What We Can Learn From Toddlers

Having spent the weekend with a two year old and a one year old child, I've come to realize that maybe we Fiscal Conservatives are going about our opposition to the Affordable Care Act the wrong way.  Like toddlers, Liberals want what they currently do not have--even though they already have more than any child their age had in past.  And the more you tell them they can't have what they want, the more desirous they become of that object.  And just like a two year old, when The Left finally gets what they so badly desired for so long, the novelty of it quickly wears off and they give up the item (usually slightly damaged) and move on to a new object that they are told they cannot have.  It is only when the threat of having that first item taken away from them again that they get all concerned about it--even if they haven't even looked at it in months.

We are already seeing that loss of interest in the reaction to the Obama Administration's lack of progress on setting up the infrastructure to handle the ACA.  There should be protests in front of the Health and Human Services building every day demanding more work on setting up health insurance exchanges--you know, the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT PIECE IN MAKING OBAMACARE "WORK".  And what is needed to help small businesses decide if they are going to offer coverage to employees--or just cut them loose and pay the "non-coverage" fee--I mean tax.  Instead, Liberals have already moved on to their next crusade--I believe it is gay marriage.  Their interest won't return to health care coverage until there is a serious effort made to repeal the ACA--and then it will be important to them all over again.

And Americans as a whole are bit like little kids as well.  We tire of our toys--especially those that are "guaranteed rights".  We as a nation have gone to war a few times to protect the rights bestowed upon us by the Constitution.  But when it comes to actually exercising those rights, we fall a little bit short.  The First Amendment guarantees us the right to practice whatever religion we want--but only 80% of Americans belong to a church--and a smaller percentage actually go on a regular basis.  The First Amendment also guarantees us the right to redress our Government, but every year just a handful of people turn out for budget hearings at all levels of government.  The Second Amendment guarantees the right to own a gun--but only 32% of households actually have one (legally).  And the 15th, 19th and 26th Amendments guarantee all of us the right to vote for our leaders--yet the average turnout for all elections (not just the Presidential ones) is about one-hird of eligible voters.  What's more, in each of those cases, the percentages have been steadily declining over the years.

So if the Liberals were correct in calling "Affordable Health Care" a "right", Americans will show continuously less and less interest in exercising their "right" to it.  That would mean ObamaCare will result in fewer people going to the doctor and seeking expensive procedures and medicines as time goes on--primarily because you still can't fix laziness and bad habits through legislation--but also because no one would be telling them they can't anymore.