Here’s a Mitt Romney telling the truth for once:
“What I would do if I were a Democrat running four years from now, I’d say, ‘You know what, dental care will be included in Obamcare.’ … And Republicans will say, ‘No, that’s going to cost a trillion dollars,’ and the Democrats will say, ‘That’s fine, you know, we’ll pay it.'”
Exactly. After all the bullshit caused by insurance companies as middlemen is worked through, people will like it better than the old system, and things that aren’t covered now will be covered by additional acts of Congress, and it will be a lasting legacy for Obama and the Democrats, just like Social Security and Medicare. The fact that it will be called Obamacare as a compliment, not a slur, long after Obama is retired and enjoying being a grandfather is just icing on the cake.
Cacti
Keep opening your gob, Mittens.
It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Balconesfault
The biggest ACA story right now might be how thanks to wingnut Governors and the Tea Party, only 16 states plus DC are in any position to start their compacts on schedule. Look forward to the screams of “Federal Government takeover” to follow as the program gets implemented without their participation …
Xecky Gilchrist
Mitt’s idea of “elder statesman” looks an awful lot like “whiny brat.”
Balconesfault
@Xecky Gilchrist: Well, at least he’s not a whiny brat with a Senate seat …
Southern Beale
Oh I’m quite sure Republicans will regret ever calling the Affordable Care Act “Obamacare” in the first place, and a lot sooner than anyone expects. In fact, I predict that by 2016 we’ll be seeing Republicans make the claim that ObamaCare really was THIER idea all along (which it was) and point out what a visionary Mitt Romney was for implementing it in MA. They’ll deny they were ever against it, spent millions trying to defeat it, rallied their torch & pitchfork mobs, etc. Any photos of Obama hung in effigy, etc. we produce will be written off as “just a few bad apples.” I mean, it’s gonna be hard, because they were so vocal against it, but I predict the memory hole will be scrubbed pretty thoroughly. Grab those screen shots, download thos anti-ObamaCare ads, etc. You will need them.
Cacti
@Xecky Gilchrist:
Mitt never had a future in the GOP if he lost. He was supported out of expediency, after winning the “tallest midget” contest that was the GOP primary.
He’ll be remembered by the wingers as fondly as Dan Quayle.
Dan
The idea of a born-into-privilege multimillionaire mocking the idea of people receiving dental insurance makes my blood boil. Fuck him through his magic underwear.
aimai
I wish I’d clipped it, down in the weeds of a comment thread excoriating Obama for Obamacare was a totally incoherent attack on Romneycare in MA, and on Romney for not repudiating it, by an elderly white MA resident who was sure that Scot Brown lost because he hadn’t moved in a more teaparty direction. He asserted that everyone knew that Romneycare in MA had been a dramatic failure, that everyone hated it –haven’t heard that from anyone–and that only because people got confused and didn’t understand had Brown been driven out of power and replaced by Warren. These people wouldn’t recognize reality if it hit them in the face with a two by four.
aimai
jibeaux
I read on Political Wire today that the latest bright idea is not to take the 33rd failed vote on repeal or whatever, but to chisel away at it, such as by delaying implementation of the subsidies. Before we get to whatever awesomeness Obamacare can cause next — and I do believe that it can do that and can get solid support — we have to make sure that it doesn’t get cut to ribbons first.
Scott S.
What the hell is wrong with free dental care? I see too damn many people who’ve lost teeth or are losing teeth and can’t afford to get them fixed. People actually die from getting tooth abscesses.
If “Oh, you big baby, you want your teeth fixed?” is going to be the new GOP rallying cry, then goddamn, I’m gonna start carrying metal pipes so I can start knocking wingnut teeth out.
lamh35
maybe that’s what makes Romney so mad. the fact that his shining achievement, Romneycare, will be forever overshadowed by Obamacare. a name like you say that was supposed to be derogatory, but will live on long past the name Romneycare. Mittens one blip in history will be that he lost an election badly to an incumbent many said (wrongly) was destined to lose.
