Many things can be said about President Obama’s townhall meeting in Portsmouth, NH. It was a staged event; yes and so are Republican rallies. It was stacked with people “friendly” to the President’s cause; Yep, as all political rallies are. The questions were softballs; What’s your point?
The town hall was a staged event, as has been most of the Obama’s presidency. All politics is politics, and no one should be surprised by the way the Democrats handled the Portsmouth Townhall Meeting.
However, what can be addressed is the content of the President’s address; especially things that were said off prompter. One such statement was his poorly selected analogy regarding the US Post Office and private package delivery services. It is in this statement that the truth about why people are concerned about the Democrats plans to take over our current healthcare system; the government can never do it better than the free-market.
President Obama went off prompter when attempting to answer how a public plan might co-exist with a private healthcare system. Chuckling as he usually does when he is trying to formulate an answer; President Obama made the following observations:
“I think private insurers should be able to compete. They do it all the time. I mean, if you think about, if you think about it, um, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. Right? The, uh, no they are. I mean, it's the post office that's always having problems. "
First point, in a free society private industry should never be in “competition” with a government program. The deck is always stacked in the government’s favor; the government writes the rules, enforces the rules, and when need be, changes the rules. No true competition can be achieved.
UPS, FedEx, Airborne Express are not in the business of daily mail delivery service. Daily mail delivery service, regardless of what some people might think, is vital to a fluid communication infrastructure, thereby permitting to some degree government involvement. However, many of the inefficacies of the post office are a glaring example of a bloated bureaucracy and a failed business model.
Point two, UPS and FedEx actually aren’t real competitors of the United States Postal Service. UPS, FedEx, Airborne Express were born out the need to provide fast delivery service, as inexpensive as possible, originally to the business community. Nevertheless, the customer understands that there will be a premium cost for a higher degree of service, and the customer is willing to incur that burden. The United States Postal Service has tried to play in the “fast delivery” service arena, and has failed (the reason for this failure could be a whole other article). The same thing will happen when you try to build a healthcare model based on this flawed premise, as President Obama eluded to at the Portsmouth Townhall.
If anything, President Obama’s analogy demonstrates what happens when a government system, also known as a public opinion, is overburden. The public program rations the service options and quality, then tries to “change the rules” when a private option is successful at exploiting the government programs failures.
And the final point comes from the last sentence of President Obama’s statement – “I mean, it's the post office that's always having problems. “ You are correct Mr. President! The government run program, weight downed with a bloated bureaucracy, continuing to function using outdated business principals, rationing services to ease their own internal pressure points (also known as customers), in the end providing sub-standard service to all, but hey, they are servicing everyone!
Maybe President Obama should work on reforming the Postal Service first before trying to tackle healthcare reform. But I have a strong suspicion that he will come to the same conclusion many have come to regarding healthcare reform. The government will never be as affected at these types of programs as the fair market solution. Period.
Word of advice to President Obama and his staff; next time use analogies that support your position, not hurt it. Just a thought.
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