Seriously, dude. Where’s my government-subsidized healthcare? I want it. Like, right now.
Newly minted Congressman Andy Harris (R-Md), defeated his Democratic opponent by railing against Obamacare and championing the brilliant idea that is Republikanz 4 Repealin’ Healthkare.
Guess what Congressman Harris wanted to know after he showed up on Capitol Hill today, attended orientation, registered for class, got his Trapper Keeper, and went to his first period class?
“How come it takes so long for me to get my government-subsidized heaaalth insuuuurance! I want it now! NOW NOW NOW.”
From Talking Points Memo:
Harris created a stir at the orientation meeting by demanding to know why he had to wait a month after he was sworn in in January for his government-subsidized health care to kick in. After responding in a huff, he even asked if there was some way he could buy into the government care in advance, seemingly thinking there might be a government program similar to the so-called ‘public option’ championed by progressive Democrats in 2009.
According to an unnamed congressional staffer quoted by Thrush, Harris stood up at the meeting “and asked the two ladies who were answering questions why it had to take so long, what he would do without 28 days of health care.”
So, yeah. That happened.
After spending his campaign screaming that healthcare shouldn’t be a new government entitlement, Andy Harris wants his new government entitlement because great googly moogly! — he can’t be expected to go a full month without health insurance!
And he’s right! No one should be expected to go a month, or a year, or a lifetime without affordable (or free!) health insurance.
Right?
No? Ok then.
I could rant all damn day about healthcare and how fucked our system is. I know from personal experience how fucked it is. I had to go on medical leave this year because the stress from, among other things, trying to get my brain shit sorted with my health insurance company was too much for me to bear. I literally couldn’t get out of bed, much less go to work or, you know, wrangle with my health insurance company about the extent of my coverage and whether or not I could go see a proper specialist. It sucked. Actually, “sucked” doesn’t come close to describing it. And I have health insurance. So I can’t imagine what it’s like for folks who don’t have health insurance, and are resigned to going to clinics that make you sign away all your rights before they’ll treat you.
So there you have it. Maryland’s new Congressman, Andy Harris.
Let’s give the boy a hand.
[cross-posted at ABLC]
Moses2317
If only Mr. Harris had brought a chicken with him, he could have bartered for whatever health care he might need before he begins receiving socialized insurance.
Winning Progressive
Unabogie
What, you want me to be surprised? How about this: find a story about a right wing nutbar who ISN’T on the government take.
Huh?
Huh?
Hunter Gathers
Let it be put into the record that Andy Harris is a grade A Pig Fucker.
asiangrrlMN
Oh, how I wish one of those two ladies had gotten up in his face and shouted, “Motherfucking death panels, bee-yotch! Who wants Obamacare NOW?!”
Sigh.
Oh, and every one of those fuckers who ran on/stumped for/ranted about repealing ‘Obamacare’ should officially not have ebil gubmint health insurance as of now.
arguingwithsignposts
I am all for Congresscritters having to buy individual health insurance. Fuckers already get around every labor law they enact on the rest of the land. (and I realize this makes me sound like a teabagger, but these folks wouldn’t be so sanguine about the shit the rest of us have to deal with if they were dealing with it themselves – and the same goes for the SCOTUS).
morzer
Can’t we demand that Harris keep his dirty little governmental self out of our Medicare?
Laura Doty
I don’t have a whole hand to give him. How about one finger?
d.s.
@arguingwithsignposts:
All that would do is ensure that 100% of people in Congress are millionaires.
People with families on normal incomes aren’t about to campaign for a job that will leave them without health care.
arguingwithsignposts
@d.s.:
and this is different than the current situation in what way? Seriously, it’s a two year gig for a rep. who has to raise a boatload of money to get elected every two years.
The Senate is already a millionaires’ club.
I’m not seeing the point here.
asiangrrlMN
@d.s.: I say the Congresspeople who believe in healthcare for everyone gets theirs and them who don’t believe in it, don’t. I can do without having any ‘baggers in my politics, thankyewverymuch.
Violet
I really hope there’s audio of this encounter. Even better, video. And that it’s available for use during the next round of elections for a commercial or two.
curious
could someone tell us what the free market spin on this will be? something about state lines, maybe?
(assuming you can tear yourself away from your tear-soaked andy harris body pillow long enough to type a response. thanks!)
Mnemosyne
So apparently this guy has never held an actual job before if he’s never heard of there being a waiting period to get your health insurance.
Color me surprised.
sherifffruitfly
(shrug) It’s ok. He’ll just talk about Muslims, Mexicans, and Obama tomorrow, and white folks will be happy again.
