Mostly due to the Christmas rush I wasn’t able to write anything about the speech I attended by Whole Foods CEO John Mackey. Mackey joked briefly at the beginning about the Wall Street Journal op-ed he wrote in August; however, his speech wasn’t about politics. The speech lasted an hour and Mackey touched on healthy eating. He showed a number of graphs that show that the price of food in America has declined since the 50s while the nation’s health problems have increased. Americans are eating way too much in dairy products and meat while the only vegetable we seem to like is the fried potato. These aren’t new revelations, but the sheer numbers are staggering.
Mackey’s speech wasn’t political overall, but it should have been. Until the citizens of the United States make a conscious effort to start eating healthier there’s no way we’ll be able to control our health care costs. Mackey listed a few healthy items that my wife and I are going to try to adopt in January.
Mackey recently stepped down as the Chairman of Whole Foods. He remains the CEO. The title of Chairman is largely pointless, but some of the nutjobs are happy about it. Mackey has become a “divisive figure.” That’s what liberals call people they don’t agree with. Using this odd logic Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and Jesus Christ were also “divisive figures.” To get the hipster dufus take on Mackey just read this article…
But he is a global warming-denying (well he was just reading some book, see, and all he’ll say, see, is that the scientific consensus is unclear) right-wing old businessman like any other, only worse, because his adolescent love affair with the Ayn Rand books that convince teenage boys that they’re secretly the masters of the universe happened after he made his first million. Now he’s qualified to say Keynes was “proven” wrong about everything, as the financial sector collapses under the weight of decades of Milton Friedman.
Ah, the economy is suffering from Milton Friedman! That’s a new one. I guess he’s not around to defend himself from such intellectual giants as Alex Pareene. Who is Alex Pareene? Exactly my point. The article is full of every “progressive” cliché. Moronic profanity? Check. Jab at Dick Cheney? Check. Swipe at Capitalism? Check. It’s kind of pointless to argue with these people. The United States long ago gave up on many free market principles. The lesson of the Great Depression has never been learned. Government intervention prolonged the depression and we’ve been stuck with big government ever since.
There are health care regulations still on the books that were crafted in the 40s. Is that decades of Milton Friedman? Did Friedman create Medicare and Medicaid? When the Founding Fathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “we hold these truths to be self-evident” they didn’t know that in the end there is no “self evident” truth. Mentioning the Creator is part of the “right wing fringe,” and the pursuit of life and liberty is okay as long as you pay the government first.
John Mackey is no saint. He’s not the next leader of the libertarian movement. Even if he was, that’s not my point. With marksman-like accuracy the left is becoming proficient in marginalizing and ridiculing anyone they disagree with. Sarah Palin is a backwards idiot. Bush was a moron. They even made fun of Reagan’s age and intelligence. President Obama got elected under the flag of post-partisanship and has pursued massively unpopular legislation passed on party line votes. Who is really divisive? The Iraq War (which the left is still crying about) was authorized on a bipartisan vote. Who is really divisive? The Bush tax cuts were passed by a bipartisan vote. Who is really divisive?
I can’t believe I’m writing about Ezra Klein again. I didn’t even know who he was a few days ago. Actually, I still don’t know who he is except that he’s another loony progressive who writes for a mainstream news organization. I just read part of his column from yesterday where he walks down memory lane..
Back in June, I predicted that health-care reform would follow the path of the stimulus: a huge accomplishment that nevertheless feels like a defeat to its supporters. “As the legislation winds its way through the Senate, there will be unpleasant compromises, and unconscionable omissions, and the constant knowledge that though this is progress, it is not sufficient, and the people who stand in the way of a better bill are frequently incoherent or disingenuous.”
The stimulus was a huge accomplishment? It hasn’t accomplished anything. It seems progressives have a ridiculously low bar for achievement. It’s odd to read seemingly intelligent people make such fools out of themselves. Let’s face it; liberals have gone batty over health care. The whole thing has been a fiasco from the start. It’s unpopular, and even the watered down senate bill raises taxes, premiums, and balloons the national debt. The President says we have to pass this bill or face bankruptcy. I hate to be this blunt, but either the President is stupid or he’s lying. It’s impossible to spend your way out of bankruptcy.
I’m going to see John Mackey speak at Whole Foods tonight. Mackey is the company’s CEO and he’ll speak about the grocery store chain’s 2010 theme: “Health Starts Here”. I don’t think Mackey is going to touch on the subject of the editorial he wrote for the Wall Street Journal, but to this date it’s the most honest and intelligent take on health care. The health care situation in the United States isn’t so dire that we need a government takeover or reform. We need to get these bureaucrats away from the complex market.
Over the past few weeks there’s been a lot written about what’s wrong with government reform and for good reason. However, there are some common sense reforms that most Americans can agree on; just don’t count on the White House pursuing any of these ideas. None of these ideas are a magic bullet, but they would be steps in the right direction.
Immigration Reform: Illegal immigrants are driving up costs with trips the emergency room and other health care access. I’ve written about immigration in the past. If a person is here illegally we should enforce the law. If people want to move here and become citizens we should create a legal process for citizenship. This seems simple to me. No blanket amnesty.
Tort Reform: High insurance costs are forcing small time doctors out of work. A majority of Americans are in favor of tort reform but unfortunately the Democrats will not stand up to the trial lawyer lobby of their party.
Whole Food’s CEO John Mackey had a great op-ed in the Wall Street Journal yesterday that touched on this subject. Mackey lists many more common sense ideas that would make health care more affordable.
• Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying.
• Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. These costs are passed back to us through much higher prices for health care.
• Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost. How many people know the total cost of their last doctor’s visit and how that total breaks down? What other goods or services do we buy without knowing how much they will cost us?
• Enact Medicare reform. We need to face up to the actuarial fact that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and enact reforms that create greater patient empowerment, choice and responsibility.
• Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren’t covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
These reforms are not difficult and are less complex than anything Congress is debating. The only problem is that the Democratic Party lacks any interest in a solution that doesn’t ultimately end in a universal single payer system. They may not admit it openly, but a huge health care entitlement would be good for their party.
Jim Geraghty wrote an article titled “Eyes on the Real Prize” today for the National Review that speculates about what the Democrats will do on health care reform. Geraghty thinks that the Demcocrats might just pass this monstrostity no matter what the polls say or despite the predictable politlcal fallout in 2010. This might be their last chance for a decade to push this through Congress.
Come September, it’s quite possible we’ll see quite a few Democrats who got an earful and a half at their town meetings coming out and offering a dramatic justification: “I know this is controversial, I know my constituents have serious worries, but this is the right thing to do and I’ll be willing to accept the consequences.”
There may be other members of Congress who will proudly disregard opinion in their districts. Lawmakers who call their constituents “un-American” and “political terrorists” and compare them to the Klan and Timothy McVeigh almost express pride in disregarding the distant mewling of the unwashed masses foolish enough to elect them. Between the two approaches, enough Democrats could find their cover and the bill could very well pass along heavily partisan lines.
For a nation on the brink of bankruptcy it’s difficult to believe that a change in leadership has meant going from bad to worse. What the Democrats are doing isn’t surprising; however, their motivation to commit political suicide in favor of a health care entitlement is shocking.
Recent Comments