We Don't Need to Copy Europe-Health Care not "Free"

Americans fought a bloody war to break free of the medieval political system that still enslaves modern Europe in one form or another.

But now Obama tries to shame US Citizens by saying "we are the only developed nation without universal (i.e., government controlled and rationed) health care."

1000 years of serfdom in Europe and bowing to nobles has simply been modernized there. Europeans are used to paying "tribute" just to be alive. Look at the taxes they pay for all that "free" stuff they get:

Austria: 70% (50% income tax plus 20% value added tax on all goods & services)
Belgium: 71% ditto essentially
France: 69% ditto essentially
Germany: 34% starting tax rate even for lowest incomes when you add 15% income tax
plus 20% value added tax everyone pays for everything! Up to 69%
Norway: 25% vat tax on everything you buy (13% on all food) and income tax of 45%
for a total of around 70%
Spain: 45% income and 16% vat tax on nearly everything
(Source: Wikipedia)
UK: 35% starting level! (20% on even the poorest + 15% VAT on goods)

A friend in Europe wants to buy a new Strat, Ibenez, PRS or other gear? They better save up because it's gonna cost them a lot more in Europe.

Not because we are "greedy" here or "not paying our fair share" or are "evil capitalists" but because we have until now thrown off all attempts for government to shackle us with the Old World medieval ways like the national value added tax they all pay. That's why the same guitar gear always costs a lot more over there. $499 for a Stratocaster Standard here and $722 in England. Same guitar! (Made in either Mexico, Japan, or Korea, not the US.) Government is skimming off the top! The end consumer sees only the last "mark up" tax on his/her bill, but pays for 100% of the value added tax through the inflated cost of the item or service. VAT covers everything from importing, to improving, to transporting, to wholesaling, to retailing. Each step gets assessed it's part and it passed along to the next by adding to the price of the item. France gets 51% of it's state income this way!

So, Brits, you just got taxed for your health care $223 when you bought a plain old Strat! Jolly good. And that's true whether your income was the equivalent of $20,000 US or $200,000 US a year.

And they all also have a high income tax as well. That "free" health care is costly!

If you want to see what the left looks like when they have their way, look at Hugo Chavez. He doesn't like golf. Thinks it elitist. So he banned it in Venezuela, confiscated private courses and plowed them up. Yet he got the most thunderous applause at the Copenhagen Climate Change debacle.

Golf? I don't even golf, but that seems very arbitrary. Maybe it's just me. Wonder what else this darling of Copenhagen doesn't like?

Now imagine the left in charge of what drugs to develop, what surgeries to authorize, what age limits there are on life saving procedures that we now routinely do.

In short, so-called universal health care in America will become expensive universal Walk-In clinic medicine.

If you like the docs you see there at the Walk-In, then you'll love it. If all you need are stitches or a shot of penicillin you'll be fine. Just don't get cancer if you're over 45 years old. Sure it's "paid for" but you'll be on a 12 month waiting list.