1.       Health Insurance – In the Texas debate, Mrs. Clinton said that what gets her out of bed every morning is her desire to make a difference in our lives.  In particular, she does not want health insurance companies to continue to have the power to decide who will live and who will die.  Apparently, she would prefer to have the government do it.  Unfortunately, that’s not the kind of difference I would like her to make in my life!

No doubt her statements give people a sense of assurance that, when she becomes President, they will no longer have to worry about how to afford good health care, but these statements should instead cause them great concern.  While there certainly are many improvements that should be made in our health care system, we should not forget that, while health insurance companies may be run by terrible scoundrels, at least the scoundrels still have to compete against each other and we still have a small degree of choice; when the government has a monopoly on health care, it really will be the only game in town and will in many cases have the power to decide who lives and who dies.

If you want to see our future when government has a monopoly on health care, go to FreeMarketCures.com to see a video about a Canadian who would have had to wait many months for a test to find out that he had a malignant brain tumor and many more months to have it removed, by which time he probably would have died.  Instead, he paid out of his own pocket to be treated quickly in the U.S. while he still could survive.  This is a very common occurrence in Canada, with the U.S. serving as a back-up for Canadians who need expensive procedures for which the government provides a long delay, often delaying until after the person has died. 

In defending her health care plan, Mrs. Clinton praised Social Security and Medicare as other government programs that help people.  Both of these programs are going bankrupt and will not be available to help the baby boomers when they retire, so how can Mrs. Clinton make these statements with a straight face?  Even now, Medicare is cutting back on its payments, and many elderly people are having trouble finding doctors who will accept them as patients due to the low Medicare reimbursement rates.

Also on the subject of health insurance, Louisville’s own MaryLou Marzian wants to add another requirement to health insurance in Kentucky, making it even more expensive.  Ms. Marzian seems to think that adding requirements to health insurance has no cost.  Actually, it drives up the cost of health insurance, which ultimately is paid for by the employee who is insured.  It’s like saying that, if you want to go to the grocery store to buy eggs, you also have to buy steak.  And then you wonder why so many people can’t afford to buy eggs!

2.       Shootings – Unfortunately, it has happened again.  A former student at Northern Illinois University murdered several students before killing himself.  Since our daughter attends Virginia Tech, and we are continuing to live through that experience, we have particular sympathy for the victims of this latest massacre, including the students who survived and who will be attending funerals and memorial services and will now wake up every morning wondering whether today might be the day that a killer decides to murder them, too.  There have been and will continue to be numerous studies about what makes a person decide to commit these kinds of horrible murders, and that is fine.  However, no matter how many studies are conducted and no matter how many mental health programs are created, there still will be people who want to commit mass murder and who will be able to plan and carry out these types of attacks unless they are stopped by force.  All the studies and all the programs in the world will not change that fact. 

Whether the terror comes from a mentally ill college student or an Islamic terrorist or someone else, we need to stop disarming our children and allow them to defend themselves as has been done in Israel.  These murderers are cowards, and they are unlikely even to plan attacks where they think the victims might shoot back; furthermore, even a minimally trained person with a gun can stop an attacker in his tracks.  We should respect the power of guns and teach our children gun safety as we teach them how to defend themselves.  Only then will these murderers be stopped. 

Remember, if you or your loved ones are working or attending school in a “gun-free” zone, you are really in a “defense-free” zone, where anyone wanting to become a mass murderer knows he can get a good start before anyone will stop him.  Does that make you feel safer?

3.       Profit is not a four-letter word – I recently met with a new client who was interested in protecting his invention but insisted he did not want to make a profit on it.  I thought this was very peculiar.  If he was not interested in profit, why come to me?  He simply could dedicate his invention to the public and be done with it!  Apparently, he is one of many who has been brainwashed into believing that profit is a bad thing.

          But profit is a wonderful thing!  Without profits, we all would starve to death!  When an entrepreneur brings a new product or service to market or finds a better way to deliver existing products or services and successfully competes in the free market, he makes the pie bigger and everyone better off.  And if he earns large rewards for his troubles and becomes stinking rich, even better!  His becoming richer does not make someone else poorer. 

          Of course, there are other ways to obtain money that do make other people poorer, such as theft (legal or illegal), fraud, embezzlement, and extortion.  The proper job of government is to prevent or punish these types of behavior, but, in fact, the government is the largest actor in this field, forcibly taking about half of our income in taxes and putting us all into debt with its wild spending habits.  It steals the widow’s pension and savings by inflating the currency.  It takes away hope by punishing the people who create wealth and opportunity.  But the very folks who think profit is a four-letter word think government spending is a wonderful thing – manna from heaven with no price to be paid.  Do you suppose they obtained their educations in government schools?