How would the government produce computers at half the price? If they were simply 50% subsidized, that wouldn't stay secret for long, and everybody on Earth would call "bullshit!"

"Call bullshit?" Is that a fact? How many government-run "enterprises" operate at a constant loss, and nobody gives a rat's rump? Where's the outrage about Amtrak losing millions in perpetuity while competing against private transportation methods? Medicare is, as currently configured, trillions of dollars in the hole. How many "cost overruns" are there in almost every government field? Particularly the military? Who pays for that?

I didn't say they'd produce the computers at half the price. They'd sell them at half the price, and the taxpayers would eat the rest.

The realworld is full of examples of government initiatives actually working.

What, recently? Name two. Hopefully, something that generates more wealth than it consumes. The Shuttle "works," but I wouldn't exactly call it a sterling example of cost effectiveness. How many payloads would they fly if the people flying them actually had to pay what it cost to launch one?

As for Wal-Mart, Lee made the point. Wal-Mart does not have a gun.

Whatever plan comes out of Washington will have the following things:

-- Enormous mandates on the private insurance industry forcing them to accept all comers and deliver all services, among others. Prices will skyrocket.

-- Removal of tax benefits for employer-provided insurance. Ideally, these deductions would be passed to individuals who purchase their own insurance. Fat chance of that.

-- A large government health insurance program that, by definition, will be low cost and heavily-subsidized. Many people will probably not have to pay for it at all.

The end result is inevitable, and they know it. You don't fight a competitor that can print its own money. I have heard people in Congress specifically say they wanted to drive the private health insurance industry out of business.