The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

What The Flu-Shot Is A “Federal Dollar”?

Posted on | January 4, 2014 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Great article over on Town Hall by Conn Carroll about ObamaCare. Worth reading in full, but I’d like to pick up where he ends for a bit of a rant on a fundamental conceptual flaw that cuts across so much of our jacked-up contemporary thinking (emphasis mine):

We already see this happening in Massachusetts where all of Obamneycare’s cost containment claims have been exposed as complete frauds. Yes, almost everyone in Massachusetts does have health insurance, but the state simply can’t afford it. Don’t believe me? Just ask Obamacare architect Donald Berwick who is running for governor. His website explains:

In the Massachusetts state budget, almost every key line item has gone down by 20%, 30%, or 40% in real terms since 2000 except health care, which has gone up by 60%. In 2013, 43% of state expenditures are for health care – that’s more than double what we spend on education.

Berwick’s solution? “It is time to explore seriously the possibility of a single payer system in Massachusetts,” Berwick writes.
And that is where the only common ground will ever be on health care policy in Washington: allowing states to choose their own health care futures. If California, Massachusetts, and New York want to become single-payer health care systems, fine, let’s reform Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare to let them do that.
But, if Indiana wants to provide their citizens more freedom, and use federal dollars to set up health savings accounts for the uninsured, then Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare ought to be reformed to let them do that, too.

Our “dollar” shows up in Article 1 Section 9 of the Constitution. But it’s Just. A. Dollar. Sure, we’ve blown off our original requirement for solid metal backing for the currency. See Ron Paul for pertinent rants.

And, yes, I do understand the intent of this common usage. The point of this rant is to underscore the problem with accepting artificial distinctions like “federal”, “state”, and “local” dollars. No. There is only one currency, the dollar. Dollars expended by government are ultimately taxpayer dollars, and, sooner or later, overtly through taxation, or covertly through opportunity costs, are going to come from those taxpayers, sure as the wool comes from the sheep.

The term of art “federal dollars” is just a ruse to quell fears that, somehow, the pain is going to fall on voters, who might punish their collection of rodeo clowns at election time. We’ve pretty much seen that there is no other feedback loop in the system; no amount of wanton jackwagonry on ObamaCare (or Fast & Furious, or Benghazi, &c) can trigger any laxative effects at the White House.

Let’s start a campaign to let the dollar be the dollar, reform the Federal Reserve, have budgets, and otherwise quit living this Peter Pan Progressive Pot Party. Extremist, I know. Can’t help it.

Category: Health Care

Comments

8 Responses to “What The Flu-Shot Is A “Federal Dollar”?”

  1. Political Rift » What The Flu-Shot Is A “Federal Dollar”?
    January 4th, 2014 @ 11:00 am

    […] smitty by Smitty Great article over on Town Hall by Conn Carroll about ObamaCare. Worth reading in full, […]

  2. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    January 4th, 2014 @ 11:12 am

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qmxfO_x7uTg/Usgw_ypR8TI/AAAAAAAAeag/5zq5wMi-ZWs/s1600/5493.jpg

    Good advice from Smitty in the morning!

  3. Shawny
    January 4th, 2014 @ 11:41 am

    Ohhhhh, you mean do what the hell makes some sense? Why yes, we used to know what that was. But bottom line, our leadership, state, local, federal and even international, do not see that dollar as our hard earned tax dollar. They see it as their bottomless slush fund to exploit, not necessarily for our benefit. The campaign to stop funding their nonsense until they start showing some responsibility and restraint is the same you’d use for your addicted relative whom you love, but love enough not to enable their destructive behavior to harm themselves and the rest of the family. Tough love people. Extremist, I know. But by God it works.

  4. Shawny
    January 4th, 2014 @ 11:41 am

    Now THAT is just puurrrrrrrfect!!!

  5. Todd__Kincannon
    January 4th, 2014 @ 1:02 pm

    RT @smitty_one_each: What The Flu-Shot Is A “Federal Dollar”? http://t.co/sm9D85tzgu #TCOT

  6. Rosalie
    January 4th, 2014 @ 2:14 pm

    And the longer those bozos are in the worse it gets.

  7. Alessandra
    January 4th, 2014 @ 2:46 pm

    I liked the “flu-shot.” I like when people get creative with substitutions 🙂

  8. FMJRA 2.0: Frisby : The Other McCain
    January 12th, 2014 @ 2:47 pm

    […] What The Flu-Shot Is A “Federal Dollar”? […]