A Sad Day for America
March 22, 2010
Joe Malone – Candidate for Congress:
Sunday, the United States House of Representatives voted to pass ObamaCare. The House ignored the opinion of the American people and many of their own members in a brazen act of arrogance. That’s wrong.
In my recent reading, I came across two articles that, although on different subjects, raise even further concern about ObamaCare. The first is a quote from Delos Cosgrove, CEO of the renowned hospital, The Cleveland Clinic, responding to a question about the extremely high cost of medical care:
“There’s a dirty little secret…regardless of what happens with health-care reform legislation, the costs are going to go up. We have more elderly people, and we can do more for them. So regardless of what happens, we can only try to contain the rate of inflation. The cost is going to go up over time.” Fortune, 3/1/10.
This makes clear that the cost estimates for Medicare going forward are vastly underestimated and unpredictable. Furthermore, I am convinced that when Congress faces the difficult political choices involved in cutting Medicare, as they have promised, they will back away from their commitment.
The second article that appeared today is even more distressing. Bloomberg reports that, in a recent round of financing, Warren Buffett’s company paid less interest on its bonds than the federal government. The article pointed out that “…the US will spend more on debt service as a percentage of revenue this year than any other top-rated country except the U.K. America will use about 7 percent of taxes for debt payments in 2010 and almost 11 percent in 2013, moving ‘substantially’ closer to losing its AAA rating.”
If this trend is not reversed, we will see an increase in the interest rates that our country must pay to borrow money. With a national debt exceeding $12.5 trillion, this is a frightening scenario that will lead to a weaker economy and a higher tax burden for citizens. This also creates the potential for an increase in inflation.
In conclusion, the ObamaCare experiment combined with the already crippling federal debt is a recipe for long term economic disaster. Those who voted in favor of bigger government and higher spending in yesterday’s vote have put at risk America’s future. It can also lead liberal Democrats to call for even greater control of our healthcare. This is further proof that the people are right with this issue and the big government politicians are wrong.
-Joe Malone
