On matters like HR 3590 and other healthcare bills, Eisenhower gave good advice

Most political junkies know about President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s warnings about the “military-industrial complex.” But the Republican president’s farewell speech in 1961 was quite visionary. The speech was broader in scope than is popularly realized.

The federal government is mortgaging the future not only for these recent graduates, but also for their children. [Photo by Kay B. Day]Lesser known passages from Eisenhower’s speech speak directly to what we are confronting today. Though he could not know it, his statements go to the core of all that is wrong about HR 3590, the Senate healthcare bill and its spawn, and for that matter, the House healthcare product HR 3200 or for another matter, HR 4872. Not a single bill is framed in a proper perspective and none rests on a vision of what 10 years down the fiscal road will really bring.

Not just healthcare; millions for government funded art
The Senate healthcare bill and all the other legislative Democrat appendages on healthcare are part of what we might call the GSE-Entitlement complex. Liberals with assistance from “compassionate conservatives” have steadily, right under our noses, created that complex and now seek to expand it.

The federal government has been given control—or is close to control—of banking, mortgage lending, auto manufacturing, energy and education. A significant sector of the arts economy would likely topple if the National Endowment for the Arts shut down—that sector relies on government grants. The US government allocated approximately $145 million to the agency in 2008.

It is quite possible the Senate Healthcare bill will pass and it is likely to do so when, as Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said on Thursday, the House meets to vote on Sunday. This bill is the most significant piece of legislation since Civil Rights because it will deliver to the government the greatest increase of control over policy and commerce in healthcare—a personal, private property issue—we have ever seen. And it will commit the government to a level of debt we have never seen while entrusting the government with a significantly larger share of our economy.

In an interview with ABC News’ Jake Tapper on Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden said, “You know we're going to control the insurance companies.”

The ‘Me’ Factor
A lesser known part of Eisenhower’s speech spoke of something completely lacking in Washington today and in the perspective many Congressmen have when they wield power in Washington—What’s in it for me? At the moment, there is no balance in liberal perspective and in some conservatives’ perspective. There is, in the psyche at large, a trickle down effect of the “Me” factor. Florida’s governor, for instance, defended his embrace of the Stimulus on the premise Floridians deserved their share.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) offered an example of the imbalance in the legislation. He pointed out political favors granted by “the Kickback, the Purchase and the Gatorade.” I believe that was without Connecticut’s sweetheart deal. The Gatorade will taste a little bitter—South Florida is a top haven for Medicare and Medicaid fraud so at the least we’ll lose $1 of every $7 we pay out.

Sound governance cannot occur without balance.

Eisenhower said, “But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs—balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage—balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.”

A component of imbalance is lack of vision. Politicians like to create government structures that require more resources. The only place government has resources: the people. We are the fuel and we are the energy empowering the central government, through the states. And at the moment we are committing our children to a future conflagration that has nothing at all to do with carbon emissions.

Sharp contrast in presidents
Eisenhower’s vision so perfectly describes our dilemma today. It’s sobering when you read the words, and there’s no mistaking he was deeply concerned about what he foresaw:

“Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we -- you and I, and our government -- must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.”

The speech is noteworthy and should be read in entirety. The speech offers a sharp contrast between a conservative president who rightly wanted government to exercise caution in its reach and a liberal president whose faith rests solidly in an all-powerful central government, accepting the necessity of mortgaging “the material assets of our grandchildren as the necessary cost.

During an interview with Fox News’ Brett Baier on Wednesday, President Barack Obama said, “The core of this bill is going to be affecting every American family.”

No one should underestimate the implications of that statement and the precarious vision it calls forth.--(by Kay B. Day/March 19,2010)