Your Opinion: Slight-of-hand socialism

Harold H. Horstmann

Lohman

Dear Editor:

I guess Mr. O’Mara will never stop with his socialist sleight-of-hand propaganda. The only way socialists can amass their wealth and power is to promise the moon to the gullible, and by the time they feel the pain, it’s too late. Of course, the wealthy and powerful socialists who, after they have sucked in their prey, destroyed the citizen’s freedoms and the nation’s economy will have retired and lived out their comfortable lives in protected mansions. If you doubt me, my letter published 7/29/18 “Dems find quick paths to wealth” exposes McCaskill’s, Obama’s and Clinton’s amassed wealth while being employed as “public servants,” and what did they leave in their wake? After Obama’s term during which McCaskill and Hillary Clinton rubber-stamped everything Obama wanted are gone, leaving Trump a doubled national debt of $20 trillion. Where are they now? In their mansions, except for McCaskill, who apparently isn’t yet satisfied with her accumulated wealth via suspicious means.

Mr. O’Mara infers that taxpayers are already paying for everyone’s healthcare, which is false. Taxpayers are only now paying for whatever subsidies are lawfully required to be paid. Hospital services for those not insured are not paid by taxpayers. They are paid mostly by increased costs for emergency care and passed along to responsible folks who have insurance via increased premiums. If taxpayers were paying for all medical services, what fool would think it will be cheaper for an incompetent government bureaucracy to administer a monster medical program than competitive insurance companies. The Obamacare fiasco should say it all.

Mr. O’Mara also compares government-mandated education to socialized medicine. Again it’s absurd to make that comparison. There’s an old Chinese proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Our educational system is intended to teach a man to fish so you wouldn’t have to give him a fish a day. This proverb clearly defines the difference between Capitalism and Socialism. Capitalism’s goal is to teach a person to fish and be free to be all they can be while Socialism, by giving them a fish a day, will keep them on the plantation and be a good Democrat voter for the rest of their life.