Reno Hayek Symposium

Mi Amigo

An oncologist friend visited this weekend and discussed the state of technological improvement in his speciality. In sum, his 40 years in the practice saw dramatic improvements and cures in various cancers that were nonexistence when he started. Whence this improvement? American research! Yes, those dedicated researchers with or without government or drug company funding discovered, found, or invented the cures that have people living today. Did the Canadian health system do it? The European? The whatever system? No, it was accomplished in the good old USA. Who benefited from it? Was it confined to our boarders? No, the world benefited. Perhaps, that’s one reason why government officials and wealthy individuals come to our hospitals to receive the premium treatment to cure their serious health problems.

So why does Obama want to go to the European model in healthcare? Americans have accomplished it and paid for it. Who will pay for it with Obamacare?

Come to think of it, who has defended the free world since WWI? Here we have paid in blood, life and dollars. Two world wars, the formation of world organizations and regional defenses paid for in our fathers and brothers blood and with our labors. Yet our current president wants to follow the “European model!” If he follows the French model, he will deny territorial overflight rights and start manufacturing white surrender flags. We have already seen him bowing to the Arabs and currying favor to his “mi amigo” Chavez, at the expense of Honduran democracy. He proposes further nuclear disarmament and reduction of warheads and delivery systems and wants to abandon missile defense.

Who will defend us? The French, with white flags?

Further reflection requires the reasonable person to question his antitrust policies, again gravitating toward the European model. Should Microsoft be penalized for not offering a competitive browser? Should Apple or ATT be penalized for offering the improved iPhone? Or, for that matter, should Boeing be penalized for an new jet airliner?

Who will innovate? Will our sons and daughters move to China or India to develop the next innovation? Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged may be prophetic!

So we now have the Obama, Pelosi, Reid triumvirate directing our lives with their various tzars. The latest “don’t tax you , don’t tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree” scam focuses on the medical insurance companies offering high value medical insurance plans. Are these people stupid or are they socialists who are historically challenged? Have any of them cured anyone, served in the military in combat, invented anything of benefit to society? Do they resent those who have? Perhaps!

What they are doing to our grandchildren, born and unborn, with all their spending of their yet unearned income is simply immoral! Obama’s intergenerational immorality at its best!

Tom Motherway, tom@renohayek.com