Notice also the subtle shift of the argument:
THE CROWD: Clinton had waaay more judicial nominees shot down than Bush did! That proves the Republicans are more obstructionist!
BRICKER: Um, actually, the numbers are pretty close.
THE CROWD: Uh, well, the ones the Democrats shot down deserved it!
Yeah I’m really bad at silly sarcasm. I have several friends who are health care lobbyists and consultants and on both sides of the ideological spectrum, they will tell you that the most important thing to do with health care in America is to bend the cost curve. If we went to a Canadian system tomorrow, it would give us a few decades to try and figure things out but in the end, we will have to make some decisions about what level of health care the government should provide.
Health care is a lot like public education i that it is one of those goods that should not be distributed purely on ability to pay. But we also don’t provide unlimited education resources to all. Many students would be better off with private tutors but we still stick them in a classroom with 30 other students because there is a limit to the level of education we believe everyone should receive. So yeah I think we need to reduce the level of government provided health care.
And I think that if you can pay for more than that then nothing is stopping you, just like nothing is stopping you from sending your kids to math summer camp. If you choose to stay out of the public health care system altogether because your local health care providers suck because they spend most of their time dodging bullets and shit then you can go to the fancy private hospital on the east side.
You thought it was subtle?
If I might be permitted a metaphor from Mafia Game, don’t assume the townies embrace my comments just because they’re anti-scum.
One trait I may share with right-wingers is a “moral absolutism.” I didn’t pursue the nearby thread about FoxNews – the question answered itself. Similarly, I wonder if anyone who considers a Scalia to be as morally competent as a Souter might also have had trouble choosing between Hitler and Roosevelt.
I graciously assumed it was subtle, and thus missed by those arguing the other side, since the alternative was to assume it was blatant, but that no one arguing the other side chose to acknowledge it anyway.
Normally you’d get a hail of cries …"Cite!"
…of course the normal criers know all too well what the problems with this guy were.