By Travis Walters
The Healthcare section of the 2008 GOP Platform states, “Republicans support the private practice of medicine and oppose socialized medicine in the form of a government-run universal health care system.” Following that is a bulleted list of seven things the GOP will not do, the seventh being, “We will not replace the current system with the staggering inefficiency, maddening irrationality, and uncontrollable costs of a government monopoly.” Of course this is to be expected. The Republican Party is the party of private enterprise, conducting business independent of government which is to be shut out, because the free market – above all else – will sort out any problem it encounters. Therefore, the Economy section of the same document states, “[The GOP does] not support government bailouts of private institutions.”
Yet this year we’ve seen a Republican administration bail out private institution after private institution, with costs that could reach into the hundreds of billions of dollars. Or it could cost more, as all staggeringly inefficient, maddeningly irrational, and uncontrollable Bush administration policies have over the past eight years.
The latest handout would have been the largest, with some 700 billion tax payer dollars being used to buy bad debt from troubled institutions. Why has the free market not been allowed to correct itself? I thought it was above reproach? There has been a debate in this nation for years over whether or not to socialize health care, or to spend 10 billion to give insurance to children. Contrast that debate with this one; Wall Street couldn’t cure itself – instantaneous handout, children who can’t cure themselves – better pulley system for their bootstraps.
In fairness, many Republicans don’t agree with this plan, but they are the party largely responsible for the deregulation that led to it. Republican Presidential candidate John McCain, a champion of deregulation in the ‘90s, “suspended” his campaign to fly to Washington, D.C. and help work on the agreement. He met with the President, House and Senate leaders, and Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama at the White House. After his arrival, the plan fell through.
Over the weekend of Sept. 26, and after Mr. Bush’s eloquent “If money isn’t loosened up, this sucker could go down” warning, another deal was reached, sans McCain. This deal was much better than the one of only a few days before. However, it was still wildly unpopular, especially among free enterprise Republicans in the House. Many of whom refused to vote for the bill despite desperate pleas from Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain, who is a Senator, and has no power in the House.
As with the plan put in place after the Great Depression, this plan could net the Treasury a large profit. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a hearing on Sept. 23, that the Treasury would get a “substantial” amount of the money back, but “whether it’s the full amount is hard to know.” Adding, “I can’t predict the future, and I’ve been wrong quite a few times now.” The version of the plan agreed upon on Sept. 28 says that if after five years the Treasury has lost money by reselling the debt, the President would be required to submit a plan to recover it; presumably through fees or taxes.
The House voted against the bill Monday with 40% of Democrats and two-thirds of Republicans voting against. Instead of adjourning for the year, the House reconvened Thursday to continue to work on the bill. The Senate would vote shortly after any sort of agreement. Many are now blaming Mr. McCain for the failure due to his lack of knowledge on the subject, on whipping votes in the House, and for dragging the crisis into Presidential politics to show he had control over the problem. This clearly backfired; the Dow dropped 777 points – the largest drop ever in U.S. history.
