Happy 200th birthday, Mr. President

Today marks the 200th birthday of one of my first heroes, President Abraham Lincoln.

I can't at this moment go in to all the reasons I admire this man and president, only this: In this culture of moral ambiguity, America desperately needs leaders of Lincoln's integrity and conviction. In this national identity crisis, we need Lincoln's commitment to liberty and unity. Lincoln believed America was special, set apart from other nations, that our noble experiment was worth preserving, and at great cost. I thank God for his example.

Footnote: Today's Breakpoint notes that Abraham Lincoln, Felix Mendelssohn, and Charles Darwin were all born 200 years ago today. This seems almost as cosmically significant as JFK, C.S. Lewis, and Aldous Huxley dying on the same day in November 1963.

Health care is a responsibility, not a right

I just wanted to say it, and urge anyone reading this to make this point to your legislators.

This was one of the clearest divisions during the second presidential debate in 2008. To the question, "Is health care a privilege, a right, or a responsibility?" McCain gave the reasonable answer: "A responsibilty." Obama gave the socialist answer: "A right."

With a health care industry (critical note: it's still an industry, not a "system," as though government already owned it) already fettered with regulations and corporate bureaucracy, we have the most liberal administration in history poised to make it a government behemoth. You think it's tough getting health care now? (I don't, frankly.) You haven't seen inefficiency yet.

The best metaphor I can think of for government health care is an enlarged heart. It sounds like a good thing, but it's actually deadly. It results from excessive strain on the heart, causing it to expand in an effort to compensate, accumulating excess fluid in the process. This makes the heart weak and inefficient, leading to congestive heart failure, where the heart can no longer pump enough to sustain the body.

This is what an increase in government oversight will do to health care. Our government was not designed to provide medicine and insurance, and past generations did not expect it to. Any government-mandated availability of health care must necessarily be accompanied by a decrease in quality.

Government is incapable of producing or distributing health. Health cannot be a right any more than happiness can be. We can debate the boundaries of programs like Medicare as part of a government "safety net," but it must remain a net, with boundaries. Health care overall must remain privatized to remain effective.

It is the responsibility of each citizen to seek out the health care he or she needs or wants. This is liberty, the freedom to take care of yourself. If you expect the government to take care of you, know what it will cost you.