For those who fear a loss of basic freedom after Senator Obama becomes President and gets handed a filibuster proof majority in Congress, forget it. It has already happened. Most people didn't notice or simply didn't care that an political definition of "fairness" has already impinged upon the individual freedoms Americans like to tell themselves they have. For those who fear the "imposition of fairness" in an Obama administration, relax. You survived it under the last two administrations and didn't say a word.
"Make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you." -- Benjamin Franklin
While neither the Social Security law nor the Medicare law tie the two together, the Clinton administration did. It required that any senior citizen who refused to participate in Medicare also lost their Social Security. The article, "
Senior Liberation Act" explains:
The Clinton Administration tied Medicare and Social Security together for the same reason Congress in the 1990s barred Medicare enrollees from supplementing their government care: They don't want a "two-tier" health system. Equity trumps freedom, even if it means poorer care.
The Bush Administration has stuck with this misguided policy, despite a need to relieve pressure on runaway entitlement programs. If even 1% of Medicare-eligible retirees voluntarily opted out, Medicare expenditures would decrease by about $1.5 billion a year, and by some $3.5 billion a year by 2017.
It comes down to individual freedom. Today the government has mandated Americans cannot pay for their own medical care or make their own health care choices without government involvement.
It's an example of the same kind of thing that lead a revolutionary band of brothers to throw off the yoke of British oppression. Who knew that today, Americans would meekly submit to the same sort of assault on their basic individual freedoms passively and without a peep of protest.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigue of supporting it." --Patrick Henry
We were once better than that. Now we have become wards of the state, and think and act only collectively. Individual freedom? It' s an illusion long gone and since no one noticed its demise, just something to read about in history books.
The next time you hear a politician tell you that your sons and daughter's need to go fight for "our freedom" look hard at what that really means ... when the politicians already gave it away ... and then go look in the mirror to see who let it happen.
