Jonathan Paine
I love movies about magic. Magicians are some of the best entertainers in the world, in my opinion. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen the trick, I am always willing to see it one more time. To be duped one more time.
The wonder produced by magic tricks comes from what is known as the art of misdirection. The magician directs your attention to one area while the real trick is done elsewhere.
Now, this is all well and good on a stage in Las Vegas or on the movie screen. However, it is neither well nor good when it comes to domestic policy in the United States of America.
It was reported this last week that Rand Paul stormed out of a meeting of GOP lawmakers discussing how to replace ObamaCare. Key word here: replace. Rand Paul was not happy with how the discussions were going saying, “I hear things that are unacceptable to me. If they don’t seem to care what conservatives think about complete repeal of ObamaCare, they’re going to be shocked when they count the votes.”
He’s got a point. Despite the odds, Republicans won a gigantic victory November 2016 and a very significant reason for that victory was that Americans wanted ObamaCare repealed. Not “reworked” but “repealed”. If Republicans fail to act on that, the 2018 midterms will not be pretty.
The spineless Republicans that are trying desperately to salvage the shattered remains of ObamaCare say that you can’t just take away healthcare insurance from people. They say that “14 million” people now have healthcare insurance thanks to ObamaCare and it is unconscionable to just rip that away.
On its face, this argument may at first appear hard to counter. After all, who wants to argue against helping people?
The problem here is that this is not a valid argument at all. It is in fact nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Misdirection and magic tricks.
Politicians misdirect you, trying to make you think the issue is how the government should go about providing healthcare insurance. Instead, the real issue is that, Constitutionally speaking, the government should have nothing to do with your personal healthcare insurance whatsoever.
It’s like having an argument about how you should mow your neighbor’s lawn. Instead, the question should be – is it my responsibility to mow my neighbor’s lawn in the first place? Another question that needs to be asked is – does my neighbor even want me mowing his lawn at all?
It is not the government’s job to “mow the lawn” of the American people by providing their healthcare insurance. It’s not government’s job to mandate that you allow them to “mow your lawn”. And for the most part, American’s don’t want the government “mowing their lawn” at all in the first place.
It’s simple, but it obviously needs to be said again. Government’s one and only job is to protect the rights of its citizens. Period. Government must never be expected to provide for those rights and that’s exactly what ObamaCare does which is exactly why it has to go. Fully, completely repealed. The only replacement that should even be discussed is a lifting of restrictions, rules and regulations that are currently hampering the operation of the free market.
It’s beyond time to stop allowing politicians to misdirect us with irrelevant arguments. In politics, the Constitution must be our ever present guiding star. Keep your eyes on that, and you won’t be fooled by the magic tricks.
@painefultruth76