MikeJ
@arguingwithsignposts: And then we get to hear congresspeople say “I have to buy my own health insurance, why shouldn’t you?”
We should not penalize people who want to enter public service. Of course we should elect smarter people to be in public service.
Loneoak
Has anyone else noticed that Jimmy Wales, the Wikipedia founder plastered across the top of the site for like the last 37 years (in Internet years) looks an awful like Joe Miller (R-Loser), but maybe 20 lbs heavier (in Internet lbs)? It bugs the hell out of me.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Sure looks like he needs a government option, eh? The stupid are voting in the stupid and there is little we can do about it but sit back and watch Rome burn. There isn’t enough sane to overcome the insane in this country.
Since it all makes for great reality tv, forget any help from the M$M because they’ll all be fighting over the ratings and banking the money from the political ads.
We is fucked.
James E. Powell
You all just don’t get right-wingers. They do not object to government programs or government-provided benefits. In fact, they feel absolutely entitled to every dime of it. Failure to get that check to them on time is proof of government incompetence.
They only object to having to share those benefits with blacks, gays, immigrants, Muslims, and liberals, none of whom deserve anything because they are lazy, morally deficient, and besides, they hate America.
All the crying about “deficits” or “government spending” is all just crying about “giving our tax money to [fill in the blank with epithet that refers to the undesirables of the moment].”
curious
@MikeJ: yes, never create even the tiniest opening for an aggrieved response from the forever put-upon ruling elite.
i pity the benefits administrators at that meeting. how to politely explain to the future legislative leaders of america how employer-sponsored insurance generally works in this country….?
hamletta
Dear Lord, the bastard’s a physician. Who campaigned in a white coat.
Fucker.
Martin
This guy is going to be pissed in 2014 when he gets kicked off of the government plan and onto the same exchanges as the rest of the country.
Yutsano
@Martin: Unless the people of Maryland wake the fuck up and make him jobless by then. Or even better in 2012.
FlipYrWhig
@James E. Powell: This.
Mark S.
@hamletta:
Wow, the fuck is a doctor.
Fixed for accuracy.
Martin
@Yutsano: What are the odds that this guy ran the math and determined that running for Congress would be cheaper than paying for his own Viagra?
Martin
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
FYWP!
pattonbt
You know, the problem with….oh f*ck it, what @James E. Powell: said.
The Populist
@asiangrrlMN:
One word: Elitist.
I hate these people more and more everyday. It’s okay and acceptable for ME and YOU and everyone here to pay his s-list insurance yet it’s not okay for the poor, needy and those without jobs to get the same deal?
Fuck him.
The Populist
I’d have respect for these tards if they’d just come in and say I DO NOT WANT THIS, I WILL PAY FOR MY OWN INSURANCE WITH MY CONGRESSIONAL PAY. Too bad they can’t realize how hypocritical they are.
Cliff
Before I get into a really really f’n stupid rant, here is a documentary everyone, Yes, EVERYONE should watch:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/view/
In Sick Around the World, FRONTLINE teams up with veteran Washington Post foreign correspondent T.R. Reid to find out how five other capitalist democracies — the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland — deliver health care, and what the United States might learn from their successes and their failures.
hamletta
@Cliff: Oh, yes! I saw that!
Everywhere they went, they told public health officials that people in the US go bankrupt and lose their homes because they got sick, and no matter where they were, the officials tilted their heads like puzzled puppies: Huh?!
When they recovered from the shock, the protested that that’s immoral.
Which it is.
Cliff
@hamletta:
Wish me Luck as I am about to re-watch it for the first time in several years, only this time I’m sicker, and more informed and more drunk, so I will not comment further tonight.
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
@hamletta: This doesn’t surprise me in the least. And I wouldn’t go to Rand Paul if I had retinopathy, cataracts or glaucoma and he was the only working ophthalmologist in Kentucky. I’d move.
Ruckus
ABL
I’ve had employer provided insurance and it was actually pretty good most of the time. Until the insurance company told my employer that they would not write the insurance that we had been getting any more. Even if we wanted to pay for it. We had to take the crap that everyone else was getting. The howls from 90 employees about how they were getting screwed were pretty loud. Some offered to pay more. That didn’t matter. We got the same crap as everyone else. Because the insurance company wanted it that way. Fuckers.
