Thursday, August 20, 2009

Econ 101

A top Obama ally predicted Wednesday in an interview with ABC News that Democrats will lose their congressional majority in next year's midterm elections if they fail to put a health-care reform bill on President Obama's desk. "I think we're talking losing control of Congress," said Andy Stern, the president of the Service Employees International Union. [The failure of health-care reform] would totally empower Republicans to kill all change."

"It's hard to imagine the Democrats convincing the public that Republicans are to blame for health-care reform going down when the Democrats have such large majorities," he added. "After last year's promise of change, voters will start feeling buyer's remorse."

I think he is right. I also think that they are too late. That aside something else occured to me as I continued to read.

Stern, who was invited to sit with the Obama family during the president's inaugural parade, is watched closely on health-care reform not only because of the labor muscle he wields as the head of the 2-million member SEIU......

Now, if he wields that much labor muscle how about a bit of basic economics. If he has two million members why don't they wield their collective purchase power and offer a health plan through their union that is affordable to its members?

Because you need muscle to force someone else to pay for it.

The rest at the link.

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