This week we continue our series on what’s in the news.  A few days ago, I blogged about the federal government giving pay raises to its employees while the economy is in a recession.  Well, the story just got even more bizarre:

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=428&sid=1838232

Evidently, the federal government can’t get these same employees to pay taxes!  As the article notes:

“Federal workers owe more than $3 billion in income taxes they failed to pay in 2008. According to Internal Revenue Service documents, 276,300 federal employees and retirees owe $3,042,200,000.”

Incredible.  While the rest of the country is suffering, civil servants are getting a pay raise and yet still can’t pay their taxes!

As we continue to look at what real health care reform would look like, we find ourselves looking at the issue of government mandates:

http://www.seefirstblog.com/2009/07/14/when-politics-and-health-care-meet/

There are some 2000 individual mandates that govern health insurance plans. As the article notes, this reflects:

“the ability of particular groups to convince politicians to cover (or exclude from coverage) particular conditions or procedures. For example, some states mandate coverage for vitro fertilization, hospice care, HPV vaccine, acupuncture, while others do not. As you might expect, the combinations vary from state to state and there is no uniform model.”

So here’s how it works. Take acupuncture, for example. Lobbyists are hired by the acupuncture industry. The lobbyists help the legislators or regulators write mandates that any health insurance plan must cover acupuncture. Then the health insurance plan passes along the extra cost of this service to the customer in the form of higher premiums.

So the solution is not more government mandates, but more individual freedom. In car insurance, you can purchase a minimal plan that just gives you the basics. Why can’t we do the same thing in health insurance? I don’t need acupuncture. I just need something in case someone in our family needs to go to the doctor once in a while.

Real reform would begin with repealing these mandates and letting the customer shop around for a plan that fits him.

Frequents visitors to this blog may remember that earlier this week I warned it was a bad idea for the government to try and manage the affairs of a private company. I pointed to the postal service’s poor operations and predicted that it would be impossible for the president to know enough to pick the CEO or manage salaries of a private company.

Fast forward to this week where the president is in England for a summit and stopped by with a gift for the queen:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/toby_harnden/blog/2009/04/01/barack_obamas_gift_for_the_queen_an_ipod_your_majesty

An ipod is a nice gift: it represents American creativity at its finest. But here’s the problem: the queen already has an ipod. Okay, maybe this is not a big deal. But what does it tell you about the ability of a president or his staff to get things rights? If they can’t get something this small right, how are they going to manage a huge company?

They aren’t. They will do the same thing they did with the queen’s gift–mess it up. And when damage is being done to the economy, there is whole lot more at stake than just ruffling a few diplomatic feathers.

Here is the problem with President-elect Obama’s spending plans: they add to another problem–the deficit.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D95MEMU82&show_article=1

Since 1970, the federal government has run a deficit every year except for 1998-2001. As a result, all those deficits have added up to create a $10.7 trillion national debt.  But here is a stat that will get your attention: this year’s federal budget deficit will likely exceed the amount of the entire federal budget of the year 2000!

So President-elect Obama finds himself trying to wrestle with two difficult issues.  First, how to jumpstart the economy?  He wants to do that with a combination of new spending and tax cuts.  The second issue is how to keep a handle on the budget deficit.  Sadly, his answer to issue number one makes issue number two even harder to solve.  New spending will only increase the debt we will pass onto our children.

Here’s a novel idea: how about running the government like any business or family does?  Live within your means.  Don’t spend more than you have.  And get out of debt as fast as you can.

Now that would be change we could believe in!

- Randy Hill