Armstrong Williams has a post today in the Washington Times about Congress’ plan to ‘save’ us money by passing their healthcare reform bill. 

Mr. Williams points out::

“It’s easy to “save money” over 10 years, as the bill’s proponents deceitfully claim, if you’re fudging the numbers. See, Congress is going to collect revenues (taxes, fees) for four years to save up for the benefits that don’t fully kick in until 2014. What a terrible bargain. I don’t know anyone who would start making car payments today for a car they can’t drive off the lot till 2014, but that’s basically what Congress is doing with this health care reform.”

Years ago, in the age of dinosaurs, when most wives stayed at home and incomes were generally lower, there was something called ‘layaway.’  I think some stores still use it, but for many reasons (among others, we are a society that demands instant gratification), it is not as common as it was twenty years ago.  Under the ‘layaway’ plan, you might go shopping for all your Christmas presents in October.  You would then ask the store to put them aside, and you would make payments on the items until they were paid for.  Then you would bring them home.  That is what Congress is doing with this healthcare bill. 

My question is simple.  Are you willing to pay for something for four years without receiving any benefit from it?  Layaway was not generally used for items that were needed immediately.  If providing health insurance for everyone is so important, why are we spending four years paying for it without it actually happening? 

As I have said before, it’s time to scrap this bill and start over with both parties working together.  We need tort reform, portability across state lines, insurance for people with pre-existing conditions, and tax credits to help low income people buy health insurance.  We need less regulation of healthcare insurance, not more.  The free market works much better than the government–compare FedEx to the Post Office.  Even though the Post Office is no longer officially part of the government, they are run basically according to government rules.  The Post Office loses money, FedEx makes a profit.  Why?  Because FedEx pays people to make decisions that will result in higher efficiency and higher profits.  They are profit based.  Healthcare that is profit based makes better medical decisions than the government does.  Setting up 111 new government agencies to oversee healthcare will never save us money! 

If you oppose the healthcare bill and your representatives in Congress are not listening to you, call any friends you may have in Massachusetts.  The only way to stop this thing is to elect Scott Brown to the Senate–he will be the 41st Republican vote against the current healthcare bill.  Our representatives are not representing us, it’s time to elect someone who will.