Plan would put U.S. closer to socialism

My high school-aged daughter has a government class, and she's being taught that President Obama is a moderate because he supports a public option for health care as opposed to single-payer. I didn't know how to respond to this as on the surface, it makes sense, but it didn't feel right.

I had to think of it in terms that relate to what I understand well.

I own a small environmental business and employs about 30 people. Let's say the President thought I charged too much for our service, and to help increase competition and maybe even create jobs, he'd have the federal government get into my business. Remember, he does not have to show a profit or pay taxes. Even worse, he could lower the cost to consumers, loose money doing it and simply tax the American public or borrow more money to cover the difference. Now you as a consumer have a choice: Use my company, or use the government at a lower cost because the service is subsidized by taxpayers (i.e. everyone in the country pays to support this initiative, even if they don't use the service). Predictably, many consumers will choose the government option, cutting into my business where I loose economies of scale ultimately making me uncompetitive and forcing me out of business along with my 30 employees. The result of this is that not only do 30 people loose their jobs and would then join the ranks of the unemployed, but even worse is that the payroll, income, unemployment and sales taxes generated by the business would also no longer flow into the government.

Is there a problem with insurance companies not covering people who need coverage and not paying health care providers what they should? YES. The reason they get away with this is because they've lobbied HEAVILY to have laws passed that limit competition among insurance companies in each state. So what we have is a huge mess caused initially by government interference. The same can be said about the real estate market collapse, and what will surely be trouble in the auto industry now that the federal government has control of two of the three American carmakers.

I don't have all the answers, but I know for sure that bringing MORE government into the free market system is absolutely the wrong way to fix this problem.

This initiative is well orchestrated and confusing by design. The average voter does not have the time to dig through all the details to be able to understand all of the nuances of most government proposals, so we rely on the press which has been supportive and sympathetic to the President for the most part. The deck is stacked: One party controls the government and the majority of the press, the slow economy has increased the number of people unable to get health care at a reasonable cost, state laws have minimized competition among insurance companies and our government has evolved to the point where it is controlled by people who are very good at being re-elected. Unfortunately, the stars are aligned for those who want this program to pass, but while we still have a democracy, citizens have the power to vote for candidates who put faith and trust in working American people, and not those who want to take and spend their money, insuring re-election, and perpetuating the drift toward socialism.

Keith Gray

Mettawa