Just trust us...

A friend of mine is a libertarian politician and we always get into these discussions about how to dismantle the beast. Yet, if he'd been elected Governor he said he wouldn't have had to defend life because the constitution already has.

Personally, I just can't care about this posturing anymore - from a human perspective it's so hopeless. America will be funding drop-of-a-hat abortions in the near future. There's no question.

Maybe when 99.9% of women in America have had abortions because they're as easy as getting your nails done then God's judgment on us will be complete and we'll beg Him to forgive us.

I know nothing else except to do what little we can in our families and our churches - which is actually everything, much more important than aligning ourselves with libertarians / Goldwater republicans to limit big government, when they themselves usually say, "government can't interfere with a woman's body"

The only reason most small-gov people care is money not the unborn.

If every Christian in America just lived their faith and raised their families to love the Lord more than anything, politics would follow. But the reverse isn't true. Politics won't create godliness.

-Clint

I agree, Pastor Bayly, that government funded health care is not only disastrous from a financial standpoint, but is corrupt morally as well. It opens the door for government to make moral decisions based on their whim, not the truth of the Bible.

While I think statements like like "government health care will slaughter our parents and grandparents" and "America will be funding drop-of-a-hat abortions in the near future. There's no question" are hyperbolic and unfair straw men, I do believe the essence of what you say is correct: we have to oppose the proposed reform measures so we can make moral health decisions based on the principles of God's Word, not the empty philosophy of elected secular leaders.

Bravo, Tim, *she stands up and applauds* Bravo!

Every day while I recuperate, I watch more news than I normally do in a month of Sundays and I ask myself, over and over again: Who spiked the water? We Americans are deluded, seriously, deeply and whole-heartedly deluded.

Sure, Canadian healthcare is great, if you don't present the system with any challenges. And it's not the panacea everyone seems to think - quality and availability of care depend on your location. The same is true in Great Britain where healthcare is delivered by local "trusts" where some are managed poorly, some well. It wasn't too long ago that Britain was shipping patients across the channel to France for things like cataract surgery because their own system was overwhelmed beyond capacity and the patients were waiting far beyond statutory limits.

And private hospital rooms? Kiss even double rooms goodbye if the WDC behemoth gets a hold of healthcare delivery the way they'd like. Say "hello!" to 6 and 8 bed wards, which is the standard in other countries.

Sure, our system is uneven. But so is every other system in the world. The wealthy will *always* find a way to get better care than those who are not. Always. But the beauty of our system is it's innovation. The world looks to us for new drugs and procedures. If we go the way of the world, those will come more slowly or not at all. We may think we're getting good care, the same care as most, but in reality we'll be lying to ourselves. Because the innovations that might have been, the special drugs for rare conditions will never appear on the pharmacy shelves -- because the incentive will be gone. Vanished in the haze of "equality".

See, this is the secret no one wants to talk about. Sure the drug companies make big bucks, and I've never complained about the nice dinners they put on for my former employers in which I was included. They make lots and lots and lots of money on Viagra and Premarin, etc. But it is the profits from those drugs which funds the research for treatments for what are sometimes called "orphan" diseases, those conditions which afflict relatively few people.

Bringing a new drug to market takes many years and more money than most folks could possibly imagine. And then there is always the potential that a perfectly good drug will be pulled from the market because it is misused. This happened with the drug Duract a little over a decade ago. Doctors, under pressure from their patients because the drug *did* work so well, over-prescribed it. And then, guess what? The serious consequences, which the labelling warned of, started occuring. Under pressure of lawsuits and pressure from the FDA, the drug was pulled from the market and the drug company lost, not only a source of revenue, they also incurred the expense of lawsuits. This keeps occurring and we will have fewer and fewer companies willing to take the risk - you cannot *force* a company to stay in business when they no longer find the business profitable.

And this is the last dirty little secret about the uninsured in this country. The majority of uninsured fall into three categories. The first group are those who qualify for some sort of governmental assistance but don't sign up for it (for whatever reason). The second group are the relatively young and healthy who see no reason to pay for something they likely won't use. The third group are those in transition between jobs who elect not to carry "COBRA" during the gap period. In short, most of the uninsured are only uninsured for a transition period or becuase they have not availed themselves of what *is* available to them.

Finally, the single biggest thing this country can do to reform the provision of healthcare, making it more equitably distributed and affordable - tort reform. It really is that simple.

Kamilla

Mason writes: "I think statements like "government health care will slaughter our parents and grandparents" are hyperbolic and unfair straw men..."

Actually, not hyperbolic or straw men in the least. These things have long been a commonplace. I've seen it firsthand more times than I can remember--not only seen it, but gone to the authorities to stop it.

"Hyperbolic" and "straw man?"

Likely you also think Amos was being hyperbolic and setting up straw men when he condemned Damascus "because they threshed Gilead with implements of sharp iron" and the Ammonites "because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their borders."

Well, I've warned you...

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/0809/Grassley_doesnt_refute_d...

From Uncle Tom's cabin: [Senator trying to explain to his wife why he helped pass a law making it illegal for those in northern states to help runaway slaves]

"But, Mary, just listen to me. Your feelings are all quite right, dear, and interesting, and I love you for them; but, then, dear, we mustn't suffer our feelings to run away with our judgment; you must consider it's a matter of private feeling,--there are great public interests involved,--there is such a state of public agitation rising, that we must put aside our private feelings."

"Now, John, I don't know anything about politics, but I can read my Bible..."

Really, anyone who has read and understood even the slightest portion of their Bible should be able to understand the wickedness that our government is trying to lead us into.

The Emergents, through their Obama-love, are showing their true colors, that they have rejected the truths of scripture and that their kingdom is of this world.

Well said Tim. I would like to believe that at this point in history we need not be admonished not to trust our self annointed would-be Platonic guardians. If Scripture is not clear enough the bitter harvest of the last century resulting from the schemes of these statist pagans with their utopian fantasies should be. We have sown the wind and reaped the whirlwind. Yet I am still hopeful. When I used to box we had a saying that some boxers don't know that they're in a fight until they've been hit. We've been hit-hard.