Politics.

Over the past year, I’ve sat and listened patiently to all of the anti-Bush sentiments going around. I decided to be the better person and not say anything about Kerry. Now that Bush has won the election, I would like to explain why I support Bush. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t feel that I HAVE to explain myself – but I want to.

First of all, there are certain topics that I do not feel should be discussed or debated. These topics have to do with people’s core beliefs and values and should never be put down or degraded. America is a country founded on freedoms and I feel that no matter how much I may disagree with someone, that it is their right to feel the way they do. The topics that I am referring to have to do with the subjects of abortion and religion. Anyone that is Pro-Choice has no right to degrade my beliefs because I feel that a child should be protected, just as I would never degrade an individual that feels that every woman deserves to have that choice. In that same vein, I do not feel that my religious beliefs should be put down just because someone does not have the same values I do. I would never berate a Muslim, Jew or Agnostic—I feel I deserve the same respect for being a Christian.

With that being said, I will attempt to explain why I support Bush and will remove any religious or pro-life sentiments that may also happen to go along with my backing of Bush. In other words, I will explain my political motivations for supporting our President, as opposed to my religious motivations. By doing this, I hope to avoid a discussion based on emotion, but rather one based in what I believe to be fact.

The very first thing that scared me most about John Kerry was his Socialist vision for our country. Kerry was convinced that national healthcare was the way to solve all of our country’s problems—and that scared the crap out of me. The reason why Kerry wanted a national healthcare system was because of the rising cost of doctors, prescription drugs and hospitalizations. I do not disagree that this is an enormous problem and needs to be fixed. However, giving free medical care to any American that wants it is not the answer. Let’s look at this logically:
· Health insurance carriers continue to raise the cost of health insurance due to the fact that doctors, pharmacists and hospitals keep charging more for their products and services.
· To solve this problem, Kerry wants to offer free healthcare to any American that needs it.
· Free healthcare will cause hundreds of thousands of Americans to say, “Well, hey! Why pay for my insurance if Uncle Sam is giving it away for free?” When Americans start dropping their current insurance in exchange for free insurance, the cost of insurance will rise all the more so the insurance companies can make up for lost revenue.
· Once Americans start joining the free healthcare system, our taxes will have to be raised in order to pay for this new healthcare.
· Those in the High class and Middle class brackets not only will be paying higher insurance premiums now, but their taxes will also raise to pay for the government issued insurance.

It doesn’t make sense to me at all. European countries tax their citizens at 40-70% in order to pay for their big government programs. I don’t know about you, but I like to KEEP my pay. I think that instead of focusing on making our government bigger and raising taxes, we need to focus on the problem itself. Here are my suggestions:
· Restrict drug companies from advertising so excessively. They spend millions of dollars on Viagra ads and then pass that cost on to us. Insurance carriers have higher payments, and therefore increase our premiums. If we limit the amount of money these companies can spend on advertising, it will help cut costs all around.
· Shorten the timeframe for generic drugs. Currently, a drug has to be on the market for 30 years before a generic is permitted to be made. If we limit this to 10 years, cheaper drugs will be able to hit the market quicker, therefore reducing our costs.
· Put limits on lawsuits. I’m sick of the John Edwards type Ambulance chasers that are quick to sue a doctor for the smallest mistake. I understand doctors have to be held accountable. However, when they can be sued for 10, 20 even 100 million dollars, all it does is raise our insurance costs. We need to establish reasonable limits to lawsuits, while at the same time, we are still holding doctors accountable.
· Allow drugs to be bought from Canada. Although this is a primarily Democrat idea, I like it. Being able to buy drugs from Canada will increase competition and create lower drug costs for both countries. Capitalism is founded on competition and I really like this idea. My only concern with doing this is that Canadian drugs are not FDA approved. If we can work out some sort of mutual agreement between the two countries, that would be the best scenario. Maybe in exchange for FDA approved Canadian drugs, we can provide Canada with tariff free US goods?

Well, I’m tired right now. I’ll continue on with this at a later time. I still need to discuss issues such as Iraq, Charter Schools and Social Security. Maybe in another blog.