Living with the liberals, you get to hear their arguments, fight with them all the time. Keeps me alert.

The theory of government I was taught says that government provides benefits, primarily security, to the entire population. In return we pay taxes. But lately the government has been a distributor of special privileges, taking money from some and giving it to others. America is now about evenly split between those who pay income taxes and those who consume them.

Entitlement? How can you be entitled to someone else's money?

If government were less important in our lives, politicians would have fewer goodies to trade. In return, we'd have more money and more freedom.

No transaction happens unless it is voluntary. It only happens if both of you think you win.

I saw how the regulation I called for made things worse, didn't help consumers and simple competition was better. And I started praising business and occasionally criticizing regulation.

Politicians and bureaucrats clearly have no idea how complicated markets are. Every day people make countless tradeoffs, in all areas of life, based on subjective value judgements and personal information as they delicately balance their interests, needs and wants. Who is in a better position than they to tailor those choices to best serve their purposes? Yet the politicians believe they can plan the medical market the way you plan a birthday party.