Karma is a bitch
Balconesfault
@jibeaux: Delaying implementation of the subsidies MUST NOT HAPPEN.
I trust Obama is smart enough to recognize that.
Kane
It’s only a matter of time before Romney will be taking credit for the idea of Obamacare Dental.
magurakurin
@Southern Beale: My long time old friend is fond of saying that we will know that PPACA is well and truly a done deal when the Republicans stop referring to it as Obamacare. And as you say, that is probably going to happen sooner than anyone thinks and the Goopers will be taking credit for it just as you say.
but whatever, they still lost.
Judas Escargot, Bringer of Loaves and Fish Sandwiches
Mitt, Dude, if being a “Maker” is such a fucking burden, give me your money.
I guarantee that I could come up with much more productive and interesting things to do with your half-billion dollars than you ever did. And I’d be much too busy to bitch about paying taxes.
MomSense
Please sir can I have some more ObamaCare?!
I believe the PPACA did include funds for some dental clinics but I would love, love, love if our next round of “gifts” included dental insurance as part of ObamaCare. Dental health is part of overall health and I have never understood why the two would be considered separately.
Water balloon
Mitt stumbled onto a good idea. Dental health should be covered. Bad teeth are embarrassing and uniquely painful. Speaking from personal experience, having to rely on constant use of sensodyne toothpaste for the better part of a year until I could scrape together enough money to get work done, I would pay attention to someone who has a plan to make dental care more affordable.
Dan
@Scott S.:
Good teeth is how you can tell the virtuous people from the poors. Part of God’s plan.
Culture of Truth
Civil rights were their idea. Gay rights were their idea. Also SS, Medicare, Medicaid, the new deal, reproductive rights, abortion rights and drug legalization – after all they’re the party of small government don’t you know
Odie Hugh Manatee
Our dentist would love to see dental care rolled in to health insurance. I found this out when I asked him what he thought of separate coverage for health and dental that companies offer and he said “It’s stupid”. He also pointed out that a lack of proper dental care can lead to all kinds of health problems.
Let’s hope that Mitt’s words come back to haunt the Republican party soon.
MattF
@Scott S.: Also, diseased teeth and gums are a source of systemic inflammation, which, according to a popular theory, leads to various degenerative problems. Regarding dental care as an unaffordable luxury is really just another sign that Romney has no idea about how poor people live.
amk
At this point, all that the bot has got left is bitch and moan. I am betting he will be as toxic as shrub by new year.
lamh35
OT and not for nothing, but Joe Bidens cameo on Parks & Recreations last night was too cute.
Biden Makes Cameo on NBC’s Parks & Reacreation
mdblanche
“Ironic, isn’t it, Fehrnstrom. This anonymous 47% of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election, and yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That’s democracy for you.”
runt
Teabaggers in 2032: “Keep your government away from my Obamacare!”
aimai
@Water balloon:
I think the Times had a heart breaking story a few years ago about just how socially crippling bad teeth were–let alone what has recently come out about the dangers of infection, abscess, and death–they “discovered” what was hiding in plain sight which is the fact that bad teeth condemn workers to being hidden in backrooms in low wage jobs even if they start out with the education and the luck to get good, front of the house jobs. Once your teeth start falling out and you can’t get them fixed fast enough, or at all, you simply aren’t presentable in modern America.
aimai
meander
@Scott S.: Well said! It’s not like your teeth and gums are in a separate biological universe, one that never interacts with your circulatory, digestive and respiratory systems. Having healthy teeth and gums leads to a better, more productive life. And IIRC, there have been connections between gum disease and heart disease, I think it was the bacteria that prey on gums can cause your blood to act up, perhaps through the inflammation response (i.e., body produces chemicals in response to inflammation that mess up the heart’s operation).
Back in 2005, Malcolm Gladwell started a piece in the New Yorker about “moral hazard” with some words on dental care:
So let’s make dental care a priority when it comes time to upgrade Obamacare!
