The government will construct a subsidized program, operating at a loss, that will underprice anybody for the same services. This is not just a "legitimate concern." It's a hard fact. There is no way the Democrats will allow construction of a public option that does not provide full service, and there is no way they can get away with not making it cheaper than the private alternatives.

Add to that the plans for mandates, extra taxes, and other burdens on employer-provided insurance and individual plans, and you have the same kind of "competition" you have in a horse race where somebody cuts the tendons of all the other horses. Or did you forget that little additional part of the legislation?

One of the many delusions people have about the private insurance industry is that it's rolling in money, and that surely any idiot could do the same job for much less.

Almost two thirds of the health plans with more than 100,000 members in the U.S. are non-profit. How much margin do you think they have?

Obama is either aware of this, and blowing smoke up our skirts, or he isn't, and he's stupid. I'm going for the former, since he, and many other supporters of this in Washington, are already on record as being for a single payer system, and if the private system gets shoved off the cliff, all the better.

If the government can create a workable system that doesn't lose money by the billions every year, let them prove it. Do the magic, and put Medicare in the black. Then they can talk to the rest of us about "public options."