On 13 December 1799, George Washington spent the day laying out some improvements to the front of his mansion at Mount Vernon, Virginia. The hardiest in an an era of hardy men, he worked diligently outdoors all day in the cold and freezing rain, not stopping until the work was completed and he was satisfied. After coming inside to change clothes, however, he complained of nausea, chills and a sore throat to his adopted grandson George Custis and cut dinner short that evening, managing only a cup of tea before retiring to his library for a few hours. He spent an agonizing and sleepless night wracked by fever and acute laryngitis before allowing his family to summon his family doctors the following morning, who spared no effort in treating him. All their accumulated knowledge and skill were bent to the task of saving America's greatest hero but nothing worked, and late on the evening of 14 December, George Washington passed into history.
Further examination of General Washington's symptoms indicated that he likely suffered from pneumonia, a severe throat infection and probably dehydration as he fought multiple problems at once without being able to eat or drink and was in serious trouble even if no other complications had arisen, but examination of his doctors' methods revealed that they likely accelerated his demise, albeit through ignorance. Men well-educated by 18th century standards prescribed mercury chloride to induce vomiting in a man whose throat was constricted, and repeatedly a bled a man whose blood was his only means of fighting the symptoms that plagued him. In short, they made a perilous situation fatal.
The point is that sometimes the remedy can be worse than the disease. Three intelligent, dedicated, professional and well-meaning doctors, employing commonly accepted medical techniques with the full approval and urging of the patient's family, probably killed the Father of our Country. Now, His Serene Loftiness feels compelled to administer a $789 billion injection to the United States economy, driven by philosophy and the urgings of a Democrat Party reeling with power. His constituents, the millions of Americans who feel cheated by free enterprise, scream for action. He has won an historic election and in his mind, an historic mandate. He cannot stand by and do nothing, he must intervene powerfully and decisively, he must be a dynamic, even epic figure. Doing nothing to harm the patient - the first rule of Hippocrates' credo - is forgotten in the mad scramble. Disregard the failures of the New Deal, disregard the gigantic increase in government spending during the Bush administration (if government spending were beneficial to an economy in crisis, why does Obama criticize his predecessor's lavish habits?), disregard the failures of the Spring 2008 rebates and the $700 billion TRAP package to stimulate the economy. Obama demands this colossal bill to validate himself as an American icon, to validate liberalism and the idiotic Keynesian economics to which liberals cling. But when the bill is passed and signed into law, when the money is spent and the bridges are built and the sod is laid and every wild pork-barrel fantasy is indulged and relief is still wanting, the President will be exposed for what he is: Another left-wing politician buying votes with other people's money. For God's sake, Mr. President, do nothing.
No comments:
Post a Comment