Occasionally circumstances force me to eat lunch in the swamp. This time I was in Fairfax County, VA, formerly a reliably conservative county that has lately been invaded by swamp employees, swamp contractors, swamp lobbyists and other refugees from Washington, DC.
The county is now reliably Democrat and gave Hillary a 68 to 32 percent victory last November. Call it a pilot project for the entire country after illegals get amnesty.
During lunch I couldn’t help but overhear the conversation between a man and a woman I assumed were business associates. Most of it was background noise, “Grumble, grumble, TRUMP, mumble, mumble, TRUMP, Hitler, Hitler, TRUMP” and so on.
Then a comment concerning Obamacare “repeal” almost caused me to choke on my curry, “Health care is one–sixth of the entire economy and they are crafting a bill in total secrecy!” one complained.
There is precedent. Democrats wrote the entire Obamacare takeover without any input from Republicans and then forced it through the Senate by a single vote before Scott Brown — elected specifically to defeat the bill — could take his seat and vote against it.
What struck me though was not the fact two sides could play the secrecy game. It was the realization those two diners knew healthcare encompassed a sixth of the economy and yet neither was asking the obvious question: What makes Congress think it can run that huge portion of the economy better than the market?
Both implicitly accepted that an organization filled with people like John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Maxine Waters and other swamp lifers is qualified to manage healthcare. There’s not so much as an EMT certificate or economics degree among the lot of them. You’d have a better chance of success asking an Uber driver to pilot an Airbus.
You may not be aware of this, but the federal government has been running a fully federalized pilot health care program for the past 205 years and the results are in! Find out how the test went by clicking the link below for the thrilling conclusion to my Newsmax.com column:
Michael R. Shannon (The Whole Shebang (mostly)) is a Virginia-based public relations and media consultant with MANDATE: Message, Media & Public Relations who has worked in over 75 elections on three continents and a handful of islands.
