Health Care Reform: The Future of America's Liberty or Its Destruction?, Part Three

Grace Notes Monthly-column
The Fiscal and Spiritual Ramifications for the Future



President Obama, in his many addresses to the American public and other nations has often said we need to stabilize the economic policies of our country by offering security through a partial government take over of the business, financial and automotive sectors. Only in this way can he foresee fixing the problems that previous administrations left behind. The connotations of this are dire. As a nation we were founded on biblical principles so our nation has prospered and developed in a capitalistic arena, though the middle and lower classes have suffered due to unchecked corruption higher up the corporate ladder. The question remains, is it right and honorable to unilaterally decide to implement a socialistic agenda when an elected president determines that a nation can no longer sustain this type of growth because of rampant corruption? The word Socialism in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary includes the following definition, “a stage in Marxist theory, transitional between capitalism to communism, and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done” (“Socialism.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009).


In matters of American liberty how can socialistic policies such as the ones the president has recently implemented benefit the people? Our nation can not survive this socialistic shift without descending into anarchy. Countries like China, Germany and Russia collapsed under socialism’s tyranny. In the case of Germany, Hitler’s socialistic madness nearly destroyed the known world of the early Twentieth Century (Adolph Hitler, “Berlin”, 02/1/1933). President Obama is attempting to implement these same policies here in America and yet known world and religious leaders have warned him against doing so (Rick Joyner, “Russia Rebukes America for Turning Marxist,” Morningstar Ministries’ Special Bulletin, 09/09/09, print). The American public, as previously stated, has vocalized its dissent in recently held town halls. A doctor who had held her AMA post for 30 years recently resigned in protest of the government’s take over of health care (Marrecca Fiore, “Doctor Leaves AMA Over Support of Government Health Care Reform.” Fox News.com, 09/09/09, web). Yet, President Obama continues forging ahead, determined to remain in control, despite the fact the nation roils around him in growing fear, confusion and outrage.


When the American people and other nations look forward, many of them will see only darkness instead of light at the end of a tunnel; the economy is sinking, and the banking industry limping. Already there is evidence of this at national and local levels. Unemployment remains in the double digits in many states, with Michigan at 15.2%, the nation’s highest. The national unemployment rate for August 2009 is still at 9.7%, but this does not include the number of laid off workers whose unemployment has already run out (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, web). The long lines at area food pantries are another good indicator of the severe economic situation. In an interview, Pastor Warren Kirkwood, the Director of the Mishawaka Area Churches-M.A.C.-food pantry located at Albright United Methodist Church in Mishawaka, IN expressed this concern. “If we see numbers equaling July and August 2009’s again in September, we know the economy is not getting better as some in Washington, D.C. believe. It is actually steadily declining and has been for a long time.” In July, Pastor Kirkwood reported 440 households and last month the numbers were at 403 households. In reporting their numbers to the Food Bank of Northern Indiana, the M.A.C. food pantry averages 5 people per household which means they had a total of 1,336 people, 74 of whom were 60 or older pass through the pantry in August 2009 (Phone Interview, 9/15/09).


What does this mean? Like a little boy who cried “wolf!” too many times, the people who sit in authority in Washington, D.C. including the President of the United States, have forecasted good news, in spite of the reality that many face. It is as if they have put blinders on to block out the devastating effects of their choices. The moral decay and corruption that resulted in the nation’s current situation will not change course until America returns to its founding principles again.