This Is Not a Vacation

So what are the assholes up to now? Hmmm. Mark Steyn is petulant, even by Steynian standards, on hearing of the volte-face of Rep. Vern Buchanan (R) Florida, who apparently has announced he will vote to override the Bush SCHIP veto:

We seem to have returned to the days when the so-called "right" feels the left's destination is inevitable and all they can do is delay the time it takes to get there. There's no hope of reversing old entitlements or even stopping new entitlements; all that can be reasonably expected is that the GOP will marginally constrain the expansion of the new entitlements: The Dems want an express Superchief to Sweden, but the Republicans are offering a slow train. That's some choice at the ballot box, and is one reason, I think, for the unresponsiveness of the GOP base.

Oh, cease this detestable boo-hooing. Look on the bright side, dude: he's a GOP public official in the news for something that doesn't involve his penis and public toilet facilities.

Mark Hemingway is less whiny, but still an asshole.

Ideally, people wouldn't be stuck in bad jobs... just because of good benefits — though nobody seems grateful for the silent taxpayer who works to take care of their families even when they don't want to.

These taxpayers  aren't "silent." Hark! to their call. They are saying, "you're an asshole."

I wonder if the people pushing S-CHIP have thought about what the long term consequences of making people rely on the government for healthcare are. There's a big difference in outcomes when people are in charge of their own healthcare destiny, rather sucked into a government system that gives them limited options.

Yeah, and the biggest difference is that they have better healthcare and live longer.

Asshole.

 

Comments

[Spokane Moderate]

Look on the bright side, dude: he's a GOP public official in the news for something that doesn't involve his penis and public toilet facilities.

I wish I'd written that...

Well played, sir.

[michael d]

The Dems want an express Superchief to Sweden, but the Republicans are offering...

a sedan chair to 70s Chile? a rickshaw to Dubai?

Seriously: Huh?

[SteveB]

I love the phrase "when people are in charge of their own healthcare destiny...".

I imagine myself at the helm of my own S.S. Healthcare, boldly charting out a course between the shoals of managed care and the reefs of personal bankruptcy.

Honestly, what a fool this man is. Virtually everyone in this country, Mark Hemingway included, takes whatever health care is offered by their job. If we're offered any "options" at all, it involves taking a wild stab at the employee benefits book, hoping to hit on whatever HMO might fuck us over slightly less.

And yet Mark Hemingway writes as if this is all part of some exciting adventure. Even the example he cites makes no sense: a guy decides to stay in the Army because it offers cheap health care? Whoopee! Now that's how you really take charge of your "health care destiny!" On Planet Hemingway, staying in the Fucking U.S. Army and taking advantage of their monolithic, taxpayer-supported health care sytem makes you some sort of rugged adventurer.

I would love to hear what actual decisions Mark Hemingway has made that make him think he's in charge of his "health care destiny."

[Silver Owl]

Americans have zero control over their healthcare. The insurance companies have all the control. The companies we work for have control over not only what plans but even who within the company can enroll.

The retail industry is a prime example with the scheduling less than 40 hours so that more people do not have the option to earn their healthcare.

As wages stagnate and go down healthcare becomes even more out of reach for many Americans.

S-Chip helps to ensure that kids get or remain healthy. Which in turn increases the probability that said children will indeed become a working productive adult. Who then have to struggle with trying to obtain healthcare but whom will not have any control over it.

People like Hemingway drive me nuts. Pontificating assholes that never actually think but pull things out of their arses and think it's a wonderful prize.

[SteveB]

One more thought about Mark "Health Care Destiny" Hemingway:

The major malfunction of guys like Hemingway (and yes, we are mostly talking about guys) is that they have in their head an ideal of masculinity that involves risk-taking and individualism, and yet they live lives in which neither of these things exist.

And so, to deal with the congnitive dissonance, they imbue perfectly mundane decisions with an aura of adventure.

Thus the cubicle-bound dad who decides to stay in his cubicle and continue to collect his salary and benefits is making a heroic sacrifice on behalf of his children, by "guaranteeing" their access to health care (at least until his job is outsourced).

And Mark Hemingway's "decision" to boldly open the National Review Employee's Benefit Book and boldly point to the page marked "Kaiser" rather than the page marked "Humana" is an example of him "taking charge" of his "health care destiny."

We saw this nonsense during the 2005 debate about privatizing Social Security. What that debate showed is that there are, in this country, people who believe that their bold decision to contribute to a 401(k) plan or to boldly choose one mutual fund over another is a significant exercise of personal freedom. There are actually people who, as they fill out that exciting, adventurous 401(k) form, say to themselves, "I'm taking charge of my financial future!"

And you're more likely to think this way if you've never done anything in your life that involves actual risk or freedom, like starting a small business, the way Graeme Frost's parents did.

[Fishbone McGonigle]

Holy shit. I never thought Buchanan would ever be capable of such a thing when I voted against him last year.

Of course, now that I've moved out of his district, I can't reward him for this surprising act. Not that I would, of course.

[K. Ron Silkwood]

Thank you. Every opportunity needs to be taken to point out that they are assholes.

[FlipYrWhig]

Yes, America just hasn't been the same since we grew to rely upon the government. I mean, hardly anyone builds his own road or tests the safety of his own medicines anymore. That's a blow to the rugged entrepreneurial spirit that made us great!

[Hecate]

Look on the bright side, dude: he's a GOP public official in the news for something that doesn't involve his penis and public toilet facilities.

You know that I love you, right?

[Douglas Watts]

I love the phrase, "separate but equal."

[Douglas Watts]

The Dems want an express Superchief to Sweden, but the Republicans are offering to nuke Stockholm, washboard the adult survivors and ship the babies to slave labor camps in China to make our black dildos on the cheap.

I hate having to finish this lazy fuck's thoughts.

[hipparchia]

"Yeah, and the biggest difference is that they have better healthcare and live longer."

and they have more choices and it costs less.