Speaker for the Living

Problem with socialism is, eventually you run out of other people’s money

And that's what these "small business owners for socialized health care" do not realize.

Let me first say that I do not believe these people are astroturfing. Absent an evidence to the contrary, I believe that they were demonstrating to say what they believe in the heart of their hearts. However, you have to question if they thought the issue through:

"We feel health care is a right, not a privilege," said Julie Nymann, the owner of Espresso 77, a Jackson Heights espresso bar where the group met. "Yet, we are a small business and we cannot afford to provide insurance to our employees. Something has to be done."

So, Ms. Nymann, as a small business owner, cannot afford to provide health insurance to her employees. I understand that. Health insurance should never have been tied to a job, and people should have been free to choose an insurer in the open market, free from all but minimal regulation to prevent fraud and other crimes. But, as the things are now, Ms. Nymann cannot afford to provide health insurance as a job benefit to her employees, and that's why she wants socialized health care, so that someone else will pay for the health insurance she wants so much for her employees.

I guess that's socialism right there: "Can't someone else pay for this?"

Of course, the problem is when that "someone else" becomes you. As a small business owner, Ms. Nymann is that "someone else" to everyone that's not her. For example, does Ms. Nymann know that ObamaCare includes 8% payroll tax to employers who do not provide qualified health insurance? Can she afford to pay that? How much of that will be coming out of her employees' check?

It's possible that provision will come out in the final version that gets passed (if one gets passed at all), but the truth is, somebody will have to pay for the public option, especially if that public option is to cover undocumented immigrants—who, by the way, cannot pay tax legally so will definitely not be paying for it.

I do not doubt that some small business owners are for ObamaCare in its most socialistic form. After all, being small business owner does not make one an avowed capitalist, and nor does it make one immune from loving "free lunch". But I do seriously doubt that whether a majority of them "like the majority of the American people" support socialized health care. Majority of Americans do support some change in our current health care system, but the change they have in mind is not the change Obama believes in. If you need an example, take tort reform, which has a broad base of support but Obama refuses even to mention.