Maria Cantwell on what Costco can tell us about reforming health care

Josh Feit (Publicola):

In her remarks in support of Sen. Charles Schmer’s (D-NY) public option amendment today, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)—the co-sponsor on the losing amendment—boiled the wisdom of the public option down to an analogy about Washington state’s top Fortune 500 company, Costco:

I know many people my colleagues here love to tell me about how they go to Costco. Well they go to Costco because somebody has bought that product in bulk and has driven down the price for them and they have driven down the price because they were able to buy in large volume.

That’s what the American people want. They want us to stand on their side, drive down the price by buying in bulk and compete with this unrelenting increase in rates that they have seen.