Government Is Not A Charity

I don't want anyone to think that I am opposed to charitable giving or that I think we should replace the judgement of the State for the Fed in regard to taxpayer dollars spent on charitable giving. Government is not a charity. If I want to give my money to a charity then I should have the right and freedom to give it to the cause of my choice, not the cause of Barack Obama's choice or Nancy Pelosi or George Bush or any other politician. What I do with my money should be up to me. Now having said that, taxes are required to fund the necessary functions of government, like providing for the common defense, and infrastructure - roads, etc. Providing healthcare is not the responsibility of the Federal government. Cultivating an economic environment that encourages the market to provide quality, as well as competitive healthcare is responsibility of the Federal government. Not to mention, there are a lot of people out there with a lot of money, griping about the "40 million Americans without healthcare coverage". If they are so concerned for these people why not set up a non-profit that could actually focus on that one task and much more effectively help to provide preventative healthcare and/or healthcare for those facing a catastrophic health issue. There are some out there - St. Jude's, Shriners, Ronald McDonald House to name a few. I agree that the state of healthcare is less than ideal, but you cannot strip healthcare professionals of their ability to make a decent living - they invest a lot of time and money to get trained, to be prepared to provide care for others at their most vulnerable. And we begrudge them a profit from their investment. Fewer and fewer people are going into these kinds of jobs, because the cost is too great and the reward too little. If we don't figure out a way to incentivize people to want to become doctors and nurses we are going to end up with rationed healthcare in this country, which by the way is pretty much what has happened everywhere that healthcare has been "nationalized".