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(I've commented on several occasions on Ms. Vant Hull's letters. She is reliably Left, invariably a parrot-er of talking points, and frequently characterizes her ideological opponents in the the most disparaging of terms.
This letter is no exception. Let's analyze her prose and see where it leads us.)
“A penny saved is a penny earned.” That’s often true in our homes, but is often stupid, when so many of our country’s people are crying for jobs and our country’s investment in the future for everyone is in peril. (So here premise is that by saving pennies we are imperiling everyone's future.)
Right now, a wiser proverb for our country is, “Don’t be penny wise and pound-foolish.”
Consider the recent Montana state Legislature where some short-sighted Republicans voted against Medicaid expansion, blindly following their addiction to “a penny saved is a penny earned.” Hah — maybe sometime! (The medicaid expansion thing is an old issue, going back to at least February. She is simply rehashing the talking points of a dozen previous letter writers, The Chronicle's editorial staff, leftist elected officials, and even businesses. This disinformation campaign has be a veritable onslaught of propaganda.
Depending on who you read, this is supposed to cost Montana anywhere from $5 million to $7 million a year until the claimed economic trickle-down begins to kick in. Why is it that the Left never believes in trickle-down unless the government is the one doing the trickling?)
Consider the future wisdoms of spending pennies to save pounds:
1. It would be wiser for more Montanans to have health care because right now, you and I — and all of us — pay for the 70,000 working poor Montanans whose only option now is to suffer, lose days at work and finally, finally, go to the emergency room where they cannot legally be turned away. The hospital can’t eat up those costs so it bills you and me more for our health care when we come in for regular care. Everyone’s bottom line would improve. (The reason the rest of us Montanans pay for others' care is because the leftist system forces us to pay. Funny, you will never hear the Left criticize the fact that we have to pay for food stamps, housing, college, retirement, disability, scientific research, art, or any of the thousands of things government subsidizes. But for some reason the subsidies we pay through cost shifting is bad but the subsidies we pay via wealth shifting is just fine.
Consider the future wisdoms of spending pennies to save pounds:
1. It would be wiser for more Montanans to have health care because right now, you and I — and all of us — pay for the 70,000 working poor Montanans whose only option now is to suffer, lose days at work and finally, finally, go to the emergency room where they cannot legally be turned away. The hospital can’t eat up those costs so it bills you and me more for our health care when we come in for regular care. Everyone’s bottom line would improve. (The reason the rest of us Montanans pay for others' care is because the leftist system forces us to pay. Funny, you will never hear the Left criticize the fact that we have to pay for food stamps, housing, college, retirement, disability, scientific research, art, or any of the thousands of things government subsidizes. But for some reason the subsidies we pay through cost shifting is bad but the subsidies we pay via wealth shifting is just fine.
But this wealth shifting has not improved the problems it was designed to help. The track record of government welfare is abysmal. We already have medicaid, and the problem still is there. So why will expanding medicaid solve anything?)
2. The greatest cause of bankruptcies is unexpected health problems. Other people’s bankruptcies are costly for most of us sooner or later. (Only because one way or the other, people forced to pay for other peoples' stuff. It is government that has created these problems. In the early 1980s, health insurance was relatively cheap, bankruptcies from health related problems were relatively infrequent, And buying insurance was pretty painless. So what has changed? Increased government involvement.
2. The greatest cause of bankruptcies is unexpected health problems. Other people’s bankruptcies are costly for most of us sooner or later. (Only because one way or the other, people forced to pay for other peoples' stuff. It is government that has created these problems. In the early 1980s, health insurance was relatively cheap, bankruptcies from health related problems were relatively infrequent, And buying insurance was pretty painless. So what has changed? Increased government involvement.
Before obamacare, government already controlled 47% of every healthcare dollar spent. When government controls such a large portion, the changes it makes and the policies it installs have an impact on the rest of the marketplace. For example, Government is cutting reimbursements to doctors for medicaid. This doesn't happen in a vacuum. Doctors are refusing to see patients who have medicare or medicaid. The ones who do will have to cost shift to their other patients, which makes healthcare more expensive for everyone outside the government programs. Thus, private health insurance gets more and more expensive.
If there's anyone to blame, it is government.)
3. The influx of federal money would also increase our bottom lines: more healthy Montanans, more jobs created, fewer people calling in sick, fewer sick people infecting the rest of us. (I've already dealth with this nonsense in the above links. Suffice to say, it just isn't true.)
4. The majority of Montanans polled were in favor of expanding Medicaid. So were the Chamber of Commerce, hospitals, medical organizations, business leaders — almost every segment of our society — wiser than a few dozen ideology-driven legislators. (This is a prime example of the "thinking skills" of the arrogant Left. The "majority" (if indeed there is one...) equals wisdom. How about this: Too many people buy into the Leftist line, and the number of people who believe stupid things does not make what they believe wise.)
The same kind of folly takes place every day in D.C. Can a few Republicans stop blaming others with their trivial pursuits and start moving the country forward? (*Sigh* She pops off these glib bumper sticker statements as if they are devastating rejoinders. Can you imagine? Trillions upon trillions of dollars have been spent on every conceivable hair-brained leftist scheme, which has added an additional $7 trillion to the national debt, which no stands at nearly $17 trillon. And all this has had little, if any positive economic effect. But rather than learn from their mistakes, the Left wants to redouble their efforts and through good money after bad. They want more of the same!
This economic downturn has been prolonged and intensified by profligate government spending, and it continues to lag. So who is to blame, according to Ms. Vant Hull? Well, those stingy Republicans! This leaves me almost speechless. It's like these leftists live in this la-la land where everything their big-government keepers feed them is the gospel truth, and anyone who even mildly opposes them is the height of satanic evil in the world today.
Remember her premise. It is mere pennies the Republicans want to withhold. But it is those few pennies that will save us from poverty, disease, and hunger. Never mind that the trillions we have already spent have had no effect. Never mind that the idiotic stimuli, social programs, and ill-advised wars have given EACH PERSON a $53,000 debt. Yes, just a little more and we're saved.
It's insanity.)
Mary Vant Hull
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