The First Euthanasia Patient

“House Democrats approved a far-reaching overhaul of the nation’s health system on Sunday, voting over unanimous Republican opposition to provide medical coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans after an epic political battle that could define the differences between the parties for years.” (New York Times, Monday)

The so-called healthcare reform bill has passed. Left in place, it fundamentally changes the entire nature of the US. We are no longer free people. That the bill could even be considered seriously suggests that we had lost much of our freedom before its passage. Dr. Edward Vieira described the situation:

On the face of it, then, the present national-health care bills, being (in Madison’s formulation) “[proposed] laws not obligatory on the legislature, as well as on the people”, are the products and the making of nothing less than tyranny. As the English political philosopher John Locke defined it: “Tyranny is the exercise of Power beyond Right, which no Body can have a Right to. And this is making use of the Power any one has in his hands; not for the good of those, who are under it, but for his own private separate Advantage.”

Now what?

Attempts will be made to repeal the bill, or at least the worst parts of it. These will play out slowly in the court system. There will be an election in November where people can express their anger through conventional channels. It is likely that the Democrat Party will suffer the consequences of their egregious act by losing majorities in one or both houses of Congress. There may be isolated acts of social unrest or violence before or after the election.

On a day to day basis, life will go on. Pundits will discuss matters as if they were no more important than the news from your local paper — a student wins a scholarship, a zoning fight erupts over a proposed Walmart, etc. etc. The media will deal with court challenges, social unrest, and other incidents as isolated events with no relationship to the bigger picture of history. The small details of daily living will blur the contextual importance of what has occurred.

Yet things have changed, and it is unlikely they can ever return to their previous state. The noblest experiment in human liberty and dignity has died. The “Shining City on the Hill” is gone. The US has turned into just another quasi-free state, much like the sclerotic, dying welfare states of Old Europe. It is likely finished as a beacon of opportunity and liberty. Our grandchildren’s grandchildren will learn of their prior heritage and wonder what happened. The “British stiff upper lip” is apt to be adopted to hide the reality of the fall from greatness.

As you read this, capital flight is occurring or contemplated. New investments will not be made here but abroad. Individuals are exploring ways to off-shore savings in order to protect themselves. Our best and brightest will evaluate opportunities elsewhere, probably in the direction of China and Asia. Resources – capital, talent and funds – will flow from West to East at an accelerated rate. Older doctors will contemplate earlier retirements. Younger ones will explore overseas opportunities. The US will become the provider, rather than receiver, of what used to be called the “Brain Drain.”

In a larger sense, nothing much has changed for the US. The course we were already on has not been altered by the new legislation. Only the speed at which we approach the final destination has been increased. Our fate was sealed decades ago by profligate spending and the Ponzi schemes of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. These social programs alone determined our destination as described in “Spiraling to Bankruptcy.” Their mismanagement ensured the demise of our way of life.

For at least two decades our government has been a “dead man walking.” Rather than recognize its terminal condition, it continued to behave irresponsibly by piling more and more burdens on itself and its people. Now, the final weight has been imposed on an already dying patient. Ironically, healthcare reform will prove to be the equivalent of sovereign euthanasia. A sick government will be put out of its misery. The “Death Panel” will be financial markets. They will refuse to cooperate with the madness. The welfare state is about to be unplugged from its life support system – other people’s money. In the words of Margaret Thatcher: “The trouble with Socialism is, sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.”

When the death of the patient will occur is difficult to project. That it will occur is inevitable. The new entitlement signals to China and other US benefactors that there is no hope of fiscal sanity or solvency for the Federal government. Their hands, not ours, are on the plug. They decide when and how to unplug the terminal patient.

It is a moot point as to whether the “benefits” of health care reform are ever seen. They are not due to kick in for several years. New taxes, however, will kick in immediately (and the Bush tax cuts are due to expire at the end of 2010). Tax increases will devastate the economy, almost assuredly leaving us in the current recession or worse. As it becomes apparent there is no recovery or fiscal discipline, the US government will be seen as hopelessly bankrupt. It is likely then that our benefactors pull the life support plug, long before the health care “benefits” are implemented.

Then it is over. We either drastically reduce the welfare state (Social Security, Medicare, the new healthcare program, etc.) or resort to printing money to fund it. Either entitlements are cut drastically or hyperinflation appears. We will be either Greece on steroids or Weimar Germany.  Neither choice is a good one. That is what happens when problems are ignored and allowed to grow beyond manageable bounds.

This transition stage will be ugly, producing dramatic social unrest and probably violence. One can only hope that we emerge on the other side with our country and government still intact.