By David Galland in Casey's Daily Dispatch:

Given the conservatively estimated $50 trillion in obligations the government has saddled future taxpayers with - much of it linked to well-intentioned Social Security and Medicare programs - I remain steadfast in my view that expanding medical coverage should wait until we as a nation have addressed the overarching question of what to do about the unsupportable size and weight of the government we already have. Or, at the very least, the conversation over universal healthcare should be part and parcel of that broader debate.

Sorry, but if you want universal healthcare, you can't also have your Amtrak subsidies, or car company bailouts, or troops in 130 countries, or your war in Afghanistan, or your FDA, OSHA, FCC, your Head Start programs, food stamps, winter fuel subsidies, etc., etc., ad infinitum.

There is a real world and a fantasy world. And while people suffer painful and difficult health-related issues in the real world, you can't make those problems go away simply by pulling out the Monopoly game and handing out pretty bits of paper. Well, I guess maybe you can - but not without dire consequences to our society and our heavily indebted economy.

I like to think of myself as a caring and even sensitive person, and given the choice of, say, keeping troops in Iraq or paying for health insurance for a lot of needy people, I will certainly opt for the latter.

But we as a society can't have it all. It is your right to disagree with my argument that the nation is stone-cold broke and that asking for universal healthcare at this point is like being unable to afford a bicycle but demanding a Rolls Royce.

A number of you also wrote challenging me to come up with a fix-all solution so we can have universal healthcare. Okay, here it is.

Tomorrow morning, or as soon as possible thereafter, begin the process of closing down at least half of the current government. Simultaneously, wipe away any laws deemed to be anti-business or anti-wealth accumulation. Starting by slashing corporate taxes to zero (companies don't pay taxes, consumers do), adopt a flat income tax starting at 20%, but with a clear path to lower it to 10% over the next decade. Do away with capital gains and let the world know we're happy to have them invest in American companies. Further, institute the British system whereby if you bring a lawsuit and lose, you pay for the other guy's legal costs. While that will result in some additional challenges for small guys who want to sue big guys, it will also dramatically clear out the legal system and radically reduce the burden businesses now bear in fighting off frivolous suits brought against them by lawyers working on contingencies.

Maybe, once you accomplished all of that - and then made some even deeper cuts - we could afford the price of universal healthcare. We would certainly dramatically increase the wealth and prosperity of this nation, as the world’s entrepreneurs would fall all over themselves to do business here and not elsewhere.

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More on healthcare:

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Dan Ferris explains why Obamacare is a joke

Doug Casey weighs in on the health care "crisis"