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Author’s Note: This is the seventh in a series of articles about Nebraska’s Medicaid program, the Unicameral’s apparent intent to expand it, and the many reasons why expansion is an uncommonly bad idea. Although they don’t have to be read in order, here are links to the previously-published articles in the series: 

1. NE Medicaid Expansion: The Race is On 
2. Let’s See What Condition Our Condition is In 
3. People Don’t Walk Away From a Fool and His Money
4. Sending Granny (and Gramps) to the Home 
5. Congratulations! She’s Having His Baby . . . And You’re Paying for It!
6. Families Need Medicaid Like Fish Need Bicycles

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

• Wanna know why our annual federal budget deficit is in excess of $1 trillion and federal debt is measured in the teens of trillions?
• Wanna know why at least 40 percent of the money that’s spent for “government” here in Nebraska is, in actuality, paid for with federal tax dollars?¹
•  Wanna know why, even with all of those federal dollars, our state senators still have trouble balancing the state budget?

All those questions can be answered in two words:  Bob Krist.  Yeah, it’s all his fault.

Obviously, I’m kidding.  But only just.  Consider how Senator Krist, one of those fiscally-conservative Republicans we keep electing to the state legislature, tried to justify his support for LB577, the bill he co-sponsored to expand Nebraska’s Medicaid program.  While reasonable people question whether we can afford to expand Medicaid, Krist says the question is exactly the opposite:

“[W]hether the state can afford to leave all those federal tax dollars on the table.  ‘The answer is no.  I think we have to participate, to play the game from the very beginning and adjust as we go with the best information possible,’ he said.”

Krist’s very own entitlement mentality is showing.  One of the foundational elements of that state of mind is the earnest belief in the existence of a “free” lunch.

You see, the federal government has promised to pay 100 percent of the initial cost incurred in expanding Medicaid within any state opting for the voluntary expansion, with that commitment dropping down to 90 percent after three years and then continuing at that 90 percent level forevermore.  Senator Krist and a number of his colleagues in the Unicameral are laboring under the mistaken impression that this means the Medicaid expansion is “free” to Nebraskans.  “Found” money, if you will, that Krist, at least, thinks we cannot afford to leave on the table.   One wonders if the senator still believes in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy as well.

Henry Hazlitt once said, “Everything we get, outside of the free gifts of nature, must in some way be paid for.”  In common parlance, that means “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch,” a statement inspired by the practice in 19th century saloons of permitting patrons to eat their fill for “free” once they purchased at least one drink, knowing that customers would seldom, if ever, stop at just one.  Saloon owners are rumored to have liberally salted the “free” food as well, just to ensure patrons became and remained thirsty.

At its heart, the observation that lunch is never free is based on a fundamental principle of economics. In order to get one thing we like, we have to give up another thing we like. A choice must be made. One individual or group CAN get something at no cost to themselves, but only so long as somebody else pays for it.

A question for Senator Krist and his buddies at the Unicameral:  Where does the federal government get its money?

Answer:  Mostly from taxes paid by individuals.  You know, people who live and work in the U.S.A., the country of which NEBRASKA is a part.

That means that, if our elected representatives vote to expand Nebraska’s Medicaid program, the federal government promises to take money from NEBRASKANS in the form of taxes AND THEN SEND IT BACK TO US TO PAY FOR THE MEDICAID EXPANSION!!!!  What a simply fabulous deal!

I’ve got news for you guys down there at the Unicam — THIS MONEY IS NOT FREE.  THE HEALTH CARE IT WILL PAY FOR WILL NOT BE FREE.

In a typical year, Nebraska receives more in federal tax dollars than Nebraskans pay in federal taxes, but to date it’s usually been a near thing.  Not so if Senator Krist and his cronies push LB577 through.  They apparently think we’re not sponging off of our fellow American citizens enough.  Why else would they find those federal tax dollars laying there on the table so very tempting?

Look at our federal deficits and our total debt, for cripes sake!  Should it be our goal, as a state, to do everything humanly possible to suck up even more federal dollars than we already do?  Are we “entitled” to do that?  To take money that’s collected from people living in each of the other 49 states to pay for things we want to have and to do here in Nebraska?  If so, why was everyone so incensed at U.S. Senator Ben Nelson when he and Harry Reid cooked up the “Cornhusker Kickback”?

It’s ironic that the progressives among us, including Senator Krist and the 11 co-sponsors of LB577, would elevate the perceived needs/interests of the individual State of Nebraska above the fiscal and financial solvency of the collective — our federal union.  But I shouldn’t be surprised.  To them, there is apparently no connection between what they vote to spend here in Nebraska and the annual deficits and accumulated debt we, as a nation, incur.

Nebraska already gets at least 40 percent of the money it spends within the state each year from the federal government, and that doesn’t include any federal funds used to support the University of Nebraska system.  Still, our state senators have trouble balancing the state budget, as they are required to do by law.

There seems to be nothing our state senators think we, as Nebraskans and as a nation, cannot afford.  It’s that mentality, multiplied by 50 for each one of the 50 states, that has gotten us in the dire straits we, as a nation, currently occupy.  LB577 is a step that, if taken, will only dig us deeper into deficits and debt.  The key to getting out of any hole?  STOP DIGGING.

Images in the post were found at the following links…

Raining dollars formerly

No Free Lunch

Dollar tree formerly

Free money trap