If President Barack Obama gets his trillion dollar health care bill passed this week by the Democrats in Congress, parents will be required to pay for their unmarried kids' health care coverage until the age of 26. And Generation Y and 'millenials' will be enticed to continue slacking, without a job, well past college graduation. While ski bums everywhere are cheering the news that the federal government will be forcing parents to pay for their health insurance through age 26, parents are questioning why the federal government is enticing a whole generation to stay unemployed.
America has always been a place where hard work is rewarded regardless of one's age, family status or educational background. If you have an idea you are committed to and make sacrifices to further the idea, you can be wildly successful in our capitalistic system. In America, you can launch a multi-billion dollar computer company from your garage, you can grow up homeless and make it Harvard and you can create a world-wide social networking movement while still in college. But you can also be a slacker if you have the means to slack. Spending a year skiing, hanging out on the beach and surfing or traveling the world are options for the few lucky ones who have parents wealthy enough to pay for such endeavors.
But should the U.S. government encourage college kids to become slackers? Does Generation Y need any more encouragement to feel entitled? And should society guarantee a 5 year hiatus from responsibility after college graduation for millions of college kids? While it is true that many college graduates today will be self-motivated to find a career, make their own money and contribute to society, Generation Y has been the most entitled generation in history. Should the American taxpayer tempt these kids further into believing that the American dream is easy to fulfill?
Obama's health care bill is being celebrated on the slopes of Colorado and the surf shacks of California but is a dangerous precedent for future generations. Here is the exact wording:
SEC. 2714. EXTENSION OF DEPENDENT COVERAGE.
(a) In General - A group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage that provides dependent coverage of children shall continue to make such coverage available for an adult child (who is not married) until the child turns 26 years of age.
One could understand extending another entitlement program through age 26 in countries where the average work week is 30 hours per week and vacation time is guaranteed at 8-10 weeks per year. But is this new proposal anti-American? We aren't supposed to reward people who don't work hard and make sacrifices to get ahead. And we aren't supposed to guarantee anything in America but a fair shot. America is a place where you prove your commitment to your family and your community through hard work and sacrifice. It is this ethic that we call American values.
But the American free-market system is under intense assault from President Obama and his partners in the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress. Obama has proposed massive new programs to give money, guaranteed jobs and entitlements to millions of Americans. In 2008, 36% of Americans paid no taxes. Think about the fact that more than 1/3 of our neighbors paid zero taxes. Did you pay any taxes last year? If you were part of the working group that paid for the slackers, do you really think they need another entitlement program that you will have to pay for?