Well that makes sense. If there is anyone out there providing a service that’s kind of like something the government does, the government should stop doing it. So we’ll just dismantle Medicare and Medicaid, and Tricare for veterans too, because there are private health insurers. Amtrak? Shut ‘er down. Sure, there aren’t actually private passenger train options, but you can take Greyhound. And the post office, of course. Yes, that means there will be no more mail service to rural areas (FedEx and UPS only deliver where it’s profitable), and it will cost you $18 to mail in your electric bill, but don’t you feel freer already?
What does this teach us? Fundamentalism makes you stupid. It’s true of religious fundamentalism, and it’s true of free-market fundamentalism. I’m sure if you started questioning Pawlenty on the specifics, there would be a hundred exceptions to his “Google Test.” Well yeah, he’d say, the fact that Blackwater exists doesn’t mean we should shut down the U.S. military. And OK, I guess it’s really not practical to close every public school in America, even though there are private schools. And I guess you’re right that we shouldn’t shut down food safety inspections just because meat producers say they can police themselves. And speaking of police, I suppose the existence of private security companies doesn’t mean we should fire every cop in America.
One would hope that all those exceptions might make Pawlenty say, “On second thought, this ‘Google Test’ is kind of idiotic…”
—The American Prospect’s Paul Waldman shreds Tim Pawlenty’s idiotic “Google Test,” a test for determining what government agencies Pawlenty shut down based on finding private companies on Google that do the same thing.
via sloth unleashed
One would hope Pawlenty would back down, but do you think you can fix stupid that quickly?
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