No Runny Eggs

In his weekly radio address, President Obama shocked the American public with the results of a study that will dramatically change not only the health care discussion but in fact, will likely change the foundation of all economic theory more than anything since Adam Smith identified “The invisible hand”:

Obama released a study today by the White House Council of Economic Advisers that concluded that many of the nation’s 27 million small businesses don’t have the bargaining power of corporations and as a result pay as much as 18 percent more for employee health insurance plans.

Oh my goodness!  Say it ain’t so!

Someone, or a company that buys a few of something is paying more for each of those items than someone who buys many of those same items? 

With this new information I have to wonder whether the local burger joint we frequent might be paying more for their hamburger than McDonalds? 

Is it possible that I pay more for raw chicken wings than the folks at Buffalo Wild Wings?  Is it true even if I buy my wings at Sam’s Club?  If so, I’m clearly being gouged!

Warning, extreme sarcasm alert.

I have to say that I am a bit skeptical of the report that President Obama references.  After all, the White House Council of Economic Advisers is led by Christina Romer who we all know from my previous posts, has research that says that tax cuts are more effective than government spending in stimulating the economy and that stimulus programs always fail for a host of reasons.  Clearly, with President Obama declaring “Mission accomplished” on the economy just this week, Ms. Romer’s research is highly suspect!

We now return you to our normal level of sarcasm.

I’d like to say that I’m somehow shocked or just surprised at the lack of economic understanding that Obama has.  I’d like to say that, but clearly when Obama oversees a  government that thinks paying twice the going rate of the local grocery store for ham purchases is OK, I’m not.