's been three weeks since America's health care system was fundamentally transformed. The bill, which was debated for the better part of a year, finally passed 219-212 despite bipartisan opposition and an overwhelming majority of Americans in disagreement. Now that the dust is settling and we are finally getting a chance to read the 2,000 page bill in its entirety one thing is clear, Americans want the bill repealed. According to the most recent CBS poll only 32 percent of Americans approve of the bill which was passed by playing Washington politics with one sixth of our economy. Now the legal challenges are coming up in states across the country as attorneys general, including Wisconsin's own J.B. Van Hollen, begin to challenge the constitutionality of the bill.
Never before has the federal government required a society to purchase a good or a service to remain a law abiding citizen. If this bill stands, the federal government will be able to force an individual to buy any good or service it deems necessary for the good of the people. Liberals will argue that health care is a human right and that this bill is justified because it is for the greater good.
This brings up a fundamental question however; if something is a right does that mean we should be mandated to partake in it? If a Republican supermajority were to declare that since the constitution states that we have the right to bear arms and owning a gun was essential for the greater good, that each citizen must purchase a gun and those who can't afford one will be given one out of the pocket of someone else, many on this campus would be rightfully outraged. The same idea applies to health care. Although we are entitled to rights such as free speech and the right to vote, we are not mandated to exercise those rights. We can choose to speak our minds, or to remain silent. We can choose to vote, or sit at home on Election Day.
This is a fundamental transformation of our society into a European style social democracy. We have declared health care property of the people and now providers of that health care, doctors and health care companies, indebted to society. They owe each American health care regardless of whether or not they can pay for it. When a good or service is declared, as health care was, property of the people, the producer of that good or service becomes indebted to the state. Whether the good is a farmer's produce or a health care companies services, any profits the provider makes must used to pay for any shortfalls that are caused by the state forcing that provider to give the good or service away for free. Although the government is currently reimbursing these providers, continuing reimbursement cuts in the nearly bankrupt Medicare program, as the Mayo Clinic points out, will cause doctors and hospitals to take a loss.
It's problems like this and many more which are causing such uproar among people and attorneys general across the country. Yet this bill means more than just complex political discourse and legal trappings. It affects each and every one of us. 16,500 additional IRS agents are being hired to make sure we not only have health care, but also adequate health care as defined by the federal government.
Not only are we being forced to purchase this health care, but as we reach European levels of entitlement, we will face European levels of taxation. Just this week, White House advisor Paul Volcker stated that the United States should consider instating what's called a value added tax. This tax would be a national sales tax on everything to help pay down an unsustainable deficit. What does this mean for us? If we enact European levels of taxation as suggested by the administration this week, the textbooks which cost you 500 dollars this semester will cost you 600 dollars the next.
These issues are serious, these problems are complex. Yet the fundamental transformation of our society is clear. Despite the challenges before us, however, we still have hope. We have hope we can reform our country and will continue to be a shining beacon on the hill. We have hope because we can take a ballot and vote to change our countries future. This can be stopped. Although the left will try to marginalize those who oppose the policies of this administration and this congress as being racist, violent radicals, they will be proven wrong this November when everyday Americans vote them out. To the dismay of many on the left, we will not sit down and we will not shut up.
Matt Payne is a sophomore intending to major in Chinese and economics. We welcome all feedback. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
