• Originally published November 9, 2009 at 4:30 p.m., updated November 9, 2009 at 5 p.m.

As Washington continues debating health care reform, the rest of the country is primarily concerned about jobs and the economy. It is still uncertain what policies will be implemented, but I am certain about one thing: It will only further devastate our economy and our dollar.

The leadership has come up with a proposal they are confident will be what they consider fiscally responsible, only to have it scored as nearly twice as expensive by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Estimates of past health care spending programs have been off by as much as 100 percent so there is no telling what the actual cost will be.

The past century should have taught us one thing: that government intervention is expensive. Government programs lend themselves so easily to waste, fraud and abuse. Combine that with overall inefficiency, and it all adds up to a hefty price tag for the taxpayer, with not much leftover for actual services.

An outright takeover of an entire sector of the economy, especially one as important as health care, is something that we just cannot afford for the government to do right now. Not to mention the fact that it is completely unconstitutional. But Washington insists on torturing the numbers and tinkering around the edges rather than facing this truth.

If health care reform does indeed pass, we should not be under the illusion that it will be free. The money to pay for it will have to come from somewhere. They say they will get the money from cutting waste, fraud and abuse, but all of that is seemingly intrinsic to government programs. Since they want to expand the government's reach, we have to assume we will be trading waste, fraud and abuse for waste, fraud and abuse with a bigger budget.

The powers that be have insisted the money won't come from higher taxes, it won't come from rationing of care and it won't come from higher premiums. This can only then put more pressure on the Fed to print the money out of thin air. We already have a weakening dollar. They are accelerating everything that weakened it in the past. Adding this new, monumental pressure could very well be the straw that will break the dollar's back.

Foreign creditors are already nervous about continuing to invest in the United States because of our skyrocketing debt. The explosion of debt that is certain to accompany the enactment of this national health care bill can only add to that nervousness.

Ironically, enactment of the health care bill could help the cause of liberty by hastening the day when Congress is forced by economic circumstances to stop increasing the welfare-warfare state and return to the Constitution.

There are many problems with our current health care system, to be sure.

There are many tragic stories to be told. However, we need to look at the root of our problems in order to address them properly.

More government intervention and bureaucracy injected into health care will take a flawed system and make it immeasurably worse.

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul represents the 14th Congressional District in Texas.

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