The thing about the “health care reform” that gets me is there’s no accountability.

Regarding the recently passed legislation, Nancy Pelosi said:

Health insurance reform will stand alongside Social Security and Medicare in the annals of American history.

Hrm. So it will stand alongside two failed and bankrupt Ponzi schemes. Ironic foreshadowing?

If I ran my household like our Federal Government is run, I’d be bankrupt or thrown in jail. There’s no CEO that can run a business like the government is run. Ultimately it’s all down to one thing: accountability. I’m accountable to my wife and children, to my parents, to those interested in the well-being of myself, my wife, and my children. I must run my household well, else I will pay the penalty. If a CEO runs their business in a poor manner, they will lose their job, they will lose the compensation, the stock options, and if they ran it in an illegal manner they will go to jail. But when the President, when the Congressmen and Senators, when they run things in a terrible manner… where’s the accountability?

Well, we say that it’s to the voters… that they will be voted out and lose their jobs. But the way this “reform” was pushed through? It’s evident there’s no concern for being voted out. Congressmen were promised appointments to other government jobs in exchange for their votes (e.g. Bart Gordon (D-TN) promised the job of NASA administrator, John Tanner (D-TN) US ambassador to NATO). So what’s to fear? Get voted out, big deal… they’ve got something to fall back upon. Gosh… wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all could live our lives this way? Try telling those making up the 9.7% (as of Feb. 2010) unemployment rate.

When one is directly accountable for their decisions and actions they tend to make far more thoughtful decisions and take more careful action. But when you’re spending someone else’s money, when you know behaving in one way will benefit you (even if it hurts millions of others), when you know there’s no downside or loss to you personally for making poor choices… what reason do you have to care about how you act?

This isn’t about health care. This isn’t about Democrats or Republicans. This is a long-standing problem with all the “elected officials”.

I do think the first step is to vote the bums out.

The second step is We The People need to work to improve our system to enforce greater accountability. I’m not 100% sure what the best means to accomplish that would be, but I’m open to discussion.