Give Obama everthing he wants

President Obama has an ambitious agenda. He wants a “bipartisan health care reform package.” Translation: He wants Republicans to support his goal to increase the federal government’s role in health care now so the Democrats’ long-term goal of a single payer government insurance program will be a reality in a few years.

After the raucous town hall meetings members of Congress faced during their recent vacation, the Democrats realize that the country will not now embrace a single payer insurance system; therefore they will go for the incremental approach. A public option now and then later the big enchilada, universal health care.

The Republicans are resisting the public option component of Obama’s health care reform. However, congressional Republicans have no credibility as fiscal conservatives, because they supported Bush’s massive increase in welfare-warfare state spending during his two terms in the White House.

Instead, Republicans should introduce a bill calling for Medicare to replace all private insurance, giving the country a single a payer system.

Why? In order to hasten the collapse of the welfare-warfare state, every big government program Obama and the Democrats want should be enacted immediately. In order to restore America as limited government republic, proponents of limited government should change their tactics. Rather than fighting the march toward greater statism, Republicans should help Team Obama reach their “Promised Land”--greater big government at home and abroad.

(Unfortunately Republicans do not want to replace the welfare-warfare state, especially the warfare state. The Republicans are merely posturing for the folks back home. When Republicans call for a phase out of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid they should be taken seriously as proponents of limited government. How to phase the welfare state over the next two decades will be discussed in a future column.)

Team Obama wants it all—more spending, higher taxes, more money printing, more troops in Afghanistan, more energy and other regulations. In short, the president wants to transform America into a full fledged corporate state, i.e., where crony capitalism is the entrenched economic system.

Crony capitalism is inherently unstable and redistributes more and more income to both lower income families making them even more dependent on the federal government and putting more taxpayers’ dollars into the pockets of the well connected on Wall Street and in corporate America.

Crony capitalism will ignite more protests throughout America that will make the recent criticisms of the public option plan seem tame in comparison.

So bring it on Mr. President. I support your effort to implement crony capitalism and so should all members of Congress. The sooner you “win” the sooner liberty will replace statism in America.