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Posted by Richard W. on August 15, 2009, 1:08 pm
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OT:Obama's Post Office Gaffe: More True than You Can Imagine
http://www.americanvision.org/article/obamas-post-office-gaffe-more-true-than-you-can-imagine/?awt_l=I4rXh&awt_m=1effZA6an9P5qC
by Joel McDurmon
In his staged town hall meeting last Tuesday night, Obama made a wonderful
gaff comparing his government-run health care plan to the long-line laden
Post Office. Private insurers should have no problem competing with a
government option, he argued, just like FedEx and UPS operate well in the
private sector competing against the Post Office: "It's the Post Office that's
always having the problems!" he exclaimed.
Exactly. So what does that say about the potential of a government-run
health care plan?
Believe it or not, his palm-to-the-forehead moment-an unteleprompted
moment-is even worse than it appears. For example, the images (realities) of
long lines, cold disinterested service, ever-increasing rates, mishandled
packages (think malpractice!), now serves as the awakening thought for many
of what government-run healthcare will entail (as if Canada, UK, Japan, and
others haven't taught us these lessons already). Worse yet, little unknown
details drive home the point: the Post Office is $7 billion in the hole just
this year alone. With Medicare already bankrupt, and Social Security not far
behind, what makes anyone think it smart to expand the government's role in
the life-and-death business?
Not to mention, there is some dishonesty in Obama's comparison: FedEx and
UPS don't really compete with the Post Office because they are forbidden by
Federal law to carry normal letters and mail. Law forbids them from carrying
"non-urgent" letters. The Post Office is so obviously a monopoly, that a
google search for "post office" and "monopoly" puts its Wikipedia page as
the third hit.
Nevertheless, in those areas where the Post Office does allow competition,
it fails in competition. So bad that it often gives up contracts with its
private competitors to get the job done more quickly and cheaply. And guess
what? FedEx holds one of those contracts. What does it say about
government-run programs when the government itself must turn to private
enterprise to carry through. By the way, this means the government must
charge more because it pays the private business plus enough for its own in
house management of the contracts, etc. Cost plus 20%.
The Heritage Foundation has elaborated on the details even further. One of
their gleanings:
The most frightening line from Joe Nocera's New York Times piece is this:
"As for Mr. Potter himself, while he may want more freedom to run the Postal
Service like a real business, he, too, seemed surprisingly wedded to
outmoded ideas about mail service in America. 'This country needs to have
and to protect universal service,' he said."
Protecting universal service at the expense of cost, innovation, and quality
of care. Sound familiar?
The Washington Examiner simplified it, perhaps even better: "in the end, it
is the image that Obama has put into the heads of millions of Americans, the
one in which government health care looks like the Post Office, that could
do grievous damage to the president's dream of a government health care
makeover."
A couple years back, libertarian writer Wilton Alston contemplated a world
in which the Post Office had genuine competition. He concluded that we would
most likely have more services, lower rates, shorter lines, greater quality
of service (no damaged, late, or lost packages), and easier access. But the
worst thing is, we can't know, because we're not allowed to test it. The
government forbids it, which governments always do once they've secured
control.
And what happens in the government-run service when they actually
acknowledge poor service? Do they fix it? No, they just try to make it
harder to detect and prove. That is, they hide it. For example,
At the end of last year [2006], the Post Office did some research and was
surprised to find that customers at the nation's 37,000 post offices were
not happy about wait times in line. In response, the Post Office came up
with a brilliant idea, something that could probably only come from the
federal government. They removed the clocks from all 37,000 post offices.
Stephen Seewoester, a Postal Service spokesman said, apparently with a
straight face, "We want people to focus on postal service and not the
clock."
Imagine such a solution in a government-run clinic. "We want you to focus on
health care services, not the fact that you've waited nine hours and not
seen anyone yet."
Yet the fact that the government will not allow competition in something so
simple a letter-delivery, despite its failures, demonstrates once again that
governments never voluntarily give up power. They can't admit failure, and
they can't allow competition. They just demand more from their people: more
patience, more subjugation, more money.
So when government sticks its nose into health insurance, what will happen
when it inevitably fails? You got it: it will stick the system on a
money-IV. A steady drip-debt, debt, debt-pumped by fiat from the bottomless
well of the central bank. This is the ultimate unfair advantage. While the
private companies must raise their own capital (for the most part), the
government-run system, no matter how big of a failure, will always have
fiat-driven subsidies to keep it on life-support.
