So what I am now asking is this: when Romney was wrong, you said he lied.
Now you have acknowledged being wrong.
Did you also lie?
It’s still a dumb argument. The federal government doesn’t seem to have any problem accepting my income tax return filed electronically. They didn’t have to compete with anyone to figure out how to make it easier and faster for me to get my refund.
On the other hand, it took me a half hour to get a sandwich at Jason’s Deli yesterday, partly because it took some lady 10 minutes just to figure out how to bag my order. Well, that and send a text on her cellphone that she dug out of her pocket in the middle of shuffling my order around on the counter. Competition does solve that problem, though. It’ll be awhile before I go back there.
It’s a foolish argument, but not for this reason. Romney’s analogy fails because ordering a sandwich should be much less complicated than changing information for a Medicare provider. It’s just that simple.
I found one cite that says there 127 million addresses in the United States, and that’s just residential. That makes changing an address at least 600 times more complicated than ordering a Whopper. That the government can do it with just a 30-something page form is a marvel of efficiency.
A good point. Romney was essentially comparing a private sector orange to a public sector apple.
Pointing out that buying a house is a lot more complicating than buying a postage stamp doesn’t prove that the post office is more efficient than a bank.
A valid test, based on Romney’s own speech, would be to compare how a state government and the federal government handle some equivalent task. Romney claimed that the state governments are more efficient because they compete with each other. So this should be reflected in state procedures being more efficient than the equivalent federal procedures.
This could be the basis of the most boring Mythbusters episode of all time.
Bricker, cut it out., you’re better than this. Romney is a tool of epic proportions. Nothing negative said about him can ever be bad enough or cruel enough. He would be a joke if their was any humor there.
I’m wondering where I said that when Romeny was wrong, he lied.
I certainly don’t remember saying those words.
It’s Stewart & Colbert’s fault. It’s like the major news networks need to compete with them for the funny. They really suck at it though.
Great post.
It might also be possible to find some private sector transaction that compares fairly – say,getting a loan or a grant. I bet the levels of complexity will be similar,if apples to apples can be found.
You did not. I thought you had, but I was wrong about that.
With no qualifications or over-the-top additions that might vitiate my confession of error, either. I confused you with another poster, an outright error. I apologize.
I don’t agree that this is ever an appropriate approach. Stick to the facts about him, or anyone.
I disagree. Remember what Truman once said, “I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.”
If you think Romney is telling lies then fight him with the truth.
For a more direct comparison, we could see what the process is for changing a provider’s address is with, say, Humana. I’m willing to bet that it isn’t significantly less complicated. And, of course, you’d have to go through the process with every payor, and I’m sure each one is equally complicated but in different ways.
We’ve actually had a chance to test out Mitt’s conjecture here in the state of KY. Six months ago we turned over the administration of our state Medicaid program to three corporate managed care organizations. So where a patient used to just have Medicaid, he now either has Wellcare, Coventry, or Kentucky Spirit. Competition! That means less red tape and bullshit, right?
In fact, the red tape and bullshit has at least tripled. Each of these companies is at least as hard to work with as Medicaid ever was. I know Medicaid-heavy offices that have had to add a staff member just to deal with it. And since providers and hospitals have to negotiate contracts separately with each MCO, you never know who takes what. Our local hospital has never taken Kentucky Spirit, so their social workers have been busy shifting everybody to Coventry or Wellcare, but now they’re fighting with Coventry and about to drop them so they’ll have to do it all over again.
Maybe it will save a few bucks in the end, though I doubt it. But it’s not in any way better or easier or more efficient.
Group Hug!
I concede that I misconstrued your comments. I see that you were refuting a factual claim made by another.
Is it possible that added complexity in a seemingly simple process is an attempt to make sure that the process is done correctly and without deceit?
I’d think one centralized form, however onerous, is far more amenable than a lot of little different companies’ idiosyncratic forms. But then you couldn’t complain about gummint takeovers of our God-given right to get swindled by a lot of private companies, could you? Or maybe there’d be something else for you to bitch about. Goddamn fedrul gummint–so hard to get rid of completely, isn’t it?
Has Romney got himself a pick-up truck yet?
Excellent point. Humana allows providers to update their info using its website. The electronic form (which I happen to have a completed hard copy of handy) is about two pages, though the type prints out smaller than it appears on the actual page. I imagine their forms for suppliers of durable medical equipment are a bit longer.
But the point was not that changing information for a Medicare provider should be as easy as ordering a sandwich. Just that, over time, the competitive nature of the private sector provides incentive for companies to simplify (one flavor of “improve”) things as much as they can. The premise of your comment is based on the belief that Romney thinks that changing one’s Medicare provider information should be as simple as ordering a sandwich. I watched the video again, and I don’t see him saying or implying that. You might as well say that Romney thinks that changing Medicare provider information should be able to be done via keypad. Both of those positions are putting words in his mouth.