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The rhetoric of Rush Limbaugh is more of a problem for America than it actually is a benefit. His rant does not offer any solutions. He has no intention of making any contribution to resolving issues, or creating understanding, only to stir-up controversy and create political polarity.
When Limbaugh in his appearance on the Jay Leno show says, I'm saying we've got enough mistakes the federal government's run. We don't need to compound it with more programs. I just believe the market will take care of it. Most of the people in this country are very happy with the health coverage, the health treatment that they get. There's no reason to turn it all upside down. And all this is being done -- Jay, I'll tell you what really worries me about it. Forget the intricacies of health care. If the government gets control of health care, that's the single best way that they get to control every aspect of our lives: what we eat, what we drive -- because it will all have impact on health care costs, their responsibility via our taxes, and it's just a mechanism whereby government grows and grows and grows and we lose liberty and freedom to it. And that's what the problem with nationalized health care is.
The market will take care of it, Limbaugh says. Well, he is wrong. Regardless of those useless arguments of government interference and the poor behavior on part of the consumer, it is government and free-market capitalism that got us into this quagmire in the first place. Yet he wants us to believe the answer to the problem is to leave it to the free-market capitalist to solve these problems. Market forces will make the corrections. At one time, I was naïve enough to believe that. We now have solid existential evidence that that is not the case
When Limbaugh says, Most of the people in this country are very happy with the health coverage, the health treatment that they get, he is being disingenuous. Some are and some are not happy with their healthcare coverage, but in almost every case Americans will say it is too expensive, and they cannot afford the coverage they would like or feel they need.
No one is trying to turn it [healthcare] all upside down. When he says, I'm saying we've got enough mistakes the federal government's run, does Limbaugh really believe that private sector enterprises are free from error? Is he aware of the fact that in the quest for profit if private enterprises screw-up it cost the consumer more. Government as well as private enterprise are capable of running things poorly, making errors, and in the end insidiously costing the consumer more; more for the products and services they purchase, but also the applicable taxes for those products and services.
Limbaugh apparently does not realize that the United States armed forces is a branch of government, and to most people they run the armed services brilliantly. Does he understand that when one joins military service one loses all of their freedoms and liberty, for when the government finds it necessary to have Americans kill on the government’s behalf, rather than to talk, no one objects to Americans losing their freedoms in order to do that. No one complains about the cost of waging war. He does not understand, apparently, we have already lost our liberty. Americans will say we have the most powerful military in the world. They say, the VA, albeit with all its faults, it is still an exceptional organization. However, the government will do a poor job at managing healthcare for its citizens?
The money people in this world already have control over every aspect of our lives. The methods of wealthy oligarchs is sophisticated and insidious. They are as dangerous, and perhaps more so than the state. If anyone should think that this isn’t so, then why are so many Americans fearful of the ramifications of Jekyll Island and the New World Order. For those who may not be aware, I suggest they read The Creature from Jekyll Island, by G. Edward Griffin.
Rush Limbaugh also said on the same Jay Leno show, No, no, it's not. If you believe in the capitalist system, then you have to erase from your whole worldview what does somebody need. It's not about need. Capitalism is not about need. It's about providing; it's about growing; it's about opportunity; it is about doing whatever you want to do.
I have read Henry Hazlet's Economics in One Lesson, Bastiat’s Parable of the Broken Window, Adam Smith’s theory of the Invisible Hand, Ludwig von Mises’s Human Action, and of Keynesianism I am aware, so I do realize the simpleness of the following paragraph, but it is the basis of our current day truth.
At one time, people had a need to have an equitable means of exchange; it meant just that: I gave you what you needed in exchange for something that I needed. Nothing more than that -- nothing-excessive -- no profit. In the case of paper money, as an equitable means of exchange, I gave you money so that you could buy and replenish what you sold to me, I satisfied your need, because in turn I have purchased from you that of which I needed or desired. What grew out of all of this was an obsessive quest for profit, something more than just a fair exchange for goods or services. The free-market capitalist unwittingly involved government when their criminal behavior and greed in pursuit of wealth got out of hand. They made it more complex than that simple equitable means of exchange. Today the free-market capitalist are not interested in the authentic needs of Americans, and in many cases they even create or drum-up a need through marketing. Their interest goes even beyond simple profit: they are more interested in gathering more and more personal wealth. The concept of fair exchange or equitability over time turned into the practice of wealth creation.
So, Limbaugh is correct when he says, Capitalism is not about need [he’s right]. It's about providing [true]; it's about growing [right again: wealth creation]; it's about opportunity [for more and more profit]; it is about doing whatever you want to do[if your wealthy].
Limbaugh, as well as Glenn Beck, et al, seem to be for many Americans the de facto spokespersons for the Republican Party, Conservatism and far right radicalism. For me, therefore, this Limbaughism, by which many people are unduly influenced, is the very crux of the problem, and is at the heart of the healthcare debate.
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