The Failure of Republican Ideology, and its Shattered Remnants in the Tea Party

There's an article in the huffingtonpost today that talks about the how Republicans try to have it both ways when attacking government health insurance, while simultaneously defending Medicare.

It's a good piece I suggest reading, because it points to a deep contradiction in Republican ideology. In the article, Sharron Angle is quoted criticizing the health insurance reforms enacted by Democrats.

Republicans like Angle cynically state the solution to health reform is "simple." Just let "the market" reform itself. I am so sick of hearing that ridiculous talking point. How naive you must be to think that health insurance reform will magically happen if we just have faith in the oh-so-great "free market."

Y'mean that great free market that inflated real estate values, traded toxic derivatives, and made rich creeps richer while bankrupting our nation? That free market that allowed insurers to jack your rates and discriminate against people with preexisting conditions, while making billions of dollars profit? The one that inflated gas prices and collected billions in profit while Americans lost jobs?

If we are to believe the conservative dogma about the oh-so-great and magical free market, we are to understand that health insurance companies would reinvest their profits in new jobs and better services. That Wall St. would put those profits from selling grandma's house back into our economy. That Meg Whitman would hire American workers at a decent wage.

But that doesn't happen does it? No, Ms. Angle the problem is not too much government intervention in the free market, it is a free market gone wild.

We have seen direct evidence of the complete failure of deregulation and unrestrained greed, in the 8 years of Republican rule our country endured.

Democrats have turned us in a new direction. We can either go forward, or we can return to the same failed policies that bankrupted us in the first place.