Can the government be trusted?

Since Sens, Baucus and Tester can't or won't respond to my comments on the new healthcare program, perhaps they will welcome an open letter to the public.

I believe the most alarming thing about any proposed healthcare reform is not only the things the Congress and Obama want to change — although there are many concerns there — it should be about trusting the government to do what they say they will do. They usually don't. Let's look at a few examples.

First is Social Security, which will be spending more than it takes in a few short years from now. Originally Social Security was voluntary, tax-deductible and was to permanently set aside funds paid into the program to have funds available as people needed them in the future.

That didn't last long. In just 15 years, a Democratic Congress agreed to allow transfers from the Social Security fund to the general funds available for immediate spending. Al Gore, as vice president, cast a tie-break vote in a Democratic Congress to pay taxes on 85 percent of our Social Security checks. Jimmy Carter's congress allowed immigrants to draw Social Security retirement funds without paying anything in. And just wait until you see the looming Medicare problem.

We were told the stimulus spending of nearly $800 billion would solve our unemployment crisis. It hasn't. We were told earmarks were done. The $500 billion omnibus bill included 9,000 of them. We were told the government did not want to take over the financial institutions through the TARP program, but shortly, one of 42 czars in the Obama administration will be dictating top salaries for a few financial companies.

We were told we didn't want to take over the car companies, but now we're the largest shareholder in General Motors and gave Chrysler away to the unions who have 55 percent ownership. We told the car company CEOs not to use their private jets to come to Washington, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her puppets just spent hundreds of millions on new jets for themselves.

Folks, it is about the details, but it is also really about whether this government can be trusted. Healthcare is nearly 20 percent of our gross product created annually. Can we trust a Congress who can't even say no to jets or earmarks to manage this huge part of our economy?

Obama's operating budget over the next 10 years is going to kill us economically; another $1.6 trillion in healthcare will bury us. But at least we'll have clear air because cap and trade will shut down any remaining businesses that manufacture anything other than bread sticks.

No, it's all about trust and if we don't get off our butts and throw these people out, we won't have chairs to sit back down on to wonder how we'll pay for those bread sticks.

Gary Miller is a resident of Whitefish.