The story of the debacle at Walter Reed that the Washington Post broke has generated commentary all over the place. Some libertarians have suggested that the Walter Reed scandal is somehow connected to the problems of having the government run a health care system. But after reading more commentary on the issue, I've come to see that this is just not so. Walter Reed, and every other story like it, provides absolutely no proof that government-provided health care doesn't work, and this can be proven by ironclad logical argument. It goes like this:
- Walter Reed is run by the Army.
- The Army is run by the government.
- The government is currently run by George Bush and his administration.
- George Bush and his administration do not believe that government can accomplish anything, help people, or do anything right.
- When you do not believe that government works, you underfund it and starve it of resources.
- When you do not believe that government works, you appoint your political cronies to important jobs as patronage instead of appointing competent people who will do the job right.
- People who believe in government give it all the resources and funding it needs.
- People who believe in government appoint competent people who will do the job right.
- Therefore, the cause of government failure is the failure to believe that government can succeed.
- Besides, medical care is much better in countries where it's run by the government, with everyone receiving great care and living much longer than Americans do.
So there you have it— proof that government works if you just elect people who believe that government works. It's not an incentive problem, it's not a calculation problem, it's not a scarcity problem, it's not problem with the lack of competition or the inherently corrupting nature of power. You just have to have faith. There is nothing to fear about the future of government run health care as long as we all make sure it's always run by the right people (which isn't hard to do, right? right?) Don't quite know what you're supposed to do if the wrong people get elected to run it, but who's worried about that when their health care is free? Having embraced this epiphany, I am now an intellectually honest person instead of a libertarian ideologue. I look forward to voting for competent, enthusiastic believers to run my health care system. Anyone who experiences similar enlightenment upon reading this may thank me in the comments section. Have a nice day.
