Remember that most precious of hard-left social policy, abortion-camouflaging civil liberties, “the right to privacy”?  Evidently that isn’t meant to apply to such trivial, unimportant items as your tax records: One of the problems with any pro…

some rural electric cooperatives have also come under criticism for … pushing forward with new coal-fired power plants at a time when many people concerned with climate change want to slow down or halt such plants.

Since their customers are demanding more product (electrity), they need to find more supply. And the supply needs to be reliable and reasonably efficient. Hydro power is out, since there are few appropriate locations left and the enviro and NIMBY crowds block most of them. Nuclear is out for similar reasons. Wind and solar lack the reliability factor as well as having the enviro and NIMBY problems. That leaves coal. Known, reliable technology, with abundant supply. Some of these climate change people need to freeze in the dark.

The big secret with co-ops, though, is that they do not require the federal government to create them. People can band together to form their own co-ops, assuming they can put together the requisite capital. Several states, including Minnesota, have large co-ops providing coverage to hundreds of thousands of members. Congress doesn’t need to create federal co-ops or subsidize state co-ops, and especially don’t need to create them to crowd out insurers — which is what will happen when federal subsidies allow co-ops to unfairly compete against private-sector insurers in the marketplace.

Absolutely true Ed. I think co-ops like this might work if they were created and maintained by the private sector.

I have REMC. It is the only people locally who bring power out to the rural areas. There is no alternative. I think it was probably not a bad idea initially back in the days when there was no one who really seemed to want to come out to the country and give people service, but it could have been privatized a long time ago.

The history and achievements of BCBSND:
More than 65 years ago, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota (BCBSND) began as two separate pre-paid health care plans for hospital and physician services. The two companies merged in 1986 and, in 1998, converted to a not-for-profit mutual insurance company.

They already exist Senator! And they insure most of your constituents. No need to create another one.

I want to buy health insurance cafeteria style. I am perfectly happy to forego coverage for mental health services, drug rehab, acupuncture, chiropractic, maternity care, fertility counseling, OTC drugs and all the other crap they load these policies up with to please certain health care providers. If I ever need or want these things, I’ll pay for them.

MADgirl91 on August 27, 2009 at 12:44 PM

How unreasonably picky you are. You mean you wouldn’t want to pay for things like cosmetic surgery or tattoo removal or transgender operations for people in need?

I bet you’re one of those women who like their clothes to fit and just aren’t happy with how you look or feel in one-size-fits-all gear. You probably even want to choose your own style of clothes and shoes.

And don’t tell me. You actually like to pick the kind of car you drive, and the color, too?

Food and drink? I’m sure you won’t eat or drink what you don’t like.

Unreasonably picky…

/s

Which is why affirmative action and minority set-asides are both un-American and un-democratic.

No, sounds like a plan for putting insurance companies out of business and creating a single-payer plan. How will insurance companies make money in the number of years that they “re-think” their policies?

Vera71 on August 27, 2009 at 1:14 PM

And so the obvious flaw in any government subsidized plan is exposed.

When have Democrats NOT abused their power to reward their friends and punish their enemies?

NoDonkey on August 27, 2009 at 12:45 PM

That’s the raison d’etre for specially protected identity groups, isn’t it? Engineering “social justice” by redistributing property, rights and benefits to the advantage of specially protected identity groups within their constituency is little more than a political spoils system on steroids.

“Once a low bid contract is achieved the higher priced outfits will have a number of years to rethink their pricing policies as they wait for contracts to expire…..sounds perfect, what could possibly go wrong?

Koa on August 27, 2009 at 12:46 PM”

No, sounds like a plan for putting insurance companies out of business and creating a single-payer plan. How will insurance companies make money in the number of years that they “re-think” their policies?

Within a circle of three miles from where I live, we have Public Service of Oklahoma(PSO), Verdigris Valley Electrical Cooperative (VVEC),Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA), City of Claremore Electric, and interweaved with Oklahoma Gas and Electric (OG&E) and Western Farmers Coop. The City of Coffeville abutting north generates or buys and resales their own. Some of these generate, some buy and resale, some both. The real advantage to all these utilities in the same place is that they all have their own line maintenance employees. They all help each other. When we have our annual disasters of tornados or ice, we get back on line relatively quickly.

They can stick whatever they want up any bodily oriface they want.

Progressives can take any drug they want, up to and including snorting Sherwin-Williams. Have at it.

In return, they absolve non-”progressives” from their silly and idiotic socialist schemes, which “progressives” are free to participate in fully. Just leave us out.

Is that a deal?

The liberal plan has always been to hobble the private sector with taxes and regulations, so that when it starts to fail, they can step in and declare that the only solution is complete govt takeover.

For all you Rand fans (and haters), she had this pegged decades ago, and the sounds downright prophetic today:

“One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary. (1975)

I’ve also read somewhere that the statist approach to economics is akin to tying lead weights to a person’s hands and feet, pushing them into a lake, telling them to swim, watching them drown and then saying “See? They can’t swim.”