Monday, October 22, 2012

Courier-Journal and Publican back Shelli Yoder.

The most annoying part about owning a small business is keeping the restrooms clean.

A close second is the knowledge that we’ll generally be at a competitive disadvantage compared to the chains, our chief competition, both in terms of economies of scale in daily purchasing and providing employee “benefits” like health insurance.

My viewpoint hasn’t changed: Access to health care is among the most significant aspects of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It should be regarded as is a right, not a variable benefit dependent on a roll of the dice. If all of us share the costs rather than a few, isn’t this state of equality the very essence of a favorable economy of scale, one that “benefits” all of us, and not just a few?

It is delightful that the Courier-Journal, a bosom friend to the Southern Indiana oligarchs when it comes to shilling for unnecessary bridges, has endorsed the candidate for our 9th district congressional seat most inclined to enrage Southern Indiana oligarchs: Shelli Yoder. The newspaper’s endorsement focuses on contrasting views of “Obamacare” between Yoder and the incumbent, Todd Young.

We don’t know whether Mr. Young, 40, of Bloomington, is hearing similar stories. He declined an invitation to meet with The Courier-Journal editorial board.

But his record speaks for itself. In addition to seeking to repeal health care reform, Mr. Young, a member of the House budget committee, supports the budget plan of Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s running mate, which would drastically cut federal spending and reshape Medicare into a “voucher” plan for senior citizens.

I’m supporting Yoder, too, and for the same reasons. I genuinely enjoyed meeting Young and having a beer with him, and I’d happily do it again, but I profoundly disagree with his political platform. During the same span of time, I’ve run into Yoder at least four times, and the most substantive of our chats was about health care. I’ll tell you what I told her.

I personally resent the view so common among Southern Indiana’s oligarchs that small business owners must march in anti-social lock step by expressing stereotypical reactions toward taxation and regulation, to the extent of unthinkingly supporting whatever candidate fluffs their insecurities most effectively. Yes, it is true that taxes and regulations often grate, but the problem with pandering on this basis is that removing so-called burdens from my own business’s back so often places them on someone else’s, and buries problems without solving them.

We’ve had numerous employees over the years without insurance or any reasonable prospect of health care short of the emergency room and subsequent indigence claims. We’ve tried our best to provide insurance for some employees, but never have been able to come anywhere close to helping all of them. Perhaps we would come closer to the universal if the expenditure were for supplemental benefits, not primary insurance. At any rate, it is my belief that in America, the power of the collective easily can be harnessed to begin resolving the crisis, leaving individuals and businesses free to concentrate on their own lives, aims and goals.

It this makes me a socialist, so be it. It’s never been a pejorative to me, anyway.

If a work ethic means anything in politics, then Yoder is going to come very close to winning a race in a district so gerrymandered to preclude such an oligarch-unfriendly outcome. I wish her luck.

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