A Brief History of Government “Solutions”

This interesting (though not exhaustive) list of government failures forwarded to me in an email certainly puts the health care debate in context.

• The U.S. Post Service was established in 1775. The government has had 234 years to get it right and it is broke.

• Social Security was established in 1935. The government has had 74 years to get it right and it is broke.

• Fannie Mae was established in 1938. The government has had 71 years to get it right and it is broke.

• Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. The government has had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.

• Freddie Mac was established in 1970. The government has had 39 years to get it right and it is broke.

• The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. The government has had 32 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.

Pick any one of these and ask your elected official "we can't do _______, how could we run universal health care?" I actually asked Jan Schakowsky this at a union health care rally a few months ago. Citing the mismanagement of things like the post office and the failure of government-run health care in virtually every state where it has been tried (not to mention Canada and the UK), I asked the Congresswoman how she seriously thought we could make it work on a national scale. She responded "we know it will work." Well in that case...