Dakota Beacon

There is an old saying, “When you’re sent to drain a swamp and you’re standing in water up to your neck with alligators swimming all around -- don’t lose sight of the objective.”

With attention focused on the opposition to health care reform at town hall meetings, the US House has yet to vote on H.R. 3200, the major health care bill. If and when it does so, the bill then goes to the US Senate where passage remains murky. The Senate has no clearly identifiable health care bill but continues crafting one in committees.

Much is made of “fixing” Medicare. Medicare has been a known problem ignored by congress for years. It isn’t necessary to hastily rework the entire health care system with an overarching government replacement to “fix” Medicare.

Even as congressmen and senators get an ear full on the various health care proposals, the Senate will quietly take up H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, when they return from their summer listening tour. This is the House version of Cap and Trade legislation. Once the Senate acts on Cap and Trade, it’s on to the president for signature. Then Cap and Trade is a done deal.

In a way, juggling these bills is much like a political shell game. You focus on the shells and miss the pea.

Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) is very certain the Senate will not pass a “public option” health care plan. Interestingly, a health care amendment was submitted by his colleague Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) that was adopted with bipartisan support by the Senate Heath Committee. If adopted as part of any final health care bill, the amendment would require all senators, congressmen and their staffs to come under whatever option congress passes and the president signs. This illustrates a very good point. If health care reform is so good for the people, surely it’s good for congress as well.

When I asked Senator Conrad at a town hall meeting if he supported Senator Coburn’s bipartisan amendment his response was that “there would be no public option passed in the Senate.” This was a neat parry, a typical political non-answer. I took it as a “No.” After all, why should the patricians stoop to the level of plebes and live under the same health care they think best for the rest of us?

No public option? Let’s see if a public option resurrects itself under a different name such as a health care co-op. Why don’t I trust these people?

So much for the health care listening tour.

I had another question the opportunity for which never presented itself for the asking. It’s a nit picking Cap and Trade question. Washington’s mantra is chanted over and over, “We must break our dependence on foreign oil.” Fair enough. But, there are the inevitable unintended consequences accompanying the usual government “solution.”

A push is on to substitute hybrid or fully electric cars for cars using the internal combustion engine. Disregard for a moment that our number one and number three suppliers of oil are Canada and Mexico in that order. Venezuela is second with all other countries arrayed after them. Disregard also the need to generate the electric energy to charge the batteries. Think about the composition of the batteries.

An important component of the rechargeable batteries is lithium. A full 50% of the world’s supply of lithium comes from Bolivia, a close friend of Hugo Chavez. Another 25% comes from Chile. Seventy-five percent of the world’s lithium comes from these two countries.

My question is, “Aren’t we depending to an even greater extent for our supply of lithium from overseas than we are currently for oil?” In other words, aren’t we trading a headache for an upset stomach?

Maybe, just maybe, health care and cap and trade legislation have nothing to do with either health or saving the environment. Maybe these and other efforts have more to do with consolidating political power in the hands of a few Washington politicians to the detriment of our freedom.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).