A couple of weeks ago, President Obama made an argument I wish more people would make. At a press conference, he was asked if a public option for health insurance would "drive private insurers out of business.""Why would it drive private insurers out of business?" he answered. "If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality healthcare, if they tell us that they're offering a good deal, then why is it that the government -- which they say can't run anything -- suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That's not logical."
It's not only insurance companies who say this, it's Republicans. As always. cognitive dissonance rules supreme on the right. There's no way that government can possibly do something better than the private sector -- that is, until the only argument against a government program is that government will do it better than the private sector. Then all bets are off, a core argument of conservative philosophy is abandoned, and we're supposed to believe that everything we were previously told of the supremacy of the private was wrong.
It amazes me that the small minority who still consider themselves Republican can manage this logical origami. When Sarah Palin resigned, she said, "Life is too short to compromise time and resources... it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: 'Sit down and shut up,' but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out" And we weren't supposed to notice that she was quitting. If you're a Republican, two entirely contradictory concepts are able to exist in the same skull... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]
