15 (D) initiates shared responsibility among

16 workers, employers, and the Government;

17 so that all Americans have coverage of essential

18 health benefits.

According to the “Affordable Health Care for America Act” bill, it will initiate a shared responsibility for my healthcare coverage.  To me this illustrates a basic difference in viewpoint between liberals and conservatives. 

The other day at the local pool, one of the lifeguards mentioned that she liked the fact that I am always within eyeshot of my kids.  She said that she was surprised at how many parents of young kids let the lifeguards assume responsibility for their kids.  As often occurs when I talk to eighteen year olds, my eyes were glazed over until she said this.  What shouted at me is the inherent falsehood of that statement.  No one can truly assume responsibility for your children.  That’s ridiculous.

The reason is simple: my stake in my children cannot be equaled or surpassed by anyone except my husband and our G-d.  If my kids drowned while swimming in that pool, that lifeguard might be heart broken for some period of time, but fairly quickly, she would forget their names and move on.  I would be heart broken for the rest of my life.  Thus, we watch our young kids cautiously.  Similarly, if another young child drowned while we were at the pool.  I would feel horrible for some period of time wondering if there would have been something I could have done, but ultimately, it wouldn’t impact me the way losing my child would.

Similarly, if my son was in a coma, and was refused an expensive treatment because a bureaucrat decided his death was imminent, that bureaucrat would doubtlessly feel badly in the same way the clerk who can’t refund your money when you buy a lousy product does, but I am the one with the true stake in the game.  I would likely sell anything I own to keep my kids healthy.  Bureaucrats are afforded the luxury of looking at the needs of a larger group rather than a small segment.  My child would doubtlessly be SSN# blah, blah, blah to them.  “Ms. Caswell, please bring me another ‘denied’ stamp for my paperwork.”

Liberals have the mistaken impression that you can simply wave a magic wand, or bill, or whatever, and transfer responsibility.  Poof!!  Now my employer cares about my kids as I do!  Poof!  Now you care about my business!  Poof!  Now you’re dying to organize your community into neat color-coded files.  Yet, even if they could transfer some of the community responsibility to themselves, they wouldn’t.  Studies suggest that conservatives give far more to charity than liberals do.  That’s because conservatives pay more than lip service to helping in their communities, they actually make themselves players in the overall game by putting their money where their mouth is.  In social services circles, they should call that becoming a stake holder. 

When we allow liberals power over our lives in the name of shared “responsibility”, we shouldn’t be surprised when they come up with insane ideas like this health care bill.  They have NO stake in the game.  When it actually comes to donating money to support crazy liberal ideas like socialized medicine, liberals come up short.  They only want these things if they can use someone else’s money, so they can guarantee they have no stake in the game.  Be honest, haven’t you ever just thought to yourself, if George Soros really wanted to insure all those people, he could just write a check, couldn’t he?  Maybe not a check to the DNC, but one to say, an insurance company.  Maybe they could pool their funds and buy an insurance company and take this crazy risk on by themselves?  No way!  They don’t really want a stake in the game.  They don’t WANT a share of the responsibility, just a share of the profits.

Once again, the health care bill states a disingenuous dream that is unachievable: shared responsibility.