(One cost of women’s lib is you don’t often get such good secretaries anymore; a woman with that kind of ability should be aiming to be the boss, not the boss’s secretary.)

Your private school must do a fraction of the paperwork a public school does, nowadays. The paperwork burden on public schools has multiplied amazingly – which is pretty normal for government agencies. I spent 11 years as a military serviceman and in defense contracting, and always, it was more important to have the paperwork right than actually to get something working. E.g., there was a flight simulator facility which hadn’t been operational in a decade, but had passed every inspection with top marks – the paperwork showing why the thing couldn’t be fixed was perfect! The military’s slide into bureaucratic uselessness is periodically reversed by a war in which those that don’t get something besides paperwork done are likely to die. Businesses can also fall into the paperwork trap, but then a more efficient competitor will destroy them. Other government agencies have no such limitations on how bad they can get – and when the politicians finally notice that they have become ineffective, the “solution” is usually more money for more bureaucrats, and to hope that somewhere in there will be someone that actually tries to advance the mission.

Back when Mrs. Clinton sought to be our health czar, I was thinking, while I waited in a long line at the post office, what the US Nat’l Health Service would look like. I envisioned a long, winding line of my fellow citizens, in hospital gowns (some with ties missing) and those horrid paper slippers, each holding a specimen cup in their right hand and paperwork in their left, while clerks hired away from the Department of Motor Vehicles gave instructions in something that sounded like English, sort of. At the head of the line was an electric sign, reading “Wait here for next available doctor” and which would flash window numbers.

I suspect the signs are already in some government warehouse. They’re probably bilingual.

We need higher health care costs increasing at higher rates to create incentives for hospitals to deliver better service. Free enterprise says all we need to know. No more regs. No more oversight or other delays to efficiency. Accountability is a liberal plot. Fire all non-loyal US attorneys (those who don’t understand their political Republican responsibilities in our unitary executive system) and torture our enemies. A war against terror justifies desperate measures, and health care issues, relatively speaking, are non-issues; best ignored.

This is simply a stupid statement:

“It’s true that a national healthcare plan would almost certainly save money compared to our current Rube Goldberg system…”

No, it’s not.

Our health care system devolved to our current state because of increased government interference after WWII. This interference has resulted in 1) increased inefficiency, 2) increased costs, and 3) increased Rube-Goldbergness.

Kevin Drum’s answer is more of what caused the original problem. This will result in even more of 1, 2, and 3.

Additionally, increased government interference (price fixing and “negotiation”) would likely result in massive reduction in new products:

http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/wm1270.cfm

Who is this Kevin Drum moron? And why does he have a job?