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Giving Up On Government

By redjac ⋅ August 12, 2009 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Catching up on my Daily Show this evening, I watched this segment on the latest argument being made against the new Obama healthcare plan. You should watch it — it’s funny — but the crux of the arguement is that:

1. the government ran out of money on the cash for clunkers program
2. therefore, the government has proven it cannot run the cash for clunkers program
3. therefore, the government could not run the health care system

My first argument with this argument would have to be with point 2: I think the arguer is confusing “succeeded beyond their expectations” with “failed.” Which I understand look similar, but are in fact the exact opposite.

My more salient argument, however, has to do with the ultimate conclusion: the government, having failed at one thing, should not attempt another. To prove this argument one need look no further than somewhere liberals, admittedly, tend not to look: national defense.

The government, most agree, boggled the Iraq War. And if you don’t agree, they certainly boggled Vietnam. Korea didn’t go so well either, M*A*S*H notwithstanding. And if failing at one thing — so the anti-healthcare arguers logic goes — means you shouldn’t try another, then it certainly means that you shouldn’t re-try the actual thing you failed at. So, having failed at it before, the government ought get out of the national defense business.

This conclusion is, of course, ludicrous. Governments defending their citizens and their way of life is part of the social contract, and shortcomings don’t amount to a get-out-of-jail-free card. The point isn’t that the government can walk away from national defense, just as the government didn’t walk away from cash for clunkers. What has to happen is the government needs to try harder. It needs to reinvest — which is exactly the path taken regarding the cash for clunkers program.

Healthcare, furthermore, is much like national defense in that the government cannot walk away from it because it is — or it should be — part of the social contract, as well. It boggles my mind that people who want the government to end lives on their behalf bristle at the notion that government would save lives on their behalf, as well. It is not only a logical falacy, but a human one.