Government is NOT the Answer!

Last night, as my wife was listening to her favorite Christmas song, and trying to relax, I tore open a letter from my employer.

"Dear employee, your contribution to your basic healthcare coverage will be doubled starting january 1."
"What!?" I exclaimed as my wife shushed me and swayed around the kitchen to the music.
Thoughts were swirling around my head like mobile homes in a tornado. We are walking the financial tightrope as it is, will we be able to make it? Energy prices will double in 2011. Our school taxes just went up. What about inflation when the economy starts moving again, and all of this cheap money begins to circulate? The Bush tax cuts will expire next year. The Cap and Trade bill will cost me $1200 additional dollars each year directly, and who knows how much indirectly? And I am sure the government will find other ways to tax me, given we are saddled with record debt. Given the economy, it's not like I can expect a raise any time soon. I am just happy to have a job.

"Maybe a single-payer healthcare system is the answer..........."

"Calm down," my wife exclaimed smiling and brushing up against me,"you are killng my relaxation."

How do you think I feel. My relaxation is pretty much gone. Maybe a single-payer healthcare system is the answer. I said it, and I know I am not the only one.

But wait. Ok. Maybe I should take my wife's advice. Calm Down...Let's think about this.

Energy Prices will double. Why? Because government is mandating expensive "green" technologies and not allowing us to drill for our own natural resources, but even more because they have forced the energy companies to hold their prices down unnaturally for years and now in one fell swoop, all of those increases that should have happened more slowly and organicly will be a huge jolt to the system.

School Taxes have gone , that's government at work.

The potentially ridiculously high inflation rate caused by a Federal Reserve who lowered interest rates to ridiculously low levels so that A: The government could encourage home ownership for everyone (even those who could not afford it) and B: The government would be able to spend all of that cheap money on pet projects in the hopes that they could buy enough votes to stay in power.

The "Bush" tax cuts will expire. Why do tax cuts expire, but tax increases require new legislation to remove?

That Cap and Trade bill will cost me $1200 I don't have, and cause businesses to raise the prices to offset the cost of this legislation, so that will be great.

Is single-payer the answer? That would mean more government mandates, more government control, and more taxes. Isn't that what's shaking the tightrope already?

"Alright honey, what did you want to talk about?" My wife offered, as the last notes of the song trailed off.

"Nothing," I replied, "I have nothing left to say."