That’s already been posted to the thread.
He misspoke. He’s a reputable economist. Do you seriously think he doesn’t realize the government runs medicare?
He corrected himself in the same sentence by saying “I mean the single provider” after he slipped up.
So by not believing a story told by a Republican without proof, I’m somehow a Right Wing media worshiper?
Interesting.
You sticking with that “They didn’t mean what they didn’t say” story?
Is it your opinion that Arthur Laffer doesn’t know that Medicare is run by the government?
The Arthur Laffer who served as economic policy adviser to president Reagan, founded the Laffer curve, and authored a book on supply side economics? The one who earned a B.A. in Economics from Yale University and an M.B.A. and a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University?
He’s the example of conservative ignorance that Hentor and the four other examples I posted are referring to?
Really?
So, they did say it?
I’ve posted repeatedly what I think they said. Laffer had a slip of the tongue and did say it but corrected himself. Continetti was making a point that wanting the government to not meddle with Medicare is valid.
My position is that both of them understand fully that the government does in fact run Medicare, which is the whole point. Neither of them is an example of a conservative dummy who thinks government should get it’s hands off of Medicare out of ignorance.
Now answer my question.
That doesn’t alter his meaning in any way. Who is the single provider? The government.
As an aside, is Laffer really a “reputable economist”?
This appears to come down to the idea that any signs with this statement on them are really lefties poking fun, any written anecdotes are mythical, and any video evidence is slip of the tongue. None of it goes to showing that some conservatives spectacularly fail to recognize the role of government in providing them with things they value, rely upon or make use of. (Craig T. Nelson notwithstanding).
So since the government runs Medicare someone can’t object to the government running a single provider system?
Laffer was saying that if you like the Post office you’ll love the way they provide single provider healthcare. He slipped up and said Medicare instead. It’s not complicated. It got picked up on because the slip up fits in with this existing meme.
Well I’ll ask you the same question. Do you seriously think that he doesn’t understand that the government runs Medicare? You think he’s that ignorant on the subject? Really?
It’s a meme. Search Bing images for it. The overwhelming majority of the pictures you get are definitely silly and poking fun of it. It’s like angry cat or light saber boy. That’s the point. Making reference to this meme in a debate is a waste of time because in all likelihood it doesn’t even exist in real life. It certainly doesn’t do anything to further discussion.
Debaser, in an August 2009 national telephone survey of 909 voters, when asked “Do you think the government should stay out of Medicare?”, 62% of self-identified McCain voters said “Yes,” 62% of self-identified Republicans said “Yes,” and 59% of self-identified conservatives said “Yes.”
Public Policy Polling, Obama’s Approval…Increases, 19 Aug 2009
They didn’t say that, and they didn’t mean it, either!
Dammit! Ninja’d! Here’s what I was going to post nevertheless…
Here’s more video evidence:
Here’s polling results:
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2009-archive.html
8/19/2009
“Do you think the government should stay out of Medicare? If yes, press 1. If no, press 2. If you’re not sure, press 3.”
Based on party affiliation:
62% of Republicans answered yes, compared to 24% of Democrats and 31% of independents.
Based upon ideological orientation:
59% of conservatives answered yes (and 18% were unsure), compared to 25% of liberals (9% unsure) or 29% of moderates (15% unsure).
Someone hook Debaser up to the grid, because his handwaving is going to go critical.
So, Barbara Boxer might be in trouble next time she faces the electorate?
Well, he also said Medicaid, too, but of course it was just a slip. An extended, multicomponent slip in which his point was that people don’t like how the government runs things like the DMV (state government, of course) or the post office, they won’t like how medicare or medicaid are run when the government takes control of them.
Of course, Krugman suggests a more nefarious alternative that I didn’t actually think of:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/what-did-laffer-mean/?_r=0
He suggests that Laffer may in fact have known the difference, and that his garbling of the words (or slip, as Debaser would have us believe) was an intentional slip to continue to confuse the matter in the minds of conservatives (the majority of whom believe that government should stay out of Medicare).
And if they had said it, they’d be correct!
But they didn’t, and they definitely mean what they don’t say!
On the contrary, it looks like you’ve finally got something!
That video is pretty bad. Is it real? That woman actually was a candidate for office and got enough money to put an ad out? Shocking.
She doesn’t repeat the “keep the government out of medicare” meme exactly, but she seems to be basically saying the same thing. It’s difficult to even understand her. She doesn’t sound too educated. This is the first example of what seems to be an actual conservative saying the meme. Congratulations guys, I knew you could do it.
As to the poll, I don’t know what to think. It’s a nonsensical question, to be sure. But the only answers are Yes/No/DK. I’d probably answer “Yes” to the poll meaning I don’t want the government to make dramatic changes to Medicare at that time. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable interpretation.
The poll doesn’t have an option for “this question makes no sense and is designed to trick me”. So I don’t know how much we can infer from the answers. In any case, the poll is filled with silly questions. Is Hawaii part of the US? Was Obama born in Indonesia? Kenya? People were probably laughing all the way through it. I get lots of political poll calls and they usually aren’t so entertaining.
A bit of advice, Debaser-when drowning one should grab for the life preserver, not the shovel.
You ever going to answer my simple question that I’ve asked of you three times now?
I will concede every claim and suggestion you have made in this post if you promise you’ll never ever assert that the ACA is unpopular based on polling. Deal?
Holy mixed metaphors, Batman!