That was then, this is now. Now I have no health insurance. None. I’m in my early 60’s and hoping that I make it to 65, well enough to start sucking off the government tit. The one I paid into for so many years. Just like everyone else. And this Dr. cocksucker is screaming about being without gold plated insurance that he doesn’t have to pay for, for a month? The thought of a baseball bat and a months window come to mind. Lets see, a douche bag of this magnitude, one or two kneecaps?
And people are upset about a couple of tires? No Shit.
cs
My gf just got served documents by a lawyer representing her anesthesiologist since she is uninsured and hasn’t been able to pay back any of the costs from a surgery related to her kidney condition.
I’ve been so tempted to make a copy of this legal document and send it to our extremely conservative congressman, Jason Chaffetz, just to point out what it was that he voted for when he took his stand against any changes to health care. To point out how absurd this document would be in any other part of the western world.
But it would just be a waste of a stamp. I’m sure I’d just get back some blather about how the free market works to provide us with the best health care possible and how we shouldn’t be mooching off of the hard work of others. Telling us how she should just be willing to die if she can’t pay because otherwise this would not be a free country.
El Cid
In the immortal words of Will Arnett’s character on The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret,
“I WANT MY FUCKING MONEY YOU FUCKING FUCKSTICK!”
The conservative ethos at work.
Ruckus
@El Cid:
I should have known that you’d boil it down to the perfect one liner.
Ruckus
@cs:
Three years ago I had to go to the emergency room. They asked who would be paying. I told them to send the bill to Bush, after all he implied that emergency rooms were the government solution to not having health care insurance.
El Cid
ACORN pimp James O’Keefe gets a recording from a man who buys a woman drinks at a bar, she’s a teacher he’s targeting to get gossip, asks her about racial incidents, and records her conversation, and gets her into trouble for something she said about another person and uses the whole incident to go after teachers’ unions for protecting racists.
Citizen journalism!
Who does this lady think she is, anyway, teaching all these unproductive special ed parasites, even being foolish enough to literally throw herself under the bus for them? What kind of society do we think we’re going to have if we have all these people trying to teach the defectives?
I don’t care if it would make him a martyr or not. Somebody just needs to beat the ever-living shit out of this guy. Then leave him in the street in the cold with his underwear on his head.
Maybe we should all go out and start buying drinks for people from various conservative churches who are hanging out at bars or public restrooms or whatever and record everything they say.
Yet, the question remains: are her countertops granite?
El Cid
@Ruckus: Anything the client needs.
El Cid
As predicted by so, so many: the leading candidate for Republican House investigation, so eagerly hoped to lead to impeachment, or at least Holder being fired.
This will be the storyline for as long as the right feels like making it. The billion dollar media will happily go along, and if there is anything messy made out of it, Democrats will break each others’ legs getting to the front of the crowd to denounce the DOJ’s horrible partisan inaction.
Cliff
@cs:
Don’t make me come down there in person and tell you what a stupid fucking thing it is that you just typed.
Perfect Tommy
I have a friend who identifies his political views as ultra-conservative on his Facebook page. He has been retired since 9/11 when he barely escaped from the South Tower while most of his coworkers were killed when the second plane hit. I get a steady stream of pro-Tea Party, anti-Obama, anti-ObamaCare , anti-Pelosi forwarded email from him. The kind of all-caps stuff your parents send after a day of watching Fox News. I tolerate it because we have been friends for nearly 40 years.
Yesterday, we were speaking on the phone and he was complaining about the cost of his prescriptions. He has Medicare, but now he is in the “donut hole” and the drugs he takes don’t have generics. I said to him “I thought the new law closed the donut hole?” He replied “It does, phases it out over time. BUT NOW THAT THE REPUBLICANS HOLD THE HOUSE, I AM WORRIED THAT THEY WON’T FUND THAT.” You can’t make this stuff up.
Cliff
@Cliff:
after all, I might have to serve you several sternly worded letter… explaining in detail how much of a fucking stupid idea it is to not participate in a democracy.
…ps Vote & Communicate!
El Cid
@Perfect Tommy: It may take a while, perhaps too long, perhaps after too much damage is done to HCR reform by Republicans, but I often thought that one day there would be a bunch of poor and working class and lower middle class white conservatives who hate Democrats with a passion, especially, say, in the South, and then when they started to be able to get health care for their kids and their whole family when they never before had or could keep health insurance, and then also not worrying about going into bankruptcy.
And when that happened, I wanted to see how many remembered that it was Obama and the Democrats who did that.
Cliff
is it a woops from PBS? anyway the nov 23 broadcast is already fully online, and its really good yet again.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/facing-death/
How far would you go to sustain the life of someone you love, or your own? When the moment comes, and you’re confronted with the prospect of “pulling the plug,” do you know how you’ll respond?
