Medical Care Expenses - Why is health insurance so expensive? One large reason is cost transfers. Hospitals are required to give free medical care to large numbers of people who have no insurance. They pay for that care by charging it to the people who have insurance. Cost transfers should be made illegal: Your insurance should only pay for your care. If a hospital is required by law to provide free care, the legal requirement should come with the money to pay for that care. Also, all medical care costs should have the same tax basis: No matter whether your employer pays for your insurance, you pay for insurance, or you pay for medical costs, those payments should be excluded from your taxable income.

Family Values - There is no part of family life more fundamental than guiding medical care for family members unable to act for themselves. In the Terry Schiavo case, Congress tried to steal control of medical care from a young woman's loving husband. Congress voted against real family values. The Terry Schiavo case shows that Congress is happy to trade real family values for a few votes in the next election. Americans who support real family values should elect people who share their views, libertarians who believe Uncle Sam has no business making life and death decisions for you and your loved ones.

Abortion - Government should take no role in this matter. It should not encourage or discourage abortion. It should not force women to bear children they do not want. It should not force opponents of abortion to pay for abortions. People who bomb abortion clinics and churches are criminals who should be brought to justice.

Prohibition - When I was a little boy, television was filled with gangster prohibition movies. My parents, who were very wise people, told me that there were two certainties about prohibition: It was a total failure. No one would ever be dumb enough to try it again. Now we have drug prohibition, a total failure that wastes tens of billions of dollars, gives criminal records to millions of Americans, and can't even keep drugs out of our prisons. It's time to treat marijuana the way we treat alcohol. Yes, we do have people with alcohol problems. We live in an imperfect world. Sometimes the best we can do is contained in the Hippocratic oath of ancient physicians: At least, do not make matters worse than when you started.