Why I’m Voting for Freedom and not Democratic Socialism

Today is the day in which The United States of America will choose its president for the next four years. I am unashamedly voting for Donald Trump, not because of his personality (even his most ardent supporters will tell you he is his own worst enemy) but I am voting for his policies. His policies have been greater than what I expected, and even historically significant. Even on the religious front, he has done much more than anyone ever expected.

To everyone who is for Democratic Socialism, this is what I have seen and experienced firsthand from an ultra-liberal government (New York State), and quite frankly, I cannot support extending this type of government but instead support deregulating and finding ways to cut taxes and spending. We can’t have ignorant bureaucrats and politicians micromanaging people’s lives, businesses and healthcare. We need to have the professionals be free to be in charge of the profession in which they have dedicated their lives.

I used to help my wife run a daycare and I used to work for a newspaper. I currently work for a medical shuttle service. Here’s what I’ve learned about what we have so far with ultra-liberalism, and where we would most likely go if we had Democratic Socialism.

New York State has the highest tax burden in the country, yet it’s $150 billion in debt, and that was before COVID. Now, that doesn’t add up to me. Shouldn’t New York’s budget be balanced if it has such high taxes? On the other hand, maybe part of it is because 1.4 million people have left New York over the past decade because of its high taxes and outrageous regulations.

And speaking of outrageous regulations…

Here’s what I learned from running a daycare:

We had hundreds, that’s right––hundreds of regulations on our personal in-home business. Technically, on paper, the business was ours, but essentially speaking, our home and business was seized by the government.

I know it sounds ridiculous, but that’s because it was.

We couldn’t have dogs in our own home. I know some of you might be against guns, but imagine all the hunters out there who couldn’t have guns anymore because they had a daycare in their home (never mind the guns are locked in a cabinet and many gun cabinets are now essentially safes). We couldn’t let the kids watch TV––not even Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers (try and tell a four year old with autism they can’t watch their favorite TV show). We couldn’t give kids cookies or lemonade. We had to have bars on our windows. We had to have an evacuation plan and monthly fire drills. We had to have a shelter-in-place plan and kit (in the event of an active shooter in the middle of nowhere on a dead end road or a flood on top of a hill). We had to keep an attendance list, we had to have a paid employee for more than six children (and the employee ended up making more money than we did because of minimum wage), we had to be in the same room as the children at all times (which meant all the children had to be in the same room at all times. Try doing that while potty training. That also meant we had to literally watch children take naps). Because we had subsidized children, we couldn’t bill the state our rate. And because most of the kids were subsidized we thought it fair to give the paying parents (who were also trying to make ends meet with two jobs) the state rate. We had our name on some kind of watch list because we filled out paperwork wrong. And the list goes on.

Ask other business owners how they feel about NY’s regulations and taxes. Ask anyone who is a business owner about the heavy restrictions under New York regulations, i.e. those who are under an agency that “The Empire” has taken over, or manage taxed-based agencies such as town, county and school districts.

Here’s what I learned about free healthcare through personal experience with the newspaper and medical shuttle service:

What good is free healthcare if there are no healthcare providers left or what ones we do have left have subpar healthcare compared to what we have now or what we could have through the free market? When I drive throughout half of NY (from Buffalo to Binghamton), almost every healthcare institution I go to is part of a larger system. Why is that? Because Medicare and Medicaid does not pay its bills. And when they do, it’s not at the provider’s rate, it’s at the state’s rate…just like it was when we had subsidized kids in our daycare.

If you were to ask any healthcare provider, they’ll say that they cannot keep in business under government-paid healthcare. The cost would bankrupt them, which is exactly why every hospital and doctor’s offices are part of a larger chain now. I’ve taken some passengers on a two-hour drive just to go to a routine dental appointment because dentists don’t take medicare or medicaid anymore. They’d go broke. And my company doesn’t take Medicare passengers anymore because the state doesn’t pay its bills.

Now, I am saying this as someone who is on Medicaid. Isn’t that ironic, that someone who receives his pay by Medicaid is also forced to be on Medicaid? That’s because if I were to take the company’s healthcare plan, it would take all of my income and then some. So I know what it’s like to not be able to afford my own healthcare. But democratic socialism and healthcare for all isn’t the answer because it would cripple the entire healthcare system and we would see providers go under…or we would be subject to providers like our dentist (which is government provided) who does not have the quality of resources that an independent dentist can have (like Dansville Dental Associates).

I urge you to go ahead and ask your healthcare providers what they think of Medicare and Medicaid billing and payment. Ask people who work in billing. Ask the hospital CEO and CFO. Ask a dentist, an eye-care specialist, a chiropractor, anyone. Prove me wrong. Ask why your hospital or doctor’s office is part of a larger system and no longer independent. Ask these same questions of someone who works in a VA.

Ask people why they and/or their business moved out of state. The problem with imposing national Democratic Socialism is that while we could move out of New York (which has crossed our mind), there’s nowhere for us to move if these policies get implemented nationally and we see our country $30 trillion in debt and still can’t afford healthcare, infrastructure, etc.