(I am) Voting for John McCain

Much has been said on this Blog on why people are not voting for John McCain this election and are instead trying to find a 3rd party candidate to vote for. I am voting for John McCain and the main reasons have more to do with Barak Obama than with John McCain. I am no fan of John McCain (Some of you will remember the post I wrote during the primary season of why I was not voting for John McCain then.) but the thing he wants to accomplish can be reversed if they do not work. Barak Obama is proposing things that will fundamentally alter our country and the expectations of its citizens in the future. This is why I can not vote for Obama.

The first and most important issue that Obama wants to change in America is Healthcare. If elected along with a Democratic controlled congress, Obama will enact a Universal Healthcare system. It may not start out as all encompassing, but no one can dispute that government entitlement plans only get bigger and more costly as time goes on. (See Social Security and Medicare.) Once the government is providing healthcare, employers will most likely make the choice to stop providing health insurance to their employees as they won’t have to worry about hearing how they took away this coverage and left millions of people without health insurance available. So the program will grow. Eventually, the cost of the program will grow so big that there will be calls to overhaul or end it. But just like social security, no one will have the guts to really either tackle the problems with the system or to abolish it. At that point, health insurance will be looked at as a right, not a benefit or privilege. In America, we already have the right by law to health treatment. Anyone, regardless of the ability to pay, can go to an emergency room and be treated for illness or injury. We should be very careful before enacting any plans that will be almost impossible to get rid of if things go badly.

The second issue important issue is taxes. I know my taxes will go up under Barak Obama and a Democratic controlled Congress. Bill Clinton raised taxes in his first 2 years as President before the Republicans took control of the House and Senate. Obama and Congress will do the same. There will be little incentive for Obama to stand up to the Congress on taxes as long as they enact his other major initiatives in return. And when Obama and congress increase taxes on corporations, that cost will be passed on to consumers as that is how it always works. Working for a small business, I know that when our costs go up, we pass that cost on to our customers as we need to do that just to keep our margin of profit at its current level.

The third reason I am voting for John McCain is that I think he will do a fine job. I do not think he will be a great president, but I also think he will not be a failure. That is all that is required for him to be a reasonable alternative to the other candidates running for president. By voting for John McCain in 2008, we are not locked in to him being the nominee in 2012 if either his has lost some of his ability to govern or has done a poor job as president.

John McCain may not be the perfect candidate, but his policies do not lead us down a road of no return.