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Plan to Live Forever, Anyway?

The Supreme Court is debating whether it is legal to require people to have health insurance.  That is a Republican idea that the Democrats finally agreed with, so now the Republicans are arguing that it must be a bad idea because the Democrats support it.

I have been wondering whether it is constitutional to require people to pay taxes for . . . a defense department, for instance, if you are willing to take your chances at not having one, or if you don't want to serve in the military, anyway.

How about paying school taxes?  Should people who do not have children have to pay to educate other people's children?  I know parents who have good reason to argue that educating their own children is a bad idea.  And have you not resented, your whole life, that some idiot required you to memorize the State Capitals?  Whose idea was that?

What if you do not want to walk around Lake Nokomis?  What if you do not intend to slip into, or slip on, your Speedo, and astound your friends and neighbors after the ice melts, and before it comes, again?  Should people who do not want public parks have to pay for them?  Where in the constitution does it say that everyone has to have a brown pot belly?

I can understand that only the people who want to pay for police protection should get police protection, and that only the people whose houses actually catch on fire should have to pay for fire protection.  All that would take is an early warning system that gives us enough time to buy insurance before the fire starts, or that emits an ear-piercing wail the moment anyone wearing a hoodie drives into the neighborhood.  Maybe there could be a button that we push when we need help, and that would instantly deduct the price of the premiums we did not pay from our savings account.  Why should the people whose houses never catch on fire pay good, honest, hard-earned money to compensate people who are dumb enough to let their houses burn down?  Sheesh!  Talk about dumb!

Everybody does not need health insurance, and if people do, they should pay for it voluntarily.  As I see it, if you cannot afford to pay for preventative care, you should not expect me to do it for you.  Anybody with any brains and enough money can afford private health insurance.  Right?  Right!  Anyway, everybody already has access to health care:  it is called the emergency room.  Just go there!  It is free!  Nobody pays for it.  It just happens.  And there is no reason why, if emergency room care works for health care, the same principle cannot be applied to fire insurance, and police protection, and education, and park systems, and wars, and rumors of wars, and the last minute acquisition of Great Faith, which will be necessary when Jesus Comes Again on the Clouds to separate the sheep who can afford insurance from the goats who didn't believe Jesus was coming, anyway.

There are those, of course, who believe that everyone should have adequate health care, whether they can afford it, or not, and that all of us will be better off if that happens, but I am here to tell you that if we do that people will take advantage of it, and do you want that?  Of course not!

I knew you would agree with me!

(I don't agree with me, but I knew you would.)

(No, I was hoping nobody would,
although there is some doubt about
the Supreme Court. They did elect
George W. to the Presidency, you know,
even though The Guy Who Invented the Internet
got more votes.  Well, when a Blowhard
and an Ignoramus are the options. . . .)

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