June 24, 2003
		There can be no doubt about it.  The lunatics are running the asylum. We have a massive - MASSIVE - unfunded liability in Medicare that is in the trillions.  Medicare is hopelessly, haplessly limping along thanks to billions extracted from unwilling taxpayers every year.  Any decent congressman would have killed this beast long ago.  Instead, they (Democrats and Republicans alike) are prepared to pile more debt on top of the mountain in the form of free medicine.  For something that's supposed to be "free," I have a sneaky suspicion the upcoming generation is going to get a monstrous tab for our profligacy. Add the trillions that escaped from Al Gore's Social Security "lock box" and the trillions more they're willing to admit to in the form of our national debt and we're conservatively looking at $35 Trillion (yes, trillion) in real unpaid bills.  Count on crushing tax increases, hyper-inflation, or a combination of the two when the baby boomers start retiring.  It's not a pretty picture. So what do our esteemed representatives do in response?  Why, let's give old people all the free pills they want! Below is a response to Mortimer Zuckerman (editor of U.S. News and World Report) concerning his article about Medicare.  He's confounded that people in some regions get more than others.  Given that Medicare is bankrupt, I think his concern, while worth pondering, misses the bigger picture.
	When it comes to Medicare, the title of Mr. Zuckerman's article, "The Elephant in the Room," is spot on.   Unfortunately he not only misses the elephant, he can't even find the room.  All the head-scratching and chin-rubbing about financial anomalies among different regions is fascinating, yet trivial and predictable. Medicare is an enormous medical welfare program created and administered from Washington, D.C.  Thus benefits are unreliable and highly politicized, fraud is rampant, and spending runs amok.  And like all welfare, it is meant to redistribute resources to favored groups at others' expense.  The elderly vote en masse, while disaffected younger generations avoid the polls like the plague.  Guess who the politicians listen to when passing out the goodies? As with any centrally-planned scheme, it is destined for failure.  Because the direct costs are not borne by those doing the consuming, they naturally over-consume.  Prices soar, rationing is ordered, and everyone wails for Congress to fix the problems they themselves created.  Meanwhile, the funds come directly from our paychecks, so the scoundrels get to shift the blame to employers for this fiasco. Eventually America has to choose between free markets and individual liberty, or an inexorable slide into some socialist hell with the likes of Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton dictating to us what pills we can take and which doctors we can see.  Not a difficult choice.