The Presidential Post Office Fumble
My post today at AIP tackles the President’s attempt to sell us on Obamacare by invoking the Post Office. Before you start laughing too hard, he was using the USPS as an example of how the public sector doesn’t compete well against the private sector.
I’m really not sure how he he thought his analogy would help, but I was more than happy to grab his fumble and run a little ways with it.
Laying aside the laughable claim that the public option will be self-sustaining, he has his example backwards. Unlike Obamacare, the Post Office didn’t rise up as a way of controlling spiraling postage costs and ensuring universal delivery because FedEx and UPS weren’t serving everyone. In fact, it was very nearly the other way around. Both UPS and FedEx came later and very quickly turned a profit (FedEx was making money two years after it was founded) because they were better, faster, and cheaper than the Postal Service. Imagine what would have come of those companies had they been forced into a Package Delivery Co-op that would dictate how much they could charge and how they could deliver packages.
While you’re on the AIP site, let me also recommend Melissa Clouthier’s column. She wandered onto the White House’s “Reality Check” website and started swinging away like Fess Parker in the Alamo at the end of that Davy Crockett movie. Unlike almost every one else opining on Obamacare, Melissa is a doctor, so when she talks about how bad it will be to have bureaucrats in the middle of your health care decisions, we should listen.
Other Posts of Interest:
- One Wild Hour on the Radio Tonight
- Presidential Dishonesty and Other People’s Money, Today at AIP
- This Post Brought to You By Linda Douglass
Category: Health Care Craziness
