What exactly are they afraid of?
John Goodman, the leading medical care analyst in the country, asked this question a few weeks ago. His piece was entitled “None Dare Call It…“. The missing words were economic fascism.
Economic fascism, the system developed by Italian dictator Mussolini and later adopted by Hitler, is a highly developed form of crony capitalism. It has its own code of silence, not unlike the oath of omerta associated with the Mafia.
Private interests and government officials make their deals behind closed doors and are then not supposed to talk about them. To break the oath of silence is considered a grave offense.
In the past, medical insurance companies have been regulated by the states. They enjoyed their crony capitalist deals, but principally with state officials and regulators.
The federal government could not easily bring the insurers to heel, despite periodic efforts to do so. They were quick to put up ads defending their interests. They were not the least bit silent.
For example, when Hillarycare was first proposed during the early years of the Clinton administration, the largest insurance companies came out in loud opposition. They spent huge sums advertising against it on television.
The Clintons were furious but unable to do much about it. In the end, the insurance companies succeeded in humiliating the Clintons: Hillarycare couldn’t even get through a Democratic controlled Congress.
Perhaps remembering this history, President Obama took a very different approach to developing Obamacare.
Read the rest of the story at Against Crony Capitalism.