Culture of Truth
Mitt, you can’t handle the tooth!
Culture of Truth
I have excellent health care coverage through my employer, yet even I have trouble paying for some of the extensive work I need done. yeesh!
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Judas Escargot, Bringer of Loaves and Fish Sandwiches:
These rich assholes have the makers and takers bullshit backwards. The hard working workers of America make things happen and the asshole business owners take every penny they can from the hard work of the makers. These rich assholes couldn’t make a damned thing happen without the so-called takers that they employ making their business successful. Nature abhors a vacuum. If these “makers” weren’t there then there would be others that would be. Every time I hear of some rich asshole threatening to shut down I say DO IT! Let someone else come in and take up that niche.
They know that this is the case too, thus the kicking, screaming and threats.
amk
@Culture of Truth: Nice.
Kirbster
@MomSense:
There used to be some sort of public service-type commercial around that had a graphic that expanded the word “Oral” in “Oral Health” into “Overall Health”. They have a point, in an “ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” kind of way. Unfortunately, even routine professional dental services are shockingly expensive without insurance.
Kay
Kids get oral health risk assessment with no out of pocket cost under Obamacare in the “wellness” portion of the law:
It’s a start.
I used to be mad that there’s no coverage of the preventive health portion of the law other than the birth control part (birth control is just a tiny portion, but has gotten really ridiculously outsized media coverage, I guess because birth control 1. applies to women! and is 2. tangentially about S-E-X!) but now I’ve decided it’s good they don’t cover it, because people can find out on their own without it being spun negatively by media/conservatives.
It’s easier to tell people something rather than going back and correcting some bullshit they’ve been told by media/conservatives, then telling them the facts.
Saves time :)
Rafer Janders
How I wish that the Republicans of the 1930s had been stupid enough to brand Social Security as FDRcare….
Kane
George H.W. Bush, Dubya, Dole, McCain, Quayle, Cheney, Palin…and now Romney and Ryan. All will go into hiding in the next election as none are seen as an asset on the campaign trail for whoever is the republican nominee in 2016. Meanwhile, the Dems have Clinton and Obama in the bullpen.
Betsy
@MattF: Yeah! Like heart disease — the number one killer, etc. Great point.
Steve
I bet George Washington would have been in favor of some government-provided dental care instead of those painful wooden teeth.
Culture of Truth
We’re going in the wrong direction. We should separate out care more. Liver coverage. Spleen insurance. Toe protection. Thumbcare.
...now I try to be amused
If Republicans wanted to take credit for Obamacare, they’d have to change their name to Obama, wouldn’t they? [evil grin]
Culture of Truth
the poor are just sluts for food.
jibeaux
Worth noting, of course, is that the Republicans’ economic genius, the smartest guy they had, the business guy, thinks that dental insurance would cost a trillion dollars a year.
Lessee, if you covered it at 100% for every man, woman, and child in America, it would still cost over $3000 a year at that rate. I think Mittens is confusing “cost of dental care” with “amount that I wanted to increase the defense budget by.”
Culture of Truth
They will repeal it and replace it with the exact same provisions but call it Whiteyjesuscare. Legislative alchemy.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@amk: Typical Republican programmers. Most of us are trying to solve problems, and they write a bitch and moan subroutine.
the Conster
@runt:
I posted this very comment on my FB page early last summer – that in the near future seniors on their Hoverrounds (which will actually hover) will be screaming about keeping the gubmint out of their Obamacare, with no irony at all.
EconWatcher
I actually don’t see how you can cover medical care if you don’t cover dental care. I had a tooth abcess that was misdiagnosed–it landed me in the emergency room and could have killed me. Dental health is inextricably intertwined with overall health.
As usual, the Mittster is playing it ignorant and cheap, implying that the issue is just cosmetics.
ETA: I see Scott S. got there first.
Nutella
While Republican touting some expensive government program they want will say, “That’s fine, you know, we’ll just crank up the debt to pay for it.”
quannlace
On the bright side, we won’t be inflicted with him during the next election cycle. No Romney speech at the Republican convention. He can join Dubya in the Cayman islands.
