12 Reasons why the U.S. government should not mandate clean water or clean air.

1. Clean air and clean water are not a right. As such, they not the responsibility of government.
2. Government efforts to mandate clean air and clean water do not in practice guarantee universal access clean air and clean water. Many countries have laws to require clean air and clean water but don’t actually have clean air and clean water.
3. Eliminating the profit motive will decrease the rate of innovation regarding clean air and clean water.
4. When a government mandates clean air and clean water, it slows down innovation and inhibits new technologies from being developed and utilized. This simply means that technologies regarding clean air and clean water are less likely to be researched and manufactured, and technologies that are available are less likely to be used.
5. Publicly-mandated clean air and clean water leads to greater inefficiencies and inequalities. Government agencies promoting clean air and clean water are less efficient due to bureaucracy. Universal clean air and clean water would reduce efficiency because of more bureaucratic oversight and more paperwork.
6. Converting to a national clean air and clean water system could be a radical change, creating administrative chaos.
7. Countries with health systems based on greater government control tend to have more obstacles to care, such as long wait times, rationing and restrictions on the choice of doctors.
8. Disparities still exist in countries with universal clean air and clean water systems.
9. The problem of rising clean air and clean water costs is occurring all over the world; this is not a unique problem created by the structure of the US system.
10. Universal clean air and clean water suffers from the same financial problems as any other government planned economy. It requires governments to greatly increase taxes as costs rise year over year. Universal clean air and clean water essentially tries to do the economically impossible.
11. Some commentators have opposed publicly-funded clean air and clean water systems on ideological grounds, arguing that public clean air and clean water is a step towards socialism and involves extension of state power and reduction of individual freedom.
12. Universal clean air and clean water systems, in an effort to control costs by gaining or enforcing monopoly power, sometimes outlaw clean air and clean water paid for by private, individual funds.

[Or fill in “public libraries,” “public police departments,” “public highways” or “government military.”  With apologies to Wikipedia’s article on health]care reform.