Reform and integrity

guest commentary by David Potts

Obama sure can deliver a great speech!

I can truthfully say I am for just about everything he said. For me to claim this publicly takes great courage when you consider my circle of friends. By showing the slightest indication that I agree with President Obama regarding health care reform causes them to become rabid, spitting as they speak, unable to withhold obscenities as they respond.

They claim we aren’t born with a right to health care. Well, we weren’t born with a right to interstate highways or public schools either. But most would agree that interstate highways and public schools are necessary and good for society. Why won’t they even consider that health care reform could work and benefit society?

Now granted, my circle of friends are predominantly business owners and professionals, hard working and practical people. Most are generous and don’t lack compassion. As business people they have shown they are willing to take a risk. So why aren’t they willing to take a risk to reform health care?

It’s a matter of integrity and not my friends’ integrity. How can you trust a Congress that just over a month ago was trying to pass a healthcare bill before it was read? How could a bill have been written so quickly on such an important and sweeping issue and it be any good? I suspect to even write legislation that quick, lobbyists and their attorneys had to assist, and I don’t think they had the uninsured and underinsured in mind.

President Obama delivers a great speech. If you have health insurance, reform will provide more stability and security. If you don’t have insurance, reform will deliver quality, affordable choices for all Americans. For all Americans, reform will rein in the cost of health care for our families, our businesses and our government. These are worthy goals we should all work toward. However, just because you say something doesn’t make it happen.

When the camera pans to the members of Congress you see them applauding the President’s promise that he won’t sign a bill “that adds one dime to our deficits either now or in the future.” When you see these members of Congress do you think, “He or she is a honorable civil servant.”? Is Charles Rangel, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee (the committee responsible for tax legislation), our example of an honorable civil servant? Is it The Honorable Charles Rangel, who cheats on his own income tax? The same Mr. Rangel who wants to crack down on tax cheats and raise income taxes to pay for health care reform. And keep in mind, increasing taxes is a valid way to keep the deficit from increasing in the future.

My friends who start spitting at me showing great negative emotions aren’t callous and uncaring people. They just can’t trust a Congress — bought and paid for by lobbyists and owing political debts to their friends — to pass legislation without causing damage to the country and to their businesses.

The greatest obstacle to health care reform is integrity, or the lack of it by our “elected” officials.

How willing are you to take a risk that this Congress would write a health care reform bill that was more beneficial to you than their friends? Health insurance and pharmaceutical companies haven’t been on the sidelines. If they support this legislation it is because it is profitable for them to support this legislation. It is profitable because they can buy influence in Congress.

I believe people in a civil society should have access to adequate health care. I also believe in fairness. I love my doctors and don’t think reform should harm them. I don’t like the idea that our government can force people to buy insurance under the pretense of choice. I fantasize that Obama could deliver on all his promises. But I just don’t trust this Congress to get it right. If they accept PAC money and entertain lobbyists, they are all bought and paid for. No longer are they interested in what is right or wrong, but what’s expedient.

Business wouldn’t work at the integrity level at which Congress operates. Granted there are a lot of people in business with integrity deficits, but trade would be totally constipated if you couldn’t trust your vendors and customers. What if your vendors were always looking for ways to cheat you? You wouldn’t have time to focus on your customers because you would always be fighting your suppliers. In the world of commerce, if you don’t trust a person or a company you don’t have to do business with them. It’s a shame that people can’t choose not to do business with Congress because of its lack of integrity.

So what’s the answer? I don’t have the answer. But I believe our prosperity as a people depends on holding to a high level of integrity. We can start by conducting our own business with great integrity.

I also believe that there is an answer to the problems that face our health care system. We might not be born with the right to health care, but access to adequate health care is a security issue as important as our national defense.

David Potts is a certified public accountant also accredited in business valuation. Owner of Potts & Company, Certified Public Accountants for more than 25 years, his practice focuses on small and medium size businesses and their owners in the areas of taxation, accounting and bookkeeping, business valuation and business advisory services. He is a Fort Smith native and a graduate of the University of Arkansas. You can follow more of his thoughts by reading his blog at ThePottsReport.com.