Taking

I don't get into politics too much on this blog because it can be a divisive subject. When I see a quote like this, I can't help but comment:

"If we don't wake up as a nation with a new kind of leadership ... for how we want this country to work, then we won't get universal health care," she said.

"The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more."

This is what government does. It takes from one group of citizens and gives to another group. Now some might say that it is worth it to steal from one group for the benefit of the entire country, but that is to assume that politicians know what will benefit the entire country. Is "Universal Healthcare" the best way to deliver healthcare? What does the speaker mean by a "revamped education system"? Does "Universal Healthcare" mean that healthcare will be paid for by the government? If that is so, will it mean price controls? If it does (and every single payer system in the world has price controls) doesn't basic economics teach us that the result will be shortages of the good for which prices are "controlled"? Does a revamped education system mean throwing more money at the system we have? It would seem so since the speaker talks of "someone" (that's you and me) giving up a piece of their pie.

Both of the examples the speaker uses here are systems that have seen ever increasing government funding and control over the last 50 years. Those efforts have failed. So why should any of us be willing to give up a piece of our pie to continue down a path that has failed so miserably?

I'm sure that many of you think the quote is from Hillary Clinton as she has said similar things in the past, but the quote is from Michelle Obama. Despite all the rhetoric in this campaign for the Democratic nomination, there is very little difference between the candidates.

And just so no one thinks I'm posting this as my way of boosting John McCain, I don't think much of him either. He seems to believe in the goodness of government nearly as much as the Democrats in the race. He just wants to apply it in different ways.