Congratulations are in order to Zach Lane, the University of Colorado student who asked a perfectly respectful and valid question of President Obama at the town hall meeting in Grand Junction on Saturday. It is unfortunate that Mr. Palladino elected not to include the president's response to Mr. Lane's question. Perhaps that is because to do so would underscore once again Mr. Obama's dissembling on this issue in light of other statements he has made over the years and recently on the subject of competition in the healthcare system. Most interesting is at the end of the president's lengthy and rather rambling respone, he mentions UPS and Federal Express with respect to competition with the U.S. Post Office. Evidently the president is oblivious to fact that UPS and FedEx came into being precisely because of the inefficiency of the Post Office, and that they provide better service at lower cost than the corresponding niche within the Post Office.

In essence, President Obama conceded to Mr. Lane in his response that the private sector cannot effectively compete with a government-run, government-capitalized healthcare. The UPS reference neglects to mention that the U.S. Post Office essentially ceded the entire overnight and package shipping niche of their enterprise to those private competitors. In the case of healthcare, the government has no intention of pemitting such competition to exist. Their restrictions upon all existing insurance policies are so Draconian, with even the slightest change or update in those policies resulting in in automatic transition to the public plan, private competition would in effect be eliminated in the span of a few short years.

So, once again, I would like to thank and congratulate Mr. Zach Lane on respectful, albeit pointed, question to President Obama. That is the essence of how our representative republic should operate. And shame on anyone who dares to be critical of a private citizen asking an appropriate question of an elected leader and expecting a truthful, honest answer.