Is it OK to have just the health care program and not have the Health Insurance Plan? I can get Health care program for half the monthly premium as compared to the Health Insurance Plan. Please advise? Is it advisable?
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The English statesman William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806) introduced important financial and administrative reforms, girded England for war against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, and attempted to solve the perennial Irish problem. The second son of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, the younger William Pitt was born on May 28, 1759, at the family estate of Hayes, near Bromley, Kent. It was a year of triumph for his father, and for England, which was victorious on land and on sea against the French. Thus his birth appeared auspicious - and Pitt fully lived up to the expectations that he excited in family and acquaintances. His accomplishments at least equaled those of his illustrious father. Pitt's Personality Although in early childhood Pitt suffered from frail health, almost from the beginning he showed great intellectual promise and an interest in politics. Pitt later outgrew his physical frailty, but he always retained the sense of personal destiny that his abilities and interests early inspired and that his family encouraged. As a youth, Pitt was painfully shy; in adulthood he did not lose this quality, but he hid it behind a facade of cold aloofness. Those who did not know him well assumed that his coldness revealed his true nature, and his reputation has survived as a man utterly lacking in human sympathy and feeling. That picture is a false one, however, for in his personal relationships with friends and family he showed himself warm, amiable, and witty. His Political Stance Politically, Pitt was a pragmatist. He believed in reform for the sake of honest, humane, and efficient administration rather than for the sake of any abstract theory. For him politics was the art of the possible, and he believed that it was better to do the best one could in any given situation than surrender office (and thus lose the chance of serving one's country) because of an insistence on the impossible. Although he was scrupulously honest regarding his own conduct and financial dealings (he rejected an offer of £100, 000 because he feared it might prejudice his political independence), and although he was contemptuous of those who sold their votes and influence for money or advancement, on more than one occasion he resorted to the then current methods of jobbery and bribery in order to win support on important issues. Pitt's political convictions were rooted in the 18th-century English constitution: he always upheld the right of the monarch to choose his ministers and to participate in government, and at the same time he always maintained the privileges of Parliament in the legislative process and in the governing of the country. Pitt foresaw the eventual supremacy of the House of Commons over both Lords and King, but he did not do anything to bring about that situation. Pitt sometimes displayed a deep, almost uncanny, insight, but in only one respect might he be deemed a visionary: he had an abiding faith in the greatness that Britain could achieve. Early Career In 1781 Pitt became a Member of Parliament from a pocket borough. His eloquence in debate soon distinguished him, and he was favorably compared with his late father. Ambitious, self-confident, and eager both to show his abilities and to serve his country, he did not leap at his first opportunities, which were minor offices. He chose instead to preserve his political independence and to wait for more responsible positions. His chance came in July 1782, when he accepted the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord Shelburne's ministry. During his chancellorship Britain signed preliminary peace treaties with the United States, France, Spain, and Holland. Parliamentary opposition to these treaties caused Shelburne to resign his office in February 1783. A month later Pitt also resigned. Pitt became head of the ministry on Dec. 19, 1783, when he took office as First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was then only 24 years old, and he lacked a majority in the House of Commons, which greeted the announcement of his appointment with laughter. His first task was to win the confidence of the Commons. He already possessed the support of the King and the House of Lords. Pitt's eloquence and steadiness of purpose favorably impressed the Commons, and these qualities together with the skillful politicking of John Robinson gained Pitt an overwhelming victory at the polls in 1784. With the support of a majority in Commons, Pitt then embarked on the important business of leading Britain into a period of hitherto unparalleled prosperity and strength. In this endeavor he was not, as Lord North had been, the compliant tool of the King. For his part, George III refrained from interference, seemingly happy to have found at last a strong minister whom he could trust. Pitt made his greatest achievements between 1784, when he won a parliamentary majority, and 1789, when the outbreak of the French Revolution brought new problems th
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