Saturday, August 29, 2009

Edwards' town hall meeting

This morning Kris and I attended a little over half of Chet Edwards' town hall meeting on health care reform. It was in a large room at the convention center and we were in the back and had trouble hearing everything. Following are my observations on what I could hear and see.

-Nobody really understands everything the health care reform bill requires, what it will take to implement it, and the effects it will have if enacted.
-A clear majority of those present were in favor of smaller government.
-A clear majority of those present were in favor of lower taxes.
-A clear majority of those present were against the house bill in question.
-Half or more in the room would even favor doing away with Medicare and Medicaid.
-Chet Edwards does not care what his constituents want, he is going to support what he feels good about. But at least he was man enough to admit it. (Specifically, he said that he would never vote for a bill that took away Medicare or Medicaid and that he understood he could have honest disagreement with his constituents on those points. It seems evident however, that he is also more concerned with getting a health care reform bill passed than he is in listening to his constituents who do not want it.)

I have to be honest. What bothered me the most about the meeting was the way people behaved. A room full of adults and many, many of them acted like unruly school children. There was a good deal of downright rudeness; booing, cat calling, screaming, not letting the speaker talk, name calling, etc. It was very sad. It reminded me of what I said after the speech Obama made when he won the election. Namely, health care, the environment, education, the economy, etc. are not the real problems with America.

The real problems with America are in our souls. We, like all humans, are sinful. We will never solve any of these other issues until we come to the cross of Christ and let God deal with our sinfulness. America needs heart reform much more desperately than we need welfare reform, tort reform, health care reform, education reform, or anything else. Pray with me that we can see what the true problems in our land are and that we will choose the right solution.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Health care

I'd still like your opinions on whether health care is a right or a privelege.

Here's the thing though, as far as the whole reform issue goes. There are lots of problems with our current system. Among these are medical malpractice suits, the incredible costs associated with medical technology, the cost in the pharmaceutical industy for R&D and advertising, the enormous overhead associated with medical practice, government mandates to insurance companies, etc. However, more government is not the answer because it cannot be the answer.

Government's job is to provide for our common defense, to make sure that free enterprise operates on a level playing field, to enforce the constitution, to protect us from crime, to protects us from tyrrany (political or religious). Government was never meant to operate health care or any other business.