In later versions of the replacement healthcare plan of the Senate GOP Caucus, billions of dollars’ worth of assistance were to be allocated to states struggling with the opioid crisis. An earlier blog I wrote discussed the origins and scope of this catastrophic problem. We all ache for those who are caught in the grip of horrible addiction and they certainly deserve help.
Who is it that should bear the billions of dollars the planned assistance will cost? Of course it will actually be borne by us, the taxpayers, and future generations of Americans currently being mercilessly burdened by the federal budget’s profligacy and the ever-growing national debt. You, your children and your grandchildren are receiving this burden from our generous congress.
But what about the rich pharmaceutical industry and the rich physicians who are actually responsible for the problem? My previous blog placed some rather direct blame on the individuals from these groups of wealthy and culpable parties who originally argued in medical journals that opioids don’t cause addictions, who cavalierly wrote the prescriptions, and who sold the opioids to victims of pain. Has anyone considered a tax on them? They have not received even mild public censure for bringing this plague upon our fellow citizens.
Part of the problem, of course, arises from the failure of the U.S. Congress to secure our borders. Billions of dollars worth of opioids and “entertainment drugs” are brought in through our borders. People die by the many hundreds of thousands and socialists say there is no crisis on our border. I heard on a leftist radio station the question asked what exactly would constitute a national crisis, to which the announcer answered without hesitation that a good example was the crisis of polluted water in Flint, Michigan! How many people died in Flint? More than die from the opioid crisis?
On July 24th, a column by Gerard Baker, Editor of the Wall Street Journal, observed that states are likely very soon to begin suing pharmaceutical companies for helping spark the opioid addiction crisis. They are alleged to have misrepresented the benefits and risks of opioid painkillers. A leading attorney in the cigarette litigation of a few years back, Mike Moore, has encouraged Mississippi and Ohio to sue drugmakers and is assisting in the preparation of lawsuits.
Hopefully, the passage of any healthcare legislation will not occur before the GOP senators recognize that the addicted victims needing assistance need not be aided at the expense of the taxpayers. The senate’s instincts in this regard seem quite in line with socialist sentiment. Anyone in financial need should, according to the socialist view, receive financial help from the taxpayer. And the greater the number of financial transfers that can be conceived of the better. As for adding the caveat “as much as we can afford,” there is no consideration at all, since socialists have no notion of a budget constraint. During one’s term as mayor, legislator, or elected official one can give away money as freely as one wishes, since the politician reasons “the financial disaster will come after my term is up and I am no longer in office.”
As I write this, the opioid crisis continues in unprecedented severity with deaths from overdose increasing each year, Our nation is currently locked in disagreement about national values. Many wish to establish security on our southern border. But the democrats currently ignore the hundreds of thousands of drug-related deaths and untold agony among the citizenry stemming from the massive inflow of illegal drugs through the porous southern border. President Trump seeks a barrier on the border because the security project of previous administrations did not get completed, democrats have called the wall President Trump insists on “immoral.” They have not labeled the portion of the wall constructed by President Clinton immoral, nor have they sought to have it removed. Only the national buffoon and computer hacker, Robert Francis O’Rourke, would like to see the wall removed.
