Romney Explodes Democracy

Governor Mitt Romney signed the landmark health insurance bill in Faneuil Hall yesterday as political leaders, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy, looked on. (David L. Ryan/ Globe Staff)

There is a famous quote about democracy by a noted Scottish jurist and historian, Alexander Fraser Tytler (1742-1813) that reads in part:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship."

The Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, has found a way to give the voters largess from the public treasury.

Excerpts from The Boston Globe -

Joy, worries on healthcare
As Romney signs bill, doubts arise about revenues
By Scott Helman and Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff April 13, 2006

Governor Mitt Romney signed most of a sweeping new healthcare bill into law yesterday at a festive Faneuil Hall ceremony hailed as a hallmark of bipartisan achievement, even as healthcare specialists expressed concern that the plan could start losing money in three years.
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In a moment widely praised as historic for the state and seen as a big boost to Romney's presidential aspirations, the Republican governor basked in the credit and shared some, too, as he was joined by Democratic leaders of the Legislature and US Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

But amid the wide grins and handshakes, questions surfaced about the cost and the sweep of the legislation, which makes Massachusetts the first state to try to insure nearly all of its residents through an individual mandate to buy insurance.

A legislative staff analysis estimates that the groundbreaking healthcare plan would start losing money in two to three years, which could put pressure on lawmakers to spend more tax money, increase the fee on businesses or scale back the coverage of the sweeping bill. The analysis projects that the plan will be about $160 million short of its estimated cost of $1.56 billion in the fiscal year that starts July 1, 2008.
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So, is this really a good idea? Sure, we love to not pay for health care, but these type of programs will kill our way of life and explode our democracy.

To continue with quoting Tytler -

"The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:
from bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to complacency;
from complacency to apathy;
from apathy to dependency;
from dependency back again to bondage."