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The funniest sentence I read today
At a recent town-hall meeting in suburban Simpsonville, a man stood up and told Rep. Robert Inglis (R-S.C.) to "keep your government hands off my Medicare."
The longer article is here.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on July 27, 2009 at 10:58 PM in Medicine | Permalink
Comments
The next sentence only adds to the humor:
"I had to politely explain that, 'Actually, sir, your health care is being provided by the government,' " Inglis recalled. "But he wasn't having any of it."
Following the health care debate was worth that quote. I think I'm done caring now.
Posted by: Daniel Reeves at Jul 27, 2009 11:15:25 PM
Now you see why they call them "entitlements."
Posted by: Doc Merlin at Jul 27, 2009 11:16:34 PM
I heard Mark Schmitt give the same story, except it was Jon Breaux and an old woman worried about social security. Also, Breaux ran with it and said "Don't worry, I won't let them".
Posted by: TGGP at Jul 27, 2009 11:19:44 PM
I'd expect nothing less from the electorate that chose Strom Thurmond for nearly half a century. Easily the worst state.
Posted by: T. Simenon at Jul 27, 2009 11:28:20 PM
He was probably referring to the part the Democrats control. That's socialism. The part Republicans conrol is strictly lazzei faire.
Posted by: George W Walton at Jul 28, 2009 1:51:10 AM
Win.
Srsly, was it fate that he lives in Simpsonville?
Posted by: Greg Mitchell at Jul 28, 2009 3:25:22 AM
I read comments like this all the time. People railing against public health coverage write things like "I buy insurance so I'll be protected, I don't want it to go to other losers who have something wrong with them!"
This is the biggest problem facing the entire country in terms of health care debates right now. Most of those arguing against reform need to have explained to them what insurance means, not be deluged with arcane discussions of the fine print.
Myths like the one above ("the US government administers no health care now and it would fail miserably if it ever tried to") are rampant, and easily stoked into even higher levels of outrage by the pundits on cable, radio, and the Internet.
If people end up influencing their representatives to scuttle this vote, it will be largely from profound ignorance, that's the tragic part.
Posted by: Bill E Pilgrim at Jul 28, 2009 6:15:45 AM
I think it was Ben Bernanke at a town hall meeting that said "Keep your government hands off my currency."
Posted by: Andrew at Jul 28, 2009 6:20:10 AM
I think it is important that people should know more about where their medical insurance is coming from. While i laughed when i read the statement made by the man from Simpsonville, it shows us how woefully unaware we are about our own insurance policies.
Posted by: Megan at Jul 28, 2009 6:47:18 AM
If people end up influencing their representatives to scuttle this vote, it will be largely from profound ignorance, that's the tragic part.
The politicians will likely scuttle the vote without much input from the electorate. If the Dems pass any sort of "Health Care Reform", and if it turns out to be a disaster (which it most certainly will), they will get the full blame. It is one thing to support socialism in the abstract, another to support socialism when you will actually be responsible to make it work. The politically optimal situation for Democrats was to be seen as support health care reform, and then to breath a sign of relief when the Republicans scuttled it.
The general sound-bite-politics electorate strongly support socialized medicine, the same way they support protectionism. Politicians oppose protectionism, not because it wins them votes, but because they realize they lose more votes from a crappy economy than because of free trade. In the same way the Dems realize they will lose bigger from the health care industry exploding than they will from failing to deliver health care reform.
Myths like the one above ("the US government administers no health care now and it would fail miserably if it ever tried to") are rampant, and easily stoked into even higher levels of outrage by the pundits on cable, radio, and the Internet.
Apparently even the Democrats believe the U.S. government would fail if it tried to administer health care, which is why they are backing out of the health care reform issue now that they can't rely on a Republican veto to save their ass from their own socialist rhetoric. Perhaps the Democrats are listening to too much Fox News and Rush Limbaugh?
Posted by: Vehical Driver at Jul 28, 2009 9:47:54 AM
Bloom County years ago had a strip mocking farm subsidies in the same manner.
Posted by: Norman Pfyster at Jul 28, 2009 10:29:09 AM
If only we could oblige him by actually taking government's hands off his Medicare.
Posted by: Mark at Jul 28, 2009 11:01:56 AM
No, really, voters are very knowledgeable about the issues.
Posted by: JH at Jul 28, 2009 11:31:09 AM
Reminds me of a letter we got at the FRB-Chicago many years ago. During the '91 recession, a retiree wrote and asked if we could please ask Mr. Greenspan to raise interest rates to the levels of the early 80s, because as a retiree she depended on her interest income.
In the next paragraph she complimented the Chairman because it was so nice that her newly married grand-daughter was finally able to afford to buy a home.
Posted by: Tim at Jul 28, 2009 11:38:33 AM
I was addressing a room full of people who were applying for benefits under the federal Workforce Investment Act, not an entitlement program, but still a pretty big USDOL job retraining program. I explained that for males born since 1/1/1960, Selective Service enrollment is required and that signing up for the draft can only be done between the ages of 18 and 26. A man raised his hand to tell us that he had not signed up when he was in the window. I replied that he probably just didn't remember doing it and not to worry, we would check the website. He raised his hand again and proclaimed in a loud voice, "No, sir, I'm sure I didn't sign up. I'm anti-government."
Posted by: Bill at Jul 28, 2009 8:43:51 PM
Myths like the one above ("the US government administers no health care now and it would fail miserably if it ever tried to") are rampant, and easily stoked into even higher levels of outrage by the pundits on cable, radio, and the Internet.
But it cuts both ways. Medicare doesn't spend any less than private insurance, and there's no sharp disconnect between people 64 and 65 in amount of care spent.
The fact that the US government already administers Medicare also means that moving everybody to a government system probably wouldn't save much money either. Is there any reason to expect a completely government run system to be substantially different than Medicare?
Posted by: John Thacker at Jul 29, 2009 4:36:22 PM
I think Krugman owes you a hat tip: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/opinion/31krugman.html?_r=1
Posted by: Wevin at Jul 31, 2009 10:10:52 PM
