Mad rantings about politics, evolution, and microbiology. Comment policy: say what you want, but back it up with an email address. I don't like anonymous trolls.
He wasn't as pithy as let them eat cake, but the sentiment is the same. What's gone missing in the debate over a public option for healthcare (although when more the seventy percent support it, it's hard to see how this qualifies as a debate) is that tens of millions of people already have a public option: it's called Medicare. So, if you're 65 or over, you get government healthcare. So why can't I have the same options my parents have? One of my parents works so they can choose the employer's private plan or Medicare. Why can't I?
Having said that, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa really put his foot in it when he was asked why he (Grassley) gets such good healthcare and other working people don't:
After sharing his family's personal struggle with the burden of high health care costs, an audience member asked, "My question is... why is your insurance so much cheaper than my insurance and so better than my insurance?"The question made Grassley cranky.
He responded, first, by suggesting the questioner "go work for John Deere," since they "don't pay anything" for their insurance plan.
When the questioner refused to let the senator wriggle out of answering the question, Grassley revealed how little he knew about his own insurance plan.
Another audience member had to help the senator out by describing the details of the plan. After she finished, the original questioner again asked, "Okay, so how come I can't have the same thing you have?"
Grassley's response: "You can. Just go work for the Federal government."
To call this tone deaf would be an understatement. Just how out of touch with the rest of the human race do you have to be to answer like this? And why are Democrats scared of these morons? If they wanted to (and it's pretty clear they don't want to), they would capitalize on this.
It's just another symptom of the complete dysfunction of our government. And that's not a "I hates mah gummint" sentiment--the clowns who are running things have to be some of the most incompetent politicians I have ever witnessed. That or the most overtly beholden to campaign donors.
As dday said about Senate Majority 'Leader' Harry Reid:
I'm sure that other Senate Democrats would say that this [Reid's] style works well - for them. They don't get pestered into votes they don't like to take, they don't have any consequences for their actions on the floor of the Senate.But Lyndon Johnson just came back from the dead, read this profile, and stabbed himself in the heart.
The Democratic Party is the only political party in recorded history to reward their opponents.
And here's the video of Grassley:
Politics
Comments
Fair's fair, Senator. If you're going to represent the people of your State, it makes sense that you should have the same health care they do.
We know a lot about what insurance (if any) people use in each Congressional district: 28% Blue Cross/Blue Shield, 17% Aetna, 32% nothing, etc. Put that in a hat for each district and draw at random for the Representative or Senator.
I'm sure it would be very educational.
Posted by: D. C. Sessions | July 6, 2009 10:55 AM
Wait, a Republican just suggested "sucking the gummint teat" as a solution. In public? Shouldn't he have had some dreadfully insincere line about private sector solutions?
Posted by: phisrow | July 6, 2009 11:49 AM
Well you know, since he said that, the sky's gone on to change places with the ground, turn green and start raining frogs and Hershey's bars up from beneath our feet here in Iowa, so yeah...a Republican did, in fact say "go ask the government who's your daddy."
Posted by: Kate | July 6, 2009 6:36 PM
Iowa, so yeah...a Republican did, in fact say "go ask the government who's your daddy."
Posted by: göğüs büyütücü | July 7, 2009 4:28 AM
I'm not sure how to do it, but a requirement -- Constitutional, perhaps? -- that Members of Congress have health care equivalent to the lowest quartile of the general population might provide a little incentive to bastards like Grassley.
Posted by: RBH | July 10, 2009 4:53 AM
you need to start now to find a new job. do not vote for the new health program \ or you will need a new job and the
only ones left are toliet bowl scrubbers.
Posted by: gerri holly | July 25, 2009 2:39 PM