Culture of Truth
Dental care, volcano monitoring, preexisting conditions – all while poor Poland goes without a missile defense system.
Will liberals be smiling when Warsaw is rubble, huh?
Hillary Rettig
It’s actually fascinating to watch the mask come off Mitt. For all his privilege, he’s really not just a crappy person, but an immature, underdeveloped one. On some level, he must know that with statements like these he’s alienating everyone, including people he needs as allies, but he can’t help himself.
The GOP keeps running candidates they call “adults” and who are anything but.
PS – kudos to Culture of Tooth
jibeaux
And while we’re dreaming, why not a major vision plan? A friend of mine has a mom who is a retired hairstylist not yet 65, forced to retire due to chronic health problems. She got cataracts and my friend spent a year applying for grants to cover her surgery before finally finding a foundation for the blind willing to do it. It’s nuts. If this woman could get the medical care she needs, she might still be able to work.
roc
@Scott S.:
Absolutely nothing. Which is why the GOP will argue against it by suggesting those young bucks will get their gold-and-diamond grills on your hard-earned tax money.
Because that’s apparently how they’ve decided to continue rolling.
MattF
@Hillary Rettig: Also, Romney evidently sees politics as a system of payoffs– you give me X, I’ll give you Y. The whole concept of ‘policy’, not to mention ‘public interest’ or even ‘enlightened self-interest’ is just not part of his universe.
Judas Escargot, Bringer of Loaves and Fish Sandwiches
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
In real life, “Who Is John Galt?” is what the new guy says as he takes over Galt’s job.
It’s also comical how the Maker/Taker trope inverts the Labor Theory of Value: In this new analysis, it’s actually the poor, shackled CEOs and financiers who create all the value. The actual line workers (who are, shall we say, “Making” things) are all parasites who should just be grateful that they get their two pounds of daily Oxygen for free.
Kane
If I remember correctly, Romney was promising that he was going to save Medicare and that Obama was going to take it away. And he was promising to increase military spending and to build a bigger Navy with many more ships. And he was promising tax cuts for everyone. And he was promising a jobless wonderland.
The guy was full of bs promises, and now he’s claiming that he lost because the other side promised goodies.
the Conster
@Hillary Rettig:
I don’t think he’s ever, in his whole life, had to care about anything at all. He’s lived his life in a triple layered impermeable bubble of Mormonism, fabulous wealth and privilege and yes-men CEOism, and the rest of the world outside that is just static noise to be suppressed. No self-reflection has ever been required, and he’s not going to start now.
different-church-lady
Romney continued, “Heck, at this rate they’ll start to allow blacks and latinos and women to actually vote! How was I supposed to compete with that?”
Culture of Truth
That’s right. Romney basically promised tax cut gifts and of course to “restore” the $700 billion because he’s just that generous. I’m seriously wondering what is wrong with his brain.
amk
@Kane: egg.sack.lee. Typical rethug projection.
PreservedKillick
@Hillary Rettig:
Bingo. The word you’re looking for is “clueless”, by the way.
Charles Pierce wrote a fantastic piece about the good that Mitt did with Romneycare, which truly was a hell of a lot of good, and how sad it was that he had to run away from it. To some extent, clueless or not, this is a man who was trapped by his own party into a set of positions and “values” that are just shit.
He didn’t rebel against that, ultimately selling his soul, which is some sort of parable for unconstrained ambition, I have no doubt, though the notion of Mitt Romney as a sympathetic figure is truly hard to swallow.
roc
@Kane:
No real shock.
They’re not big on intellectual or philosophical consistency. But they are really big on “Do as I say, not as I do” and “Ok for me, but not for thee”, “It’s OK If You’re A Republican”, etc.
Consider the GOP complaining about “identity politics” as if the left appealing to the concerns of women, blacks, latinos, immigrants, lgbt people, etc. to garner votes is fundamentally different than their appeals to the concerns of white bigots.
