The Objective Standard Blog

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

'Doing Nothing' Is An Option

Posted by Paul Hsieh at 2:30 AM

Remember when President Obama insisted that health care "reform" had to be done his way, and that doing nothing was "not an option"?

Well, the American people disagree.

In "Do Nothing, Majority Says" (Wall Street Journal, December 10, 2009), James Taranto notes a recent Fox News poll showing:

While 41 percent of Americans want Congress to pass major health care reform legislation this year, a 54 percent majority says they would rather Congress "do nothing on health care for now," up from 48 percent who felt that way in July.

Taranto also adds:

...[A] CNN poll found that an even bigger majority—61%—oppose the Senate's version of the ObamaCare bill.

One of the core principles every first-year medical student learns is "Primum non nocere", which is Latin for "First, do no harm". In other words, it's better to do nothing than to take a positive action that will make the situation worse—a principle that should apply to politics as well as to medicine.

Our current health care system has many problems. But the proposed ObamaCare "reforms" would make things worse, not better. In this case, doing nothing is an option, at least until genuine free-market reforms are on the table.

The American people understand this. Will our politicians?

Reposted from We Stand FIRM

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