Cost

All this talk of health/medical care reform got me thinking about the issue of cost. Nothing comes for free in this world. There seems to be this popular notion that whatever the government provides is "free." Any new type of program instated costs something, usually money. Health care for example is being pushed now with the objective to drive down the cost of health insurance across the board and to provide a low cost option to those who otherwise could not afford it. Sweet. Sounds good. But wait. How is this going to be paid for? Somewhere, somehow the cost will be absorbed by someone. The government will need to increase taxes or people under the Big Gov plan will pay for it in waiting periods or people will pay for it with lost jobs due to false competition, etc. Nothing is free!

There is this mental blank spot, somehow, in our collective thinking that seems to differentiate between every commodity and necessity we purchase with time and/or money and government spending. For some reason, the government is exempt from this very basic thought. Government builds a road? Sure! Government runs a mail service? Sure! Government provides doughnuts for everyone? Sure! I'm not paying anything! Oh wait. You are. Every year, Americans work more and more of the year just to pay off taxes. Tax Freedom Day is April 13, meaning that Americans' paychecks are going straight to taxes until that day. Let's apply some common sense to how we think about cost and government spending.