Nor is it a shock that all of Obama’s supposed “gifts” are actually paid for without massive tax hikes or shifting downward of the tax burden. Whereas all of Romney’s gifts would have required savage cuts to government services, a massive shift in the tax burden and *still* grown the deficit and the debt.
MomSense
@Kirbster
Yes, it is expensive! I pay out of pocket for a family of five and the two teenage units had wisdom teeth removed.
I need some periodontal work done but I think I will have to sell everything and move to a van down by the river in order to pay for it.
Lurking Canadian
Obviously, the reason I don’t have $250 million dollars in my Cayman bank account is that I am not whiny, entitled or clueless enough to be a real Job Creator.
I really ought to start whining more. It seems to work wonders.
LD50
I’ve always said this about Obamacare: Republican politicians don’t hate it because it’s “communism” — they’re terrified because it’s going to be very popular and their opponent will get all the credit.
MattF
Entirely OT (via Mefi), a charming PSA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw&feature=share
Culture of Truth
So when Romney was in power in MA and surrounded by liberals who wanted health care, he did it. In the GOP primary surrounded by people who hated it, he disavowed it.
He’s either clueless, craven, hopelessly malleable, or will do or say anything for the slightest political advantage.
Flukebucket
Boortz is out there gloating about all of the workers losing their jobs because they voted for Obama. All of those god damn greedy union workers who just will not agree to work for minimum wage. I hope China starts making the Twinkies and we can check them as they come in for melamine content. The Titans of Industry better fill the moats that surround their houses with alligators because they are going to need them.
Sterling
I am still infinitely pleased at how much pain losing this election is causing Romney. After six years of campaigning, the guy really thought he had it won. Then Obama swooped in and took it away using the power of superior political skills. Romney would be beating his dog in frustration right now if he had enough empathy to be allowed to own one.
different-church-lady
@Culture of Truth:
These things are not mutually exclusive.
NorthLeft12
Dental is included in most, if not all, European Health Care systems. Unfortunately, not in our Canadian system. I can live with that for now, but that is a logical future upgrade.
Lurking Canadian
@Sterling: I know! And he won’t shut up about it. It’s the gift that just keeps on giving.
I guess, being Mormon, he can’t just withdraw to his car elevator and get drunk, so this is the only coping mechanism he’s got.
patrick II
@PreservedKillick:
What is remarkable to me about Mitt’s turning away from Romneycare is that he now seems sincerely convinced that Obamacare is a “gift” for winning elections, not policy that helps people. Which makes me think he didn’t really care about the good Romneycare actually did, but just saw it as a “gift” or tool for his own elevation into national politics. People have wondered which is the real Mitt — the moderate or the teabagger. It seems moderate Mitt was just cynically handing out political gifts so that Mitt the teabagger could be president someday.
Matt McIrvin
@NorthLeft12: I’ve always found that remarkable, that even some universal health-care systems don’t include dental care.
It seems to me that this is one of the first things a universal health-care system should go for. Not unlimited coverage of all expensive dental operations, obviously (private insurance doesn’t even do that, as I can testify from very recent personal experience).
But free checkups and professional cleanings every six months, fluoride treatments for kids, and basic cavity drill-and-fill: just that would be such a tremendous reduction in human suffering and needless expense from prevented disasters.
Lurking Canadian
@Matt McIrvin: We (at least in Ontario, I don’t know about the other provinces) don’t have automatic drug coverage either.
If they give you the meds at the hospital, OHIP pays for them. If the doctor gives you a prescription and sends you home, YOU pay for them (there are subsidies for the poor and elderly, but they are by no means universal).
It doesn’t make sense to me either.
Hillary Rettig
@MattF: Excellent point. He can’t even fathom why people wouldn’t vote for him other than cupidity.
What an impoverished world view.
Matt McIrvin
@patrick II: The real Mitt is Mitt the plutocrat, showering contempt on the masses. Mitt the moderate and Mitt the teabagger are both masks he’s at least mildly uncomfortable with. Complaining about the ingrate lucky duckies to his billionaire friends is clearly where he’s truly at ease.