No system can compete with that.
Obamacare = Post Office. Debts, lines, poor service. We can thank our
president for pointing that out to us.
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Posted by =?iso-2022-jp?q?Hachiroku_=1B$ on August 15, 2009, 10:13 am
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On Sat, 15 Aug 2009 10:08:48 -0700, Richard W. wrote:
> In his staged town hall meeting last Tuesday night, Obama made a wonderful
> gaff comparing his government-run health care plan to the long-line laden
> Post Office. Private insurers should have no problem competing with a
> government option, he argued, just like FedEx and UPS operate well in the
> private sector competing against the Post Office: "It's the Post Office that's
> always having the problems!" he exclaimed.
This is just what I was going to say. The Brain in Cheif really put his
foot in it this time, comparing two well run private enterprises against a
money losing, quasi-governmental agency.
If he's telling us what we can expect from gov't health care, it's time to
RUN!
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Posted by Bill Noble on August 15, 2009, 3:40 pm
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> On Sat, 15 Aug 2009 10:08:48 -0700, Richard W. wrote:
>
>> In his staged town hall meeting last Tuesday night, Obama made a
>> wonderful
>> gaff comparing his government-run health care plan to the long-line laden
>> Post Office. Private insurers should have no problem competing with a
>> government option, he argued, just like FedEx and UPS operate well in the
>> private sector competing against the Post Office: "It's the Post Office
>> that's
>> always having the problems!" he exclaimed.
>
> This is just what I was going to say. The Brain in Cheif really put his
> foot in it this time, comparing two well run private enterprises against a
> money losing, quasi-governmental agency.
>
> If he's telling us what we can expect from gov't health care, it's time to
> RUN!
good idea, please do so
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Posted by =?iso-2022-jp?q?Hachiroku_=1B$ on August 15, 2009, 11:54 am
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On Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:40:35 -0700, Bill Noble wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 15 Aug 2009 10:08:48 -0700, Richard W. wrote:
>>
>>> In his staged town hall meeting last Tuesday night, Obama made a
>>> wonderful
>>> gaff comparing his government-run health care plan to the long-line laden
>>> Post Office. Private insurers should have no problem competing with a
>>> government option, he argued, just like FedEx and UPS operate well in the
>>> private sector competing against the Post Office: "It's the Post Office
>>> that's
>>> always having the problems!" he exclaimed.
>>
>> This is just what I was going to say. The Brain in Cheif really put his
>> foot in it this time, comparing two well run private enterprises against a
>> money losing, quasi-governmental agency.
>>
>> If he's telling us what we can expect from gov't health care, it's time to
>> RUN!
>
>
> good idea, please do so
OK. Which of the "five plans floating around..." do you approve of?
Or, do you just think Obama is All That, and actually knows more about
insurance and health care than anyone else?
Just answer the first question, and no blanket, "they'll decide what's
best", because you know once the gov't gets involved in somthing, they
screw the pooch royally.
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Posted by rangerssuck on August 15, 2009, 3:42 pm
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> On Sat, 15 Aug 2009 10:08:48 -0700, Richard W. wrote:
> > In his staged town hall meeting last Tuesday night, Obama made a wonderful
> > gaff comparing his government-run health care plan to the long-line laden
> > Post Office. Private insurers should have no problem competing with a
> > government option, he argued, just like FedEx and UPS operate well in the
> > private sector competing against the Post Office: "It's the Post Office
that's
> > always having the problems!" he exclaimed.
>
> This is just what I was going to say. The Brain in Cheif really put his
> foot in it this time, comparing two well run private enterprises against a
> money losing, quasi-governmental agency.
>
> If he's telling us what we can expect from gov't health care, it's time to
> RUN!
You are aware that the post office is required to deliver your letter
to Buttfuck Iowa for the same $0.44 as they charge to deliver it to
midtown Manhattan. They were never really expected to turn a profit.
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> gaff comparing his government-run health care plan to the long-line laden
> Post Office. Private insurers should have no problem competing with a
> government option, he argued, just like FedEx and UPS operate well in the
> private sector competing against the Post Office: "It's the Post Office that's
> always having the problems!" he exclaimed.