My brother in-law comes to me and says do not worry about a thing I will pay all of your family’s medical expenses from now on but I do not believe him. You see he owes money to all of his family and friends, his enormous student loans are in default, he has 15 maxed out credit cards, his house is in foreclosure, he has two broken legs because he could not pay his bookie and he was fired from his job yesterday. So, no I don’t think I can rely on him for my health care needs.

Yet there are people who believe the United States government should be responsible for their medical expenses. The advocates of a single payer health care system say an organization that owes its own social security trust fund 1,5 trillion dollars, an organization maintaining a 2.5 million member military with 737 bases worldwide, an organization whose deficit for just 2009 added up to 1.84 trillion dollars, an organization already more than 14 trillion dollars in the red which will probably get permission to borrow even more trillions shortly will have enough funds to take good care of all of our nation’s sick from now and into the future.

One person who has the irrational faith in government’s ability to provide quality health services for all is newly elected governor of Vermont, Peter Shumlin. He intends to put his belief into practice despite the fact that his state is already the ninth most debt ridden one in America with each resident now owing more than 5,400 dollars. If Shumlin succeeds that will be very bad for the people of Vermont but it could be good for the rest of us. Perhaps a concrete example of governmental efficiency, thrift, fairness, and compassion applied to a comprehensive and exclusive statewide medical care system will do much to dispel the current widespread single payer lunacy.

Hat tip to Kenny Rodgers.