Hillary Rettig
@PreservedKillick: I met Charlie Pierce at the Ta-Nehisi Coates/Chris Hayes event and gave him a big hug!
The Tragically Flip
It’s hilarious that Romney’s sarcastic suggestion is actually a damn fine idea. I know there was a poll here in Canuckistan a few years back where a majority backed the idea of adding basic dental to our universal system. To Romney this is some ridiculous notion, but really, cavity fillings, root canals and other treatments which address seriously painful dental ailments should be seen as basic health care.
You’re hurting and need medical attention. A dentist is in essence just another medical specialist that gets treated specially and apart for historical and largely obsolete reasons.
MCA1
I really wanted to believe that deep down this was a basically decent, but malleable guy who was driven and weighed down his entire life by the expectations placed on him as the Mormon Who Was Destined to Be President, and not just an entitled prick. That way I could empathize with him, wish him a bon voyage from the public stage and a happy political retirement. Guess that was wrong. This last shot, the last chance he had to do something positive for our politics and leave us with a decent final impression of his humanity, and he comes out with pouty bullshit straight from the racquet club locker room.
Politics is about making policy that people feel will, you know, improve their lives and the country. It’s not fucking bribery.
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out to ride off to complete irrelevance, dickwad.
Side note: we need to push back against this crap about the ACA giving people “free health care.” It’s giving people the opportunity to purchase slightly subsidized health insurance, from f’ing insurance companies. And almost no one will individually be paying for the ACA program itself – it’s an employer tax and a surcharge on unearned income (i.e., the investor class).
Matt McIrvin
@Southern Beale: Obama’s reelection campaign actually wholeheartedly adopted the “Obamacare” label, at a time when many liberals were still fuming that it was a wingnut pejorative like “Democrat Party”.
It was a gutsy move, since if you ask Americans if they support Obamacare, a plurality will likely still say no, and it was even more the case back when they probably made the decision, sometime in 2011.
But I think it was brilliant. There was no point in Obama running away from the ACA to get elected; that’s what a loser like Mitt Romney would do. In fact, it was almost exactly what Mitt Romney was doing, so Obama could use it to attack him. Meanwhile, Obama bet that the ACA was going to get somewhat more popular as time went on, and could promote himself by promoting his policies.
MattF
@Matt McIrvin: I think there was an implicit assumption that simply saying the word ‘Obama’ is enough to alienate people. The wingers can’t quite get concept that, out in the real world, there are quite a few folks who respect and like him.
Jim Pharo
Teeth! Who needs ’em! Ami rite? Ami rite people?
Only lazy slobs need dental care…that’s why it’s best to inspect workers teeth BEFORE you hire them — to make sure they aren’t going to have a lot of dental problems down the road that will distract them from work.
America! What a country!!
muddy
In Vermont I believe you get up to $575 per year for dental if you are on Medicaid. The reason given was that people with no teeth can’t get jobs. Also Bernie Sanders has gotten a number of health and dental clinics around the state that (I believe) are on a sliding scale depending on income. Civilized.
rikyrah
@Balconesfault:
fuck that. it’s their asses that wouldn’t set them up, so yes the FEDS should set them up.
those mofos were betting on President Willard…
and that shyt’s not coming
schrodinger's cat
Mitt is such a bastard. That 47% comment was a mirror into his soul, he looks down on anyone who is not rich like he is. Including dental care in ACA is a great idea. last year at about this time I had a dental emergency, I had to have an emergency root canal. Even with my excellent dental insurance it cost me over $2000. This includes copays for an emergency dental surgery, root canal and the crown. I don’t even know how much it would cost without insurance. Its just insane. My infected tooth could have killed me if I hadn’t taken care of it.
Frankensteinbeck
@patrick II:
One thing that should be kept in mind every time Romneycare comes up: He had damned little to do with it. He was in office at the time, but the law was written and pushed by hospitals, and passed by a huge Democratic supermajority. Romney was a rubber stamp.
