My View

Random ruminations from your resident curmudgeon...

Only weeks after leaving office, Barrack Obama discovers a leak under his sink. Needing to get it fixed, he calls Joe the plumber.

Joe drives to Obama's house, which is in an exclusive gated community where all the residents have an income of at least $250,000 annually.

Joe arrives at Obama's house, grabs his tools, and is lead to the leaky sink in the guest bathroom. Joe quickly assesses the problem and says it will be an easy fix that will be done in less than 10 minutes.

Obama asks Joe how much it will cost, and after checking his rate chart, says it will be $9,500.

"$9,500," says a shocked Obama. "But you said it will be an easy fix!"

Joe replied, "Yes, it is an easy fix, but what I do is charge those that make $250,000 or more a higher amount so I can fix for free the plumbing of those that make less. This has always been my philosophy. In fact, I lobbied Democrats in Congress to make this a law so all plumbers have to do this. It is known as the Affordable Plumbing Act."

In spite of it being the law, Obama says there is no way he is paying that much to have a simple leak fixed.

Joe says that's fine and leaves the premises. For the next hour, Obama flips through the phone book trying to find a plumber to do the repair, but finds that most plumbers are no longer in business.

Unwilling to pay Joe's price, Obama does nothing, and over the next several days, the leak gets worse.

The leak gets so bad, Obama resorts to placing a bucket under the sink. This doesn't make Michelle very happy as they have guests coming over the next day. Michelle tells Obama that this leak had better get fixed before the guests arrive.

In desperation, Obama calls Joe and tells him to come back to the house.

Joe comes back, looks at the leak, consults his rate chart, and says the repair will now cost $21,000.

Obama explodes. "Just a few days ago, you told me it would cost $9,500!"

Joe explained, "Well, because of the Affordable Plumbing Act, more people are putting off repairs and not paying into the exchanges. So the price I have to charge people who can pay keeps rising. And get this, the demand for free plumbing services has grown rapidly. There is now a long waiting list of people who want free plumbing, and because it is getting harder to cover our costs, many plumbers have gone out of business. And to make matters worse, since people know they can't make money in the plumbing business, nobody is replacing those who left."

Obama said, "But Joe, without good plumbers we will all be wet and miserable and could die!"

Joe replied, "At least we will all be equally wet and miserable and perhaps dead."

"And those that can't pay will get it for free."

Any resemblance to our healthcare system is purely coincidental.

And that, my friends, is my view.