As Washington continues debating healthcare reform the rest of the country is primarily concerned about jobs and the economy.  It is still uncertain what policies will be implemented, but I am certain about one thing:  It will only further devastate our economy and our dollar. The leadership has come up with a proposal they are confident will be what they consider fiscally responsible, only to have it scored as nearly twice as expensive by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.  Estimates of past healthcare spending programs have been off by as much as 100 percent so there is no telling what the actual cost will be.

If healthcare reform does indeed pass, we should not be under the illusion that it will be free.  The money to pay for it will have to come from somewhere.  They say they will get the money from cutting waste, fraud and abuse, but all of that is seemingly intrinsic to government programs.   Since they want to expand the government’s reach we have to assume we will be trading waste, fraud and abuse for waste, fraud and abuse with a bigger budget.  The powers that be have insisted the money won’t come from higher taxes, it won’t come from rationing of care, and it won’t come from higher premiums.  This can only then put more pressure on the Fed to print the money out of thin air. We already have a weakening dollar.  They are accelerating everything that weakened it in the past.  Adding this new, monumental pressure could very well be the straw that will break the dollar’s back.

Foreign creditors are already nervous about continuing to invest in the US because of our skyrocketing debt. The explosion of debt that is certain to accompany the enactment of this national health care bill can only add to that nervousness. 

Ironically, enactment of the health care bill could help the cause of liberty by hastening the day when Congress is forced by economic circumstances to stop increasing the welfare-warfare state and return to the Constitution.