Elie
@Water balloon:
Bad teeth and gums are not only unsightly and painful, but highly associated with heart disease and other complications. The chronic inflammation and low grade infection associated with bad teeth and gums raises certain substances in the blood that actually attack the linings of blood vessels and cause other immune breakdowns. Its no joke at all..
LanceThruster
This piece was worth sharing.
Henry Rollins: The American People Kicked Your Ass, Republicans
Agoraphobic Kleptomaniac
Seriously, I’m surprised that dental care isn’t part of the ACA. I pay $9 a month for dental at my work for me and my wife, which is crazy cheap, and there are tons of studies showing that untreated dental problems cause all sorts of other health ailments, like as many have pointed out, heart disease.
Good idea Mitt, lets add dental into Obamacare and save my friend’s teeth that have been causing him pain for 4 years due to no insurance.
LurkyLoo2
@Culture of Truth: He’s either clueless, craven, hopelessly malleable, or will do or say anything for the slightest political advantage.
Was this a trick statement? I say all of the above :)
NonyNony
@Judas Escargot, Bringer of Loaves and Fish Sandwiches:
Intentional feature, not bug. Randian philosophy is essentially Bizarro Marxism. Rand took Marxist thought and basically almost applied a “whatever Marx says, believe the opposite” test to it. So you end up with an inverted Theory of Value where capital is the source of value because Marx believed Labor was the source of value.
Sadly for Randians, Marxism was actually based on empirical observation (with enough of Marx’s own “religious” beliefs about how social change works thrown in to screw with it and make it unreliable) so there are good-sized chunks of stuff in there that are in fact empirically justified.
JustRuss
Damn those greedy moochers who want “things” and “stuff”, like healthy teeth! Next they’ll be demanding clean air to breath! Soshalizms!
El Cid
If the GOP hadn’t gone from Gingrich-led hard right crazy assholes to neo-Confederate Bircherite crazier assholes, Mitt Romney wouldn’t have and wouldn’t have had to run away from, lie about, and insult the old-style Republican-proposed health insurance reform he presided over in Massachusetts.
If he and his party hadn’t been and hadn’t chosen to be such assholes, he could have run on his role in doing the precurser to “Obamacare” and would have had his name positively associated with the program.
Instead he’ll much more be remembered as “out of touch moneybags asshole loser.”
Mnemosyne
BTW, if you live in Illinois, you can thank my mother for instituting required dental checks for schoolkids (there are currently three required checked throughout the school years) — she was instrumental in getting the original law passed and, in her job with the county health department, used to travel around to local schools in Lake County teaching kids how to brush and take care of their teeth.
You’re welcome. :-)
MomSense
@Matt McIrvin
I actually had something to do with that. Awesome that we had a campaign that listened to the maniacal rantings and comments of the volunteers.
Maude
@muddy:
In NJ Medicaid does pay for dental care. The problem is that very few dentists will take Medicaid.
It’s up to the dentist.
Medicaid also pays for a full, drops and everything, eye exam every two years. If you need glasses, the frames have to $50 or under. That used to be fine until the price of frames got jacked up.
Wolfdaughter
@Hillary Rettig:
I’m late to this thread so my post probably won’t be read, but WTH…
I absolutely agree with this. Judging from the blog comments from conservatives, they can’t imagine that we voted for Obama because we believe that he will try to act in ways that benefit the majority of people. I am a 66-yr-old white woman who doesn’t have kids or grandkids, but I want other people’s kids to get a good education and am willing to pay more in tax dollars to see that that happens. I am willing that others get decent healthcare. I think all working people should be paid a living wage at the bare minimum and am willing to pay more for clothes and other products for that to occur. I truly believe that it benefits me to have an educated, healthy, decently-paid society.
I didn’t vote for Obama because of any “goodies” I might get, and I suspect that’s true of most people on BJ and other leftish blogs.