You've Got To Own It

Trey Smith

Unlike so many other Americans, Della and I do not need to sign-up for health care at the government website. Both of us are already on Medicaid. So, we have not been impacted by its much reported website woes.

There is no question that healthcare.gov isn't working as well as it is supposed to. Even President Obama has admitted as much. What I find remarkable is the excuse trotted out by liberals: It is the fault of the private contractors hired to develop the site. Don't blame Team Obama -- it's not their fault!

But who hired these contractors and who is responsible for overseeing their work? Team Obama! And this result shouldn't be all that surprising anyway. Such results are typical when a government service is privatized. It tends to cost taxpayers more money and the results tend to be lacking.

Look at prisons across the nation. This governmental function was privatized on the arguments that it would save taxpayer dollars AND that prisons would be run more efficiently. But that's not what has happened at all! Private prisons predominantly cost taxpayers more. Not only are private prisons more expensive, but the services provided tend to be degraded. The mega corporations that run many of today's prisons are making a lot of public money, while treating their workers and the inmates like dirt.

In other words, some of the blame should fall on the shoulders of the contractors that developed the government's health care website. The major onus, however, falls on the Obama administration. They readily embraced privatization and so they've ended up receiving basically what they asked for: a major political headache with a hefty price tag!