Government Making Things Cheaper
We’ve heard it for generations. Let government get more involved – and private sector prices will fall. We’ve heard it in defense of new programs – and (ever) more regulations.
We have centuries of evidence to the contrary.
Government promises already made are unfathomably short of coin.
Federal Unfunded Liabilities Total $84 Trillion
In part because the government is either woefully unskilled at guesstimating its costs – or it simply lies to get their new power grabs imposed.
Surprise! Medicare’s Drug Benefit Gets a Mega Markup
A rule of thumb in government is that new programs almost always cost more than politicians predict. So it should come as no surprise that the new Medicare prescription-drug benefit will cost taxpayers more than originally advertised.
When the plan to help seniors cope with skyrocketing drug costs passed Congress in 2003, the advertised price was $400 billion over 10 years. Two months later, the Bush administration “revised” the estimate to $534 billion. Now, Medicare officials project the cost to be $724 billion from 2006 to 2015, its first full decade.
As eye-popping as those numbers are, the real cost will likely be higher. Long-range projections are notoriously inaccurate. When Medicare, the government’s health care system for the elderly and disabled, was first enacted in 1965, lawmakers predicted it would cost $9 billion by 1990. In fact, it cost $67 billion that year.
Get that? Government in 1965 was off on 1990 Medicare – by a factor of seven-plus.
So this unbelievable wrong-ness shouldn’t shock us.
Obama: (Under ObamaCare) Premiums Will Decrease 3000%
Especially when promised by this President.
Lie of the Year: ‘If You Like Your Health Care Plan, You Can Keep It’
Lawmaker: Obama Should Win ‘Lie of the Year’ Again for Claiming No Corruption at IRS
White House Knew ObamaCare Claims Were False
The Washington Post Confirms Obama Is Lying About Benghazi
Top Obama Aide: President Lied About Opposing ‘Gay Marriage’ to Deceive Blacks, Get Elected
So when this Administration said their all-encompassing Network Neutrality Internet power grab wouldn’t raise Internet access costs – well, you know….
Remember How Net Neutrality Wasn’t Going to Raise Prices? Yeah…Never Mind
FCC’s Net Neutrality Rules Open Door to New Fee on Internet Service
Neither the increased costs or jacked taxes should be news to us.
If the government increases its regulatory reach – things get more expensive. It’s inherent. Federal government regulations alone cost the economy more than $2 trillion per year.
To assert that THIS time a dramatic regulatory increase will run counter to every iota of evidence ever and miraculously lower costs is either naive or disingenuous on stilts.
And if the government is going to regulate the Internet like landline telephones – they’re going to tax the Internet like landline telephones. It’s their nature. And not Nostradamus-esque to predict.
Obama Contemplates Internet Tax – August 28, 2012
The Feds under their newly grabbed Internet powers are going to have the ability to impose on the Web – amongst other phone tariffs – the Universal Service Fund (USF) tax.
Which is currently 17.4% – and goes up automatically every calendar quarter. And goes up each and every time three unelected Federal Communications Commission (FCC) bureaucrats decide they want more of our coin. Which they just did – with a 17.1% rate increase in December.
Likely so the new additionally-inflated tax – would be in place for the soon-to-be-minted Internet power grab.
Higher costs and new taxes – again, not a surprise to anyone paying any attention to anything government does.
Editor’s Note: This first appeared in Red State.