The loyal defenders of President Barack Obama and the
Affordable Care Act (ACA) keep pointing to Social Security and Medicare as
examples of successful government programs whenever someone points out that
government doesn’t do anything very well. The nearly perfect record of dismal
performance in federal programs is a key reason that critics doubt that the
massively flawed rollout of health insurance reform lovingly referred to as
“Obamacare” will eventually turn into a success.
Liberal commentator Juan Williams proudly notes how
“popular” both Social Security and Medicare are, citing them as having received
70 percent support among those asked whether they like the programs or not. But
just because lots of people like a given federal program doesn’t mean it is a
beneficial or successful program.
It is certainly true that Social Security and Medicare are
very popular and proponents vigorously oppose balancing the budgets of the two
programs by reducing benefits. But, again, by the “popularity” standard, programs
that create dependency like welfare, food stamps, and free cell phones are
successes, too.
However, reality paints a far different, and much less rosy
picture of Social Security and Medicare.
These programs are not giveaways funded by taxpayers, they
are funded primarily by payroll taxes on employers and the employees who
benefit from them. Even so, because of mismanagement and a failure to adapt to
changes in demographics, both programs are broken and broke, running annual
deficits.
This is the typical sort of success we find in “successful”
government programs, and we have to wonder if there isn’t a better solution to
most problems the government thinks it can solve. And the answer is, “yes,
there is.” The private sector can do it better, as evidenced by multitudes of
successes over our 230-plus-year history.
What too often happens is that when government sees the
private sector not completely solving a problem, it thinks it can do better,
and a new federal program is born. But the ultimate result is that the federal
government does no better at trying to solve the problem than the private
sector, and often does much worse.
In contrast to the self-funding process involving the
beneficiaries of Social Security and Medicare, other programs give handouts to
both those who need help and to those who really don’t need it, and these
recipients pay little or nothing in taxes to support the giveaways.
These programs are rife with waste, fraud, and abuse,
because government does not manage them efficiently. You can make a very good
argument that government is inherently unable to manage these expansive
programs competently.
Giving people money is one of the first priorities of
politicians; it’s how they buy popularity, which translates to votes.
But as examples go, Social Security and Medicare, while
intended to be self-sustaining without support from general tax revenue, are
not examples of good government programs because they have been mismanaged and
neglected.
Social Security began running a deficit in 2010, will run a
deficit near $75 billion this year and the projected deficit will reach $344
billion in 2035 if something isn’t done. Social Security is beginning to fail
in its ability to take care of seniors because government has failed to properly
operate the program.
A panel determines Medicare reimbursements, a panel that
meets in secret and relies heavily on the recommendations of the American
Medical Association. Many doctors already do not treat Medicare patients
because the low reimbursements don’t cover costs. Medicare providers have to
balance low Medicare payments by shifting lost dollars to insured patients.
So that’s a brief glimpse into Juan Williams’ idea of
successful government programs. Is this what the ACA also promises, or will it
somehow be different?
Even if we believe the ACA is a good idea, even if it had
been competently designed and implemented, and even if we overlook the
disgraceful manner in which it was created and jammed through Congress before
being read by the Democrats who enacted it, it is still a government program
that supposes it will be more effective at running 18 percent of the nation’s
economy, and one of the most important personal concerns Americans have, than
the private sector.
And now $716 billion will be taken out of Medicare to fund
Obamacare, meaning reimbursements and senior care will suffer, or the deficit
will increase.
Obamacare attempts to do by force what Republicans attempted
to do by choice through initiatives focused on the problem areas of the
then-current system, and Democrats opposed and defeated those efforts.
Despite Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’
phantasmagoric redefining the fines imposed by Obamacare
as taxes, the U.S. Constitution did not intend for, and does not authorize
government to commandeer one-sixth of the economy.
Those who think government is the answer to everything need
to remember that the only reason there is a government of the United States of America
is because the people – remember “of the people, by the people, and for the
people?” – created it by assigning government limited powers in certain
specific areas.
It is perverse in the extreme for the people now to be
controlled by that which they voluntarily created.
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