John Nichols, Capital Times: Last week, he was one of just 19 members of the House who voted against a proposal to strip antitrust exemptions for insurance companies. What that means is that there is no real competition, a circumstance that allows big insurers to impose radical rate hikes.There are no good explanations why Ryan would have voted against leveling the health insurance playing field when he is one of the biggest advocates for making insurers compete across state lines. Which means Ryan's "Road Map to a Dickensian American Future" doesn’t include killing the anti-trust exemption or the current insurance "death panel" policy of allowing pre-existing conditions to exterminate lives through corporate rationing.
The vast majority of House Republicans got it. A total of 153 GOP representatives voted with 253 Democrats to create real competition.
For all his talk about being for free markets, the Janesville Republican joined a tiny minority of House members who opposed freeing up the market to foster competition and reduce insurance prices. On the losing end of that 406-19 vote, Ryan was a lonely defender of insurance industry monopolies and duopolies, which can raise prices at will because they face little real competition.Doing nothing works in Ryan's district. Ideologically blind to a government working for the people, Ryan's electorate has been overwhelmingly desensitized to bad news. Ryan has sold them on the idea of zero expectations of their elected representative.
In other words, if you are having trouble paying the profiteers who are making health care unaffordable for Wisconsinites, remember that Ryan has done everything in his power to protect and encourage the insurance companies -- and nothing, absolutely nothing, to serve the people of Wisconsin.
Will Ryan's charismatic chaos work on the rest of the country? So far, based on the respectful press he's received, the answer is yes.
Besides being a perpetual hypocrite, Paul Ryan is turning out to be Ayn Rand's Judas. The collectivist rescue of free market risk (TARP) was the antithesis of nearly everything Rand philosophically stood for, and it was the moment of truth for Ryan. He betrayed her. Yet, by defending insurance industry monopolies, it's almost as if Ryan is trying to get back on track to help fulfill Rand's "prophecy" of government stopping the Galt's of the world. Rand couldn't forgive Ryan even if she wanted to because in her cold miserable world, forgiveness doesn't exist.
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