I lived in two countries that had some form of socialized medicine, and the sky did not fall. It was nice to know that I could get treatment even if I was unemployed or broke. And not for nothing, but for a lot of poor people, or people who don’t have access to other options, a lot of religions have control of their healthcare. Church-owned hospitals are, in many communities, the only game in town, and they really get invasive when it comes to patient choice. Try getting on the pill, getting an abortion, or getting a D&X after a miscarriage. Odd, though, that the control is ONLY bad when it’s the government.

The next person who starts whining about how the Gummit Can’t Do Anything Right Guldang it is welcome to build their own roads and bridges, renounce the education they got, not call the cops when they need help, not call the fire department if their house is on fire, and not bring a civil case to court if they’ve been harmed by gross negligence. While we’re at it, they are also welcome to forgo the criminal justice system if they are accused of a crime or are the victim of a crime. As well as Medicare and Social Security, and unemployment when they lose their jobs.

I mean, we’ve seen what happens when private industry runs things–it’s all fucking rainbows and ponies and pots of gold (for the owners of said private companies, at least). We’ve seen how well the prison system is run, and how the human rights of prisoners aren’t violated at all when we outsource it to private companies. Same with companies like Halliburton.

Here’s a clue: government-run programs tend to falter because a) people have no faith or investment in them, having bought into the Reagan-era rhetorical bullshit and b) we’re all so determined to “starve the beast” that the institution that is supposed to work for us cannot do so effectively (there is no money fairy. FFS). And when the government can’t do it’s job well, people whine that the Gummit Can’t Do Anything Right.

Shorter me: I second everything La Lubu has said here.

Yes, the federal government can be thuggish. It can also be your ally in a fight where otherwise, you as an individual would have no power. Because I’ve noticed over the years that people with the most consistent keep-government-out-of-my-life perspective tend to be the same folks who can lean heavily on their existing pillars of privilege and power (think: financial capital, social capital, cultural capital, white privilege, class privilege, male privilege, able-bodied privilege, heterosexual privilege, cisgender privilege, etc.).

I’m not under any illusion that government as an institution is a neutral, unbiased entity. I’m also not under any illusion that the people doing that work are any different from people who work in the private sector. And I’m really not under any illusion that the private sector isn’t any less powerful than the government, either (who do you think controls the government, for crissake? who’s driving the gutting of health care reform?).

Those times when laws and those who enforce them are your ally are the direct result of grassroots movement by the people. Those laws are the legacy of the New Deal, the Civil Rights movement, feminist movement, labor movement……and as those movements weaken, that allows for abuse by those in power. Sometimes that abuse will come from government, as in this case. More often, it will come from the private sector. But make no doubt—power is power, and it preys on the vulnerable, and that is regardless of its source.

Meanwhile, I’m really curious Marksman2000, if you happen to be paying for all your parents or grandparents financial and medical needs, since you don’t seem to appreciate the existance of Social Security and Medicare. (and perhaps it’s salient to mention on a feminist blog that those programs are crucial for older women of my grandmothers’ generation who were legally barred from getting the good jobs—so much for that “saving for the future” jazz).

Medicare and Social Security are both doing pretty well so far. So’s the Interstate Highway System.

You’re just not thinking hard enough Mark. The interstate highway system, national parks, USPS….I’m sure you probably know a few old folks who depend on their Social Security checks and Medicare (or are you one of those lucky few that earn enough money to support yourself and possibly your own family, and enough to support your parents and grandparents? If so, just count your blessings…most of us don’t have that kind of wherewithal). Personally, I’m fond of the changes that came from that great piece of Federal legislation known as the Civil Rights Act……but being a white man, your mileage obviously varies on the ability to overlook that one. Apparently, you’re also able-bodied, because you don’t seem to appreciate the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Family and Medical Leave Act. Must have a real cush job too, because you don’t seem to appreciate the Department of Labor, OSHA, or NIOSH.

I will say this: most of what we take for granted in terms of national programs are legacies of the New Deal. I live in Illinois, and just about all the lodges in various State parks were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The reason rural people have electricity is due to the Rural Electrification Administration—private industry did not and would not have done that. But frankly, it has been since my grandmother’s era that we had political representation with the courage to pursue initiatives that provide for the populace, rather than for-profit entities.

Then again, in her era, people were politically active and out in the streets more often, and in large numbers. Apathy breeds political corruption.

Can you recall any instance when the Federal government has accomplished something on the scale of national healthcare and it turn out correctly? I can’t.

But you can keep brainstorming.

It’s fun and all to be outrage, but the facts here are pretty thin.

Maybe some of us are just offended by the very concept of publicans with guns harassing the working poor on the off chance that they’re keeping a bit more of the money they earned to support their family. Perhaps the idea that a government which is wasting huge amounts of money on failed wars, both foreign and domestic, is so presumptuous as to believe that it ought to use the power it has to squeeze every last penny it believes it is owed from citizens makes some of us physically ill. Maybe the strategy of going after low hanging fruit because a poor person is more likely to just roll over, especially if they’re cheating a little, than going after bigger fish because they fight back seems both morally and pragmatically wrong. Who knows, maybe theres even one or two people here who see tax evasion as just, given the horrors our government visits upon it’s citizens.

I’m not so sure it’s wrong from them to investigate someone claiming to make $18,000 a year. It really wouldn’t shock me to find that a lot of people running relatively successful cash businesses claim extremely low incomes.

But it should have been pretty obvious, once the IRS checked out Ms. Porcaro’s living situation, that they should leave her alone. I don’t really object to the selection for audit, because I’m sure this kind of fraud is reasonably common, but it should have been cleared up quickly and quite cheaply.