North Star Writers Group

It sounds so good upon first hearing – universal health care. Everyone being cared for, no one going without. Liberal warm fuzzies abound and politicians of all stripes get to preen about, showing how much they "care" (with everyone else's money but their own). That's likely why Governor Schwarzenegger in California and others propose it.

But as the old saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true it usually is. And in this case, it is – in spades. In one sense, I suppose I should be happy that these leftist politicians of both parties are so open, if not blatant, about their love of outright communism. At least they're not trying to hide behind silly euphemisms and maudlin emotion nearly as much as they used to.

Having said that, if they're willing to be so transparent, it must be because they feel the ground is fertile for this massive unconstitutional expansion of government. That, to me, is frightening. Only 12 short years ago, HillaryCare went down in flames and cost the Democrats their 40-year control of Congress. If the bar has moved so far to the left that another open attempt to nationalize an industry (which is precisely what communism is, lest you think I overstate things) is thought to carry little or no risk, we need to wake up before it's too late.

Think about it. If government is now going to be paying for the consequences of our poorer decisions, then they're just going to have to make sure we don't make any. We're already seeing this in the form of smoking bans, trans-fat bans and whatever other activities have been sufficiently demonized to generate public support. Never mind that no one has ever been forced to consume either cigarette smoke or fatty foods. Contrary to popular – if utterly ignorant – opinion, bars and restaurants are the private property of their owners, who are free to cater to whatever clientele with whatever offerings they like. If you don't like that, you as a consumer should simply take your business elsewhere. They have never been public places, and never will be no matter how much hardcore lefties want to molest the dictionary in order to justify stomping on liberty.

If you honestly think it won't eventually get around to the one activity in which you like to engage, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you dirt cheap. This is not about health. This is about controlling you, pure and simple. And why should this surprise anyone? Pretty much every government program has that intent at its core. Education is perhaps the most obvious example. Turn your kids over to the state to be "educated" and they're only going to "learn" what the state wants them to learn – that which best prepares them to mindlessly accept that control (i.e. how to be good little liberals, meekly accepting of their politician overlords, and shovel endless piles of money at the teachers' union and Democratic campaign coffers).

The fact is, no politician has ever given a damn about your health and none ever will. The only thing they care about is expanding their power, because in their egomaniacal minds they're so much smarter than you that they simply must. And that is what "universal health care" represents – a fundamental shift of power from the individual to the state. This trade-off is one none of us should accept. No amount of health insurance is worth that unaffordable price.

Why so many find appealing the proposition that we trade away our liberty and freedom to choose for ourselves in exchange for a tiny morsel of financial security is beyond me. Have we failed to grow up and realize that the only way we have the freedom to choose for ourselves is to bear alone the responsibility for the consequences? Or are we really stupid and childish enough to volunteer to build the very cell in which we'll be imprisoned, provided the warden allows us the minor creature comforts of a bed to sleep in and three square meals a day? Heaven forbid it!

What do you think will happen to the cost of health care when it becomes “free”? If you actually believe that someone who is presented with a blank check will only fill in a small amount, I'm not sure there is much hope for your intellectual redemption. Such is the idiotic financial foundation of this lunacy. It’s like believing in overfilled lifeboats that don't sink.

It will be up to the rest of us, who value liberty far above financial security, who see how precious the freedom to choose one's own behavior is, who are still able and willing to call these kind of noxious ideas what they really are – communism – to stop its relentless creep before it can go any further.

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This is Column # DKK43. Request permission to publish here.