Libertarian Response to State of the Union Address

Here are some highlights followed by my own thoughts:

Health Care:

...health care reforms should be the province of state and local governments. The federal government should not be involved; there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution granting it license for such involvement.

Look at how many people come here from Canada for serious medical procedures rather than trust their nationalized health care system. Look at how many people in the UK go to private clinics to get better and faster treatment rather than use the far cheaper practitioners of socialized medicine. Anyone who has switched from an HMO to a PPO type of medical insurance will tell you how much better it is to have more control over your own health care decisions. Under an HMO, I was told what kind of medicine and treatments I was allowed to have. Doctors would recommend a medicine for me, and then give me something less effective when they realized the good stuff wasn't covered by my plan. Under a PPO, my doctor offers me whatever she thinks will best help me and then offers me other choices if I can't afford the good stuff. Under my HMO, it took me over 3 months before I could get permission to see a specialist. Under a PPO it took me 3 days. National/Universal/Socialized health care would effectively create the world's worst HMO, and government policy makers would decide what treatments patients are allowed to have and what medicines doctors are allowed to prescribe.

Education:

Today, Republicans and Democrats compete over which big government programs and mandates can be forced on state and local governments. No Child Left Behind should not be reauthorized. Bush said he wants children in failing schools to have additional options. We agree, but that should be left to state and local governments to hash out.

"No Child Left Behind" should have been named "Let's All Be Mediocre and Illiterate Together". All this program has done is take away from teachers the ability to tailor coursework to best help their students. Miscreants and slackers are pushed through the system along with everyone else because it's virtually impossible to flunk them. Non-English speaking Illegal alien children are given the same resources (and more) than citizen children of tax payers. I say we do the best we can for the majority of children so that most kids can fully realize their potential. Take the kids who can't or won't learn academics and put them into remedial vocational schools where they can learn rudimentary literacy, basic math and some job skills that will help them support themselves. Why try and force fractions and algebra on kids that won't do any homework?

Energy:

If we want the lowest possible energy prices and alternative energy sources to develop, we need to get government out of the energy business and let the free market work.

Amen. Stop subsidizing anything to do with oil and level the playing field for alternative forms of energy development. If oil R&D becomes more expensive, oil companies will pass on that cost consumers and alternative fuels will become more attractive to the public. Don't go overboard and tell automakers what kind of cars to make or create new taxes on oil companies, just back away and let free market competition solve our problem in a fair environment.

Government Spending:

The President indicated that he intends to exercise some spending restraint and to balance the budget. He also suggested reforms that are supposed to prevent billions of taxpayer dollars from being spent on earmarks. Those are fine words, but we should look at his actions, too. ...If he is truly opposed to earmarks, he could have used his veto power, but he didn't. If a Libertarian president had been handed such bills, they would have gone, unsigned, back to the Hill with a simple message attached: For the sake of the American people, become financially responsible now.

Republicans are just as bad as Democrats when it comes to throwing away our money. Don't look expect reform from any incumbents in the big two parties, spending our tax dollars is how they exercise and maintain their power. Vote them out of office and throw your support behind 3rd party reformers. If even a few big party politicians are seriously threatened by 3rd party reformers, things change. Look at how the Republicans pushed the "small government" agenda in the early 90's after Ross Perot split their presidential vote and helped elect Democrat Bill Clinton into the presidency.