"You really can't do health reform" without allowing the government to compete with private insurers, said Howard Dean, a former Democratic Party chairman. "Let's not say we're doing health reform without a public option," he added in a slap at the administration's latest move.
His remarks were echoed by lawmakers as well as AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who said the option was the only way to force "real competition" on the insurance industry. source
How can these people continue to make such patently false and utterly ridiculous statements? Let's vet what these two lunatics said.
We'll use moi as an example. I have a daylily nursery. I grow the daylilies, add to my selection yearly, and work the fields. When an order is placed I must dig, clean, trim, pack, and mail the plants. I'm required to pay taxes on the profit.
Suppose the government decided there wasn't enough competition in the daylily business. In an effort to level the playing field, they plow up the east lawn of the White House, and using my tax dollars, buy a bunch of different daylilies. They hire 5 people, put them on the government payroll, and send them out to plant and tend the crop. When an order comes in, they send a different crew out because the union doesn't allow the tenders to dig and pack the plants. After paying the government workers their union wages, there is no profit so they don't owe any taxes.
They charge less, but their daylilies are not near as nice as mine, and they tend to run out before the end of season, necessitating long waits for people anxious to get on with their landscaping. At the same time, they put 42 government regulations in place that monitor which plants I can grow, how much I can charge, and 40 other pesky little paperwork time killers. Of course, you can't run a business like that forever without going bankrupt. But, not to worry! When they completely run out of money, a quick trip to the printing presses solves that problem.
Is this competition??
