By appearance alone, no one would ever guess that next year I'll
celebrate my 65th birthday. Going by this year's presidential campaign
promises, simply by surviving 65 years I acquire the right to have my
prescription drugs paid by younger Americans. That's even if that
younger person has less wealth and income than I.
Does simply surviving 65 years guarantee me the right to live at the
expense of young people? Not quite, according to vice presidential
candidate Sen. Joe Lieberman. Lieberman knows his Bible. He said that
paying prescription drugs for older Americans is obedience to God's law
revealed to us by Moses. We must "Honour thy father and mother that thy
days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."
Lieberman forgot to mention, or he doesn't know, that there's no
Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus giving the government resources to pay for
prescription drugs. That means the only way government can give one
American subsidized prescription drugs is to first confiscate the money
from some other American. If Rabbi Lieberman just thought about that
fact he'd recall another commandment, "Thou shalt not steal." Or, maybe
Lieberman thinks what that commandment really means: "Thou shalt not
steal unless thou hast a majority vote in Congress."
Older Americans who want someone else to pay for prescription drugs
ought to give some thought to the mechanism by which the drugs will be
provided. That mechanism is revealed by considering the following
scenario: Suppose a person disagrees that his earnings should go to pay
prescription drugs for some old coots. He refuses to cough up the money
to the IRS. What would you have done to him? You say, "The IRS should
fine him." Suppose he refuses to pay the fine? You say, "The IRS should
take his house." Suppose he refuses to let the IRS take his house? You
say, "Send armed agents." Suppose he arms himself to defend his property
from government confiscation -- should the government agents then kill
him?
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The mechanism by which we'll get our prescription drugs subsidized is
through threats, intimidation and coercion. Let's think about the Ten
Commandments again. Do you suppose that while there are biblical
proscriptions against theft, receiving stolen goods is OK? While there
are no biblical admonitions against being a recipient of stolen
property, I'd bet the practice doesn't sit right with God.
Why have older Americans resorted to ripping off the young? The
simple answer is we can and we want to. In the political arena, the rule
is: dump on people who can't dump back on you. Older Americans vote in
large numbers. Younger Americans hardly vote at all. Politicians do
whatever gets them elected and re-elected.
Becoming 65 next year means I get to live off younger Americans in
another way -- Social Security. I'll probably receive all that I ever
put into Social Security in five years or so. After that, I get to live
off young people. The most conservative estimates predict Social
Security disaster in the 2030s. But if older Americans feel threatened
by any Social Security proposal that might avert the disaster, why
should politicians risk their careers by doing anything? Neither they
nor today's older Americans will be around when the disaster arrives, so
what do they care?
I'm healthy; subsidized prescription drugs won't do me much good. I'd
be willing to forego my prescription drugs if Congress would force some
young American to mow my lawn.