Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.
--John McCain
From his article in the current Sept/Oct edition (PDF) of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries.
As Josh Marshall notes, the only thing surprising about the statement is the degree to which it has been overtaken by events as McCain now tries -- a la Palin the Earmark-Killer -- to rebrand himself as a Mr. Wall Street oversight and transparency when he's been pushing deregulation for 25 years. And of course, he has Mr. Deregulator of the Night, ex-Texas Sen. Phil Gramm onboard as one of his major economic advisors. What did Gramm do?
On Dec. 15, 2000, hours before Congress was to leave for Christmas recess, Gramm had a 262-page amendment slipped into the appropriations bill. It forbade federal agencies to regulate the financial derivatives that greased the skids for passing along risky mortgage-backed securities to investors.
As I noted here, that's why everything's falling apart. That is why the taxpayers are now on the hook for the follies of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns and now the insurance giant AIG to the tune of $85 billion. And we have Bush touting a toxic mortgage bailout that sticks it to the American public for nearly $700 billion dollars.
With excellent advisors like Gramm, is it any wonder McCain jokes the way he does? I think he might just win an Emmy for his slapstick performance. Stop, John, stop. You're killing me.
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