My body parts get kicked a lot. Does that count?
Damned Republicans and their desire to have better medicine! How dare someone predict that one day we may be able to grow new body parts to replace old and diseased ones!
What’s next? Republicans hoping for some kind of new future alternative energy? The bastards.
Good one - I see what you did there
Don’t be stupid. If the kid just shows up at the emergency room he will get a new kidney. Or the father can barter a chicken with the doctor. You liberals make me sick.
The kid’ll go to the emergency room, get a kidney, and sell it to pay for his chemo? That sounds so roundabout … they don’t do chemo in the ER?!
In context, he appears to have been using that as an argument to support “means testing,” i.e., cutting the Medicare and SS benefits of high-income households . . . which, by itself, doesn’t sound like a bad idea, on its face under present circumstances, without reference to any potential improvements in organ-transplant or organ-substitution technology.
Nice to hear such a redistributive idea coming from a Pub!
A still better one would be making the SS payroll tax income-progressive, like the income tax. The kids who work at McDonald’s get to keep their whole paychecks. No, “Who is FICA?! . . . And who said they could take my money?!”
Let’s do both! 
What are you anticipating here? Organ cloning? Synthetic organs? New money-making opportunity for migrant workers?
I don’t want to live a long life. I’m happy living an average lifespan of the 75-ish mark. What would I do with myself for another three decades beyond that?
Supposing you were vibrant, healthy, and materially cared for during those remaining years? Heck, I see no reason to shuffle off into oblivion simply because I’ve hit some numeric age – there’s always something else to learn, something else to appreciate. I can’t imagine having done everything by 75.
Of course, there is the practical issue of how to afford care for the elderly (who, let’s face it, won’t be in a condition to work until 100 any time soon). I must admit that I rather liked President Obama’s “death panel” idea; it’s that kind of foresight that inspired me to vote for him in both the primary and the general. I understand it’s rather like what they do in the Nordic countries, you know, anyone reaching the age of 70 is ground up into mulch and spread around spruce trees or fed to anemic babies. I think the “death panel” opens up to reveal the button on the incinerator? Something like that.
Ideology Republicans against Money Republicans. Ideo-Pub wants Social Security to die! die! die! but can’t get near it, too popular. Looking to make it tougher, leaner, less warm. Money Republicans want to kill SS someday, but not real soon. First, its important to protect it by shifting it to private accounts, invested in a vigorous stock market, where trained professionals can pass it back and forth, back and forth, each taking a tiny little bite every time…
Money against ideology. Wonder who will win? Boy, that’s a tough one…ponder, ponder…
It’s funny, but the OP hasn’t returned to the thread to acknowledge that his ire might have been misplaced.
Yes. I’m genuinely curious about what he’s getting at; there seems to be nothing remotely objectionable about the quoted statement. Surely there’s some nuance I’m missing? Was it the political context? The suggestion that body parts may become mere commodities? The possibility of artificially long lifespans? The comparison of body parts to inflated circular tubes fashioned of rubber, fitted over wheels for reduced wear and greater traction?
Come on, throw us a bone!
Jesus, I hope it won’t be like replacing tires. I just had to replace tires on my truck and they manged to find over $1000 of suspension work that had to be done on top of it!
Organ cloning.
And the context was more about extending the retirement age, I think. Not about means testing of Medicare. It’s a little hard to tell, because they edited the interview, but if you read it closely, he skips from talking about means testing to extending the retirement age.
What if they threw in a lube job?
I assume the downside of this would be if he were saying “let’s raise the retirement age to 80 by 2050, don’t worry by then everyone will live to be 100 by then”, basing current policy on optimistic predictions based on speculative technology.
Can we just throw you a Boehner?
From the OP’s badly quoted cite,
Even if we can “replace body parts like we do tires” it ain’t gonna cost the same as a tire change. But I’m sure Mr. Daniels provide us with a plan to make sure everyone, in the wonderful future that awaits us, that has to work 'til they’re falling apart will be able to afford these “tire changes”, right?
(Of course we will get to the hospital in flying cars and the doctor will have a jet pack and there’ll be robot nurses and . . .).
CMC fnord!
“Your emergency call is important to us, so please stay on the line. If you are having a heart attack, say “myocardial infarction” or press 81857226…”
I wanna replace my car tires with body parts. I think it would be cool to have a car with cheetah legs.