FC @29: My initial reaction is to say that there are two surefire ways to cut health care costs and balance the budget. One is to outlaw all medications, procedures, diagnostic tests, and treatments created or discovered after 1964. The other is to kill everyone over age 80 who pays less in taxes than they consume in services. Either one seems to fit with your philosophy.

The reason civilization has moved to ever new heights is that most of us have not accepted the concept of static permanent shortages. Expanding supply, creating new ways to solve problems, inventing new devices and techniques, have been the path to a commensurate expansion in the wealth and the freedom of huge numbers of people. To be resigned to permanent shortages and to focus primarily or exclusively on distribution of scarce resources is a certain path to stagnation and decline.

Take your pick. As for me, I opt for expansion — of everything but government.