Obama is Wimpy on Everything

David Lazarus' wild claim that local authorities and the market place have failed to provide adequate and affordable health insurance neglects a number of unpleasant realities.

For example, the state of California as an insurance commissioner that regulates, speculates, and intervenes at length, throwing up red tape and bureaucracy all over the place.

For another, the federal government is already involved in the sale and distribution of health insurance, including the outrageous limitation which forbids the sale and purchase of health insurance across state lines.

Also, too many individuals in the United States would prefer to rely exclusively on a health insurance plan, using the policy as a means to pay off all health care needs, including the routine and mundane. If clients purchased and possessed health insurance in the same fashion as auto insurance (which is required by law in the State of California, yet can be purchased across state lines!), they would pay out of pocket for routine expenses while relying on hefty pay outs in the event of large medical emergencies.

It's not so much that the free market has failed, but rather that federal, state, and local governments have not permitted to function freely enough!

On another note, the idea that the federal government "makes cars safe" is a crude correlation at best. Corporations making the most of arcane rules create the best product for the market, in spite of government intervention. When the federal government "oversees financial institutions and stock markets", it creates onerous regulations that stifle innovation and retard the punishing forces of unhappy consumers in the marketplace. Whenever government gets involved, well-paid and influential lobbyists neuter essential "reforms”. As a result, the finalized bill is so blunt an instrument for "correcting" abuses in the market place, that the "reforms" cause more harm than healing for the consumer.