By Douglas V. Gibbs
As my wife and I cruised down U.S. 101 just north of the San Francisco Bay, a lone figure on an overpass held up a massive sign: “Healthcare, Not Ballroom.”
I turned to my wife. “And that, my dear, perfectly illustrates the intellectual bankruptcy of Trump-hating Democrats.”
This wasn’t about ideology. It was about common sense, or the complete lack thereof.
The sign-wielder was demanding taxpayer-funded healthcare, most likely the failed experiment of socialized medicine that collapses under the weight of political reality and human nature every single time it’s implemented. Once government takes over healthcare, it magically transforms into “free healthcare” in the public’s mind. Suddenly, doctors’ offices are flooded with patients treating the medical system like their personal convenience store for every sniffle and minor ache.
Meanwhile, medicine transforms from a profession into just another government job with stagnant wages and vanishing incentives. The brightest minds who once dreamed of healing people through private practice redirect their ambitions elsewhere. The result? A catastrophic brain drain in medicine combined with overwhelming demand. Welcome to the world of endless waiting lists, rationed care, and patients dying before their “free” treatment ever arrives.
The call for government healthcare is a dangerous road that ultimately destroys the very people it claims to help.
But here’s where the sign’s stupidity reaches epic proportions: while healthcare would be a taxpayer-funded government program, the ballroom is not. The money for President Trump’s proposed White House Grand Ballroom comes from his own pocket and private donors who recognize its value; especially after the recent shooting at the hotel hosting the White House Correspondents’ Dinner demonstrated the critical need for enhanced security that a dedicated ballroom would provide.
The ballroom costs taxpayers absolutely nothing.
Even if I supported taxpayer-funded healthcare, stopping the ballroom would do nothing to enable socialized medicine because they’re completely unrelated financially. One is a private project; the other would be a government program.
The person holding that sign is either tragically uninformed or so consumed by Trump Derangement Syndrome that reality has become optional.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
