In anticipation of the bipartisan health care summit he has called for Thursday, President Barack Obama said last week that he was asking "members of both parties to seek common ground in an effort to solve a problem that's been with us for generations." His goal is to attract enough Republican support to get an overhaul through the Senate. So what is he offering the GOP in his revised health care reform plan, released Monday?
Price controls. Yes, price controls. Faced with critics opposed to a great expansion of federal spending on, and control of, health care and health insurance, Obama decided to demand an even bigger role for Washington. After denouncing WellPoint Inc. for raising premiums on individual policies in California by up to 39 percent, the administration concluded that jawboning was not enough.
Obama wants to create a federal Health Insurance Rate Authority, with the power to block rate increases that it deems excessive.
Well, there was a time when price controls had a certain vogue even in the Republican Party. That time was 1971, when President Richard Nixon imposed them on the entire economy. It was an economic disaster, generating shortages and failing to prevent high inflation. Ever since then, Republicans have taken a dim view of letting Washington tell private companies what to charge their customers.
President Obama, who has a grand total of one year experience working for a business, just doesn't get. Businesses exist to make profits.
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