In Facing Death, FRONTLINE gains extraordinary access to The Mount Sinai Medical Center, one of New York’s biggest hospitals, to take a closer measure of today’s complicated end-of-life decisions. In this intimate, groundbreaking film, doctors, patients and families speak with remarkable candor about the increasingly difficult choices people are making at the end of life: when to remove a breathing tube in the ICU; when to continue treatment for patients with aggressive blood cancers; when to perform a surgery; and when to call for hospice
El Cid
David Brooks literally suggests that liberals’ problems with the economy is that they just do too much of that damn ‘science‘ stuff.
Forget the fact that he’s a dumbass and Germany has been constantly assisting its manufacturing sector and has been directly subsidizing companies giving workers fewer hours so as to pay more people.
What the fuck is he even talking about when he says that one of the liberal teknocrap evils is to “borrow when the nation is sick of borrowing”?
Who is “sick of borrowing”? Why are they? If it makes sense to borrow to do better policy, should one care if people are “sick” of it?
The nation may be sick of war, but those haven’t ended yet, either.
Cliff
@El Cid:
and the extraordinary German social support systems.
He’s a F’n Moron.
El Cid
@Cliff: You’re right. Of course forgetting to also mention the completely obvious.
He’s such a fucking prick, and I’m so pissed that he wastes space on the New York Times editorial pages which causes him to be seen as some insightful rationalist by pleasant centrists and to be a valued guest on the networks and PBS etc.
homerhk
Cliff, El Cid. Top rate of income tax in Germany? 45% plus a 5.5% “solidarity tax”
El Cid
@homerhk: This is not true because SHUT UP.
Also wait ’til the Partei des Tees gets started.
cs
@Cliff:
It honestly would be a waste of a stamp. I might do it anyways, just to make myself feel better, but look up Jason Chaffetz, if you don’t know who he is, and then tell me with a straight face that a letter would make the slightest bit of difference.
I’m sure his response to me in reality wouldn’t be nearly as harsh as my hypothetical suggests, but the message, couched in careful and seemingly sympathetic politicospeak, would essentially be the same. He has to answer to a very conservative district that played a large part in kicking Bob Bennett to the curb for being too liberal. He has to answer to his corporate lobbyists. He has to answer to the legions of easily angered tea baggers.
He’s not going to give two shits about the suffering of a couple of people in his district who most likely didn’t vote for him and certainly didn’t give him any money or volunteer for him. I’m just being realistic. Even if my poignant letter somehow miraculously convinced Chaffetz that health care reform is a good thing, he’ll not go against his party or the people who fund his campaign.
Cliff
@cs:
If you don’t do it you will regret it later, that’s all I got to offer at this point.
If you don’t try to convince the .blank. that he is going to hell for his choice….
Sly
@El Cid:
I heard you can get a more “artistic” grasp of economic fundamentals at an Applebee’s salad bar.
morzer
@El Cid:
Of course, Brooks ignores China, which used a stimulus (mostly on infrastructure) of several magnitudes greater than the palsied little package deployed by the US/ I really think Brooks suffers from cognitive exceptionalism – if it doesn’t follow the approved US model, it didn’t happen or couldn’t have worked.
Powdermonkey
My New Congressman people! Weep for me.
The Blue Dog he replaced wasn’t much different, but he at least wasn’t that insane.
I knew Harris was trouble when his Democratic opponent was endorsed by the previous Republican office holder in the past 2 elections.
Oh yeah, that’s DOCTOR Andy Harris, yep he’s a Doctor who doesn’t know how insurance works.
Makes you want to visit his office right?
mai naem
I would like to stuff a sock in Joe Scarborough’s mouth and have Rachel Maddow take over Morning Ho for just oen day. Also too, dick head I don’t want a Republican’s advice on Democractic leadership you moron. A#$hole.
Lee
@Perfect Tommy:
You are far too kind. My father-in-law pulled that shit on me and I went off like a thermonuclear warhead on him.
gnomedad
@El Cid:
This is appalling even by usual wingnut standards. The words “obscene” and “rape” come to mind.
Chris
On behalf of the state of Maryland, I apologize. To the world.
Ash Can
@Powdermonkey: He probably worked for hospitals that dutifully sent him his paychecks, and whose front-office grunts were the ones doing the actual wrangling with the insurance companies.
Teabaggers: Clueless, and proud of it.
Powdermonkey
@Ash Can:
I know quite a few Doctors in my real life. All of them know how they get paid.
