Many of today's Progressives point to Western Europe as their model for what they want in the U.S. In Germany, for example, they have guaranteed healthcare from cradle to grave, generous and early pensions, college education is cheap, old folks homes are free, workers are paid well, and it is almost impossible (and pointless) to fire someone (pointless because you have to continue paying them anyway).
They dream of having it so well over here (although they are not allowed to say it out loud).
But there is a fundamental difference that Progressives refuse to acknowledge. We have a U.S. Constitution that PROHIBITS the Federal Government from doing any of this. Literally, ANY of it. There are two cornerstones of Congress' powers: Article I, Section 8, and the Tenth Amendment. The first one lists what Congress is permitted to do and the Amendment says that every power not specifically granted to Congress is RESERVED to the States and/or the people themselves.
All of the major Progressive initiatives since the Roosevelt years have been blatantly unconstitutional. Social Security - Unconstitutional. Medicare, AFDC, the SBA, NPR, the Department of Education, food stamps, and on and on. All unconstitutional.
Generations of subversive Progressive federal court judges and justices have systematically made a mockery of the Tenth Amendment, virtually writing it out of the Constitution. In the process, they have convinced most of America that these programs are as American and appropriate as apple ******* pie. The most recent poignant example was the USSC recently saying that Obamcare was Constitutional...because it is a TAX LAW!
Is this horse-shit or what?
But because all of these social programs are brought in through the back door, they run counter to the basic economic principles that have formed the groundrules for economic life for the past 200+ years.
We CAN'T HAVE socialized medicine, or even single payer here. Why? Because our whole healthcare system evolved under a totally different paradigm.
In Europe (and in Canada), they overtly made the decision long ago that healthcare was a "right" that would be guaranteed by the goverment. (None of them have a "Tenth Amendment." So the government runs the medical schools, employs the doctors, owns the hospitals, labs, and clinics, and controls everything from the top down. And if you want to work in the medical field, this is what you signed up for. And from what I've been able to determine it works reasonably well.
But here, essentially all provision of healthcare services is structured around the profit motive. Do you really think your Primary Care Physician, who now works 70 hours a week and makes half a mil, is going to go to work for the Government? Do you really think he's going to work that same 70 hours when he's on a salary of $150k? Do we have enough doctors to cover the demand when all of our healthcare is "FREE"?
Do you think the Government can take over hospitals and clinics and run them as efficiently as they do now? And if they decide to just take over the payment function, do you think they will do it well?
And what about the hundreds of thousands of people who work for health insurance companies? They would ALL BE OBSOLETE if we were to go to single-payer. Government going to throw them out on the street? Hell, no. They will pay them to basically do nothing (like everyone in Washington now).
Mark my words: ObamaCare was developed to make healthcare as costly and miserable as possible in the U.S., so that the population will get pissed off and demand single payer. Then we will all see how we like it when the local hospital runs as well as AMTRAK or the Post Office.
