Dana, not a bad article for a statist. Your comment doesn't fly, though: "If you refuse to pay those taxes in the name of FREEDOM, you're taking away their FREEDOM to live" Its unfortunate that our government schools don't teach us that freedom is a negative right, not an obligation. Its tough to have a debate unless we start from a common framework of understanding the nature of rights and the reason for their existence.
Iron Monk is correct, the government has created the mess. The public option is all about increasing competition, right? So why does the administration avoid no-cost reform?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD1JH3dF_X4 (3:04)
Senior Presidential Adviser David Axelrod cites statistics on how insurance companies dominate state markets (1:25) and proposes a public option to introduce competition, but refuses to endorse de-regulation of state barriers (the very purpose of the Commerce Clause in the Constitution) on competition between insurance companies. Ideology and winning elections clearly drives politics.
So is Axelrod like an evil CEO who commits fraud and can be prosecuted? No, far worse, he's an idealist politician who never grew up, who paves the road to hell with his good intentions, and is unassailable for pushing to break the law: "I got into politics because I believe in idealism. Just to be a part of this effort that seems to be rekindling the kind of idealism that I knew when I was a kid, it's a great thing to do."
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-axelrod15feb15,1,1237468.story Government failures drive market failures. Its a shame that the term hasn't entered the mainstream, since most of our problems are due to it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_failure Dana, I think you'll find this article on Somalia very interesting.
http://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/08/06/peter-t-leeson/anarchy-unbound-or-why-self-governance-works-better-than-you-think/ 
