Election 2006

Today's election was quite a personal letdown for me. Frankly, it had nothing to do with the national results, as I think it was about time for a change of leadership in Washington and hopefully, lots of gridlock.

However, the elections have confirmed an alarming trend that I have refused to acknowledge for some time, but should have seen coming: the American population is rapidly giving up freedom so that they may be supported by the government. In my own state, for example, a ballot measure proposed to provide healthcare to all people under the age of 18 who don't have it. This sounds nice in principle; it would be nice if everyone had health care. But many people choose not to have it. Some people are underinsured and others are overinsured. Keep in mind, we are not talking about poor people; they are already covered under the Oregon Health Plan or Medicaid. If they are seniors, they are covered by Medicare. What we are talking about is middle and upper class kids (under the age of 18), who for some reason, don't have health insurance. Now, it is my responsibility to cover it.

Another good example of people rapidly giving up freedom was the ballot measure which would have capped annual spending failed...dramatically. The bill proposed that Oregon state spending not increase by more than the factor of inflation plus population growth (i.e.: in 2005, budgeted spending could not have increased by more than 1.4% + 3% or 4.4%). In reality, spending has increased by 13% per year for nearly 20 years. Clearly, this is unsustainable, unless Oregon decides to create their own currency. However, there are lots of services, middle class Oregonians would lose, were it not for the drastic increase in annual spending. Like what, you may ask? I attempted to think of all the government "services" in which I participate. I came up with the following list:

1) fire department
2) police department
3) roads

That's about it folks. The government doesn't pay to vaccinate my child or provide healthcare to anyone in my family. And yet, hundreds of thousands of Oregonians think they should. We'll see what they think about that when corporate insurance in Oregon stops covering kids under the age of 18. Then people may determine freedom was more important. Unfortunately, it will be too little, too late.