They may not have exact knowledge of the ins and outs of what each insurance plan covers, that’s why they have billing specialists and business managers, but all of them have at least the basic contours of how insurance works.
The 30 day waiting period should be a no brainier.
Cacti
Congressional health coverage should consist of a catastrophic policy with a $5,000 deductible and no dependent coverage.
Their pay should be the federal minimum wage.
Perfect Tommy
@Lee: I make an exception for this guy. He worked for a foreign bank in the WTC and when the first plane hit, his first instinct was GTFO. But the supervisors demanded that the workers remain at their desks. He and a few other American employees bolted while those that dutifully stayed at their desks died when the second plane hit. The PTSD and survivor’s guilt has really changed him. I’ve seen this in quite a few of my NY friends. 9/11 changed them permanently. Former liberals are now jingoistic, anti-Muslim, raging right-wingers.
Comrade Darkness
ABL, Sister (if I may), you have instantly become my favorite poster on this site. I keep meaning to say that, but I finally got a quiet moment with a cup of coffee to get around to it.
rikyrah
ain’t this a bitch?
not a shock, but absolutely ridiculous.
Comrade Darkness
@Ruckus: I didn’t *imply.* He stated it outright. (Bush doesn’t have enough brain cells for nuance, if you think about it that way.)
“I mean, people have access to health care in America. They can just go to the emergency room.” Is the exact quote.
curious
@Cacti: can you imagine how much more on the take these guys would be making $8/hr? on the other hand, it might cut down on presidential campaigns starting seven years before the next election. (seriously, though, i can’t see why their pay shouldn’t be indexed to the national median.)
Trevor B
@Cacti: This. Congress should always be paid the minimum wage, this job is supposed to be a sacrifice for the greater good of the people, not a way to get rich. If the minimum wage is good enough for me, it should be good enough for a congressman.
Maody
Also, too, welcome to Breakfast of Wingnuts
I swan, some of these people should be made to sit down for a loooong time and listen to themselves, forever. I think they should make what I make… not enough to live on.
And – send the letter and make the call knowing you have infoammo of this fool.
MysticalChick
I’m so happy and honored that he is the representative of my very own congressional district. AH! The joys of living on the MD eastern shore (along with all the “I’ll keep my guns, money, jeebus and crap and you can keep your CHANGE” stickers on every friggin’ truck)
Kratovil was a huge blue dog but I’d have taken him over that scumsucker Harris.
(Why yes, I *AM* in a bad mood today. Can you tell?)
Oh, and ABL? I love you and your various blogs. :)
ruemara
@cs:
Make it not a waste of a stamp then. Submit the letter to your rep, your largest newspaper and local tv. Publicity, especially negative, does wonders.
@Comrade Darkness:
I just heard Limbaugh spout the same thing. Wasn’t listening to him, Stephanie Miller’s Right Wing World segment.
Ruckus
@Comrade Darkness:
Understood what he said. Was not clear enough that the implication was that the government would pay for the emergency room visit.
And yes he is a fucking idiot. But he has friends. Lots of friends
The group of idiots that are like him seems to grow everyday. The media, for the most part. Elected officials, many of them(of course there have always been elected idiots) The entire TSA, every last employee, top to bottom. Conservatives(the very largest group)(time/history will go backwards? Don’t need no learning about the workings of the planet they live on, shout louder everything will be better, and on and on and on)
And maybe us for being too nice and putting up with this bullshit.
Or its possible that my back which has been killing me for a couple of weeks has just rubbed my nerves raw and the world really is a happy sun shinny place. Fuckers.
asiangrrlMN
@El Cid: Just when I thought I couldn’t get any more pissed, I read this. I am with you on beating the shit out of O’Keefe, if only because justice is not taking care of him (vigilante? A little bit). That poor woman. I can’t imagine how betrayed and upset she must feel.
Platonicspoof
Seconding the suggestion by asiangrrlMN and others that the anti-government healthcare hypocrites buy their own insurance (and scooters, etc.).
Wendell Potter and Amy Goodman briefly mentioned Harris today. As always, a pleasure to hear from Mr. Potter, who has a book out called ‘Deadly Spin’.
Interview transcript here, same page has video link.
Hogan
You have to wait thirty days because when your health insurance is provided by your employer, you generally front-pay your share of the premiums through payroll deduction, which means they won’t have your first premium until the beginning of your second month on payroll.
Out here in America it’s called “having a job,” asshole. Look it up.
Tulip
what a fucking hypocritical asshole.