OvarianTumor
2010-04-30 13:02:14 UTC
Let's call her "CLUELESS CRAZY CUNT" !
And she has "ideas" for solving our nation's -- your nation's --
financial and health-care shortcomings.
============
"Courtesy of Sue Lowden: A chicken in every doctor's pot"
Op-Ed
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, April 30, 2010; A21
If you haven't heard the name SUE LOWDEN, brace yourself. She is a
Republican who might well become a U.S. senator from Nevada, and
judging by her idea for containing health-care costs -- critics call
it "chickens for check-ups" -- she threatens to make Sarah Palin sound
like some kind of pointy-headed policy wonk.
Yes, I said chickens.
There is a larger point to be made about the kind of thinking, or non-
thinking, that Lowden exemplifies. But first, it's my duty to recap
her perilous foray into health-care policy, which sounds like a good
premise for a Monty Python sketch.
Lowden, a wealthy gambling executive, leads the Republican field in
the primary campaign for the right to challenge the Democratic
incumbent, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. She's a former Nevada
state senator, a former head of the state GOP, a former television
anchorwoman and a former Miss New Jersey. Polls show her leading Reid
by at least 10 points.
Three weeks ago, at a candidate forum, Lowden criticized the new
health-care reform law and laid out her preferred alternatives. She
asserted that "bartering is really good" and that people should "go
ahead and barter with your doctor."
The candidate's staff quickly issued a statement suggesting that
Lowden had meant to say "haggle" instead of "barter," and that the
idea was to offer to pay in cash if medical providers would agree to
lower the price. This would make going to the doctor a bit like buying
a used car -- except that an essential step in the haggling process is
threatening to walk away, which would be difficult if your problem was
a broken leg. But at least this wasn't as crazy as what came next.
Last week, in a television interview, Lowden insisted that no, she
hadn't misspoken, she meant actual bartering. "Let's change the system
and talk about what the possibilities are," she said. "I'm telling you
that this works. You know, before we all started having health care,
in the olden days, our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the
doctor. They would say I'll paint your house. . . . I'm not backing
down from that system."
Reid's campaign promptly e-mailed the YouTube video of Lowden's
statement to reporters, under the subject line: "Seriously . . . Has
Sue Lowden Lost Her Mind?" Democrats have been having great fun with
the "chickens for check-ups" idea ever since -- how many chickens for
a colonoscopy, what procedures might a goat pay for, that sort of
thing.
Lowden's campaign even passed along a testimonial from a doctor who
claimed he had "bartered with patients -- for alfalfa hay, a bathtub,
yardwork and horseshoeing in exchange for my care." But on Tuesday,
Lowden finally gave up and retreated to the taken-out-of-context
defense, which is where politicians go when they realize they said
something stupid. Bartering was "never a policy proposal," the
campaign said. End of story, Lowden hopes.
Except for the larger point I promised. Lowden's gaffe was part of a
disturbing current in American politics these days: nostalgia for a
Golden Age that never was.
Her words conjured the image of a kindly old man named Doc who made
the rounds of frontier homesteads, presumably with his horse and
buggy, and fixed everybody up, good as new -- "Just pay me when you
can, Sue." But the truth is that in those days, doctors routinely
watched people die from diseases that are easily cured today; simple
infections and even childbirth carried grave risks. The care that Doc
could give wasn't worth much more than a chicken.
Today's reality is that Nevada is a highly urbanized state -- almost
three-fourths of its residents live in and around Las Vegas -- where
the collapse of housing prices, the epidemic of foreclosures and the
lack of access to health care are as acute as anywhere in the nation.
No wonder some people might find a sepia-toned fantasy more
attractive.
This same false-memory syndrome infects the Tea Party movement, which
harks back to some imagined time when the United States was a sylvan
utopia where everyone walked around peacefully carrying guns and
quoting Thomas Jefferson. But this was a big, messy, complicated
country even when Jefferson was president, with sharp conflicts over
slavery, economic policy and the rights of the individual vs. the
welfare of all. To mention just a few.
Oh, and doctors really preferred to be paid in money. Not livestock.
[***@washpost.com]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/29/AR2010042903667.html
And she has "ideas" for solving our nation's -- your nation's --
financial and health-care shortcomings.
============
"Courtesy of Sue Lowden: A chicken in every doctor's pot"
Op-Ed
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, April 30, 2010; A21
If you haven't heard the name SUE LOWDEN, brace yourself. She is a
Republican who might well become a U.S. senator from Nevada, and
judging by her idea for containing health-care costs -- critics call
it "chickens for check-ups" -- she threatens to make Sarah Palin sound
like some kind of pointy-headed policy wonk.
Yes, I said chickens.
There is a larger point to be made about the kind of thinking, or non-
thinking, that Lowden exemplifies. But first, it's my duty to recap
her perilous foray into health-care policy, which sounds like a good
premise for a Monty Python sketch.
Lowden, a wealthy gambling executive, leads the Republican field in
the primary campaign for the right to challenge the Democratic
incumbent, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. She's a former Nevada
state senator, a former head of the state GOP, a former television
anchorwoman and a former Miss New Jersey. Polls show her leading Reid
by at least 10 points.
Three weeks ago, at a candidate forum, Lowden criticized the new
health-care reform law and laid out her preferred alternatives. She
asserted that "bartering is really good" and that people should "go
ahead and barter with your doctor."
The candidate's staff quickly issued a statement suggesting that
Lowden had meant to say "haggle" instead of "barter," and that the
idea was to offer to pay in cash if medical providers would agree to
lower the price. This would make going to the doctor a bit like buying
a used car -- except that an essential step in the haggling process is
threatening to walk away, which would be difficult if your problem was
a broken leg. But at least this wasn't as crazy as what came next.
Last week, in a television interview, Lowden insisted that no, she
hadn't misspoken, she meant actual bartering. "Let's change the system
and talk about what the possibilities are," she said. "I'm telling you
that this works. You know, before we all started having health care,
in the olden days, our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the
doctor. They would say I'll paint your house. . . . I'm not backing
down from that system."
Reid's campaign promptly e-mailed the YouTube video of Lowden's
statement to reporters, under the subject line: "Seriously . . . Has
Sue Lowden Lost Her Mind?" Democrats have been having great fun with
the "chickens for check-ups" idea ever since -- how many chickens for
a colonoscopy, what procedures might a goat pay for, that sort of
thing.
Lowden's campaign even passed along a testimonial from a doctor who
claimed he had "bartered with patients -- for alfalfa hay, a bathtub,
yardwork and horseshoeing in exchange for my care." But on Tuesday,
Lowden finally gave up and retreated to the taken-out-of-context
defense, which is where politicians go when they realize they said
something stupid. Bartering was "never a policy proposal," the
campaign said. End of story, Lowden hopes.
Except for the larger point I promised. Lowden's gaffe was part of a
disturbing current in American politics these days: nostalgia for a
Golden Age that never was.
Her words conjured the image of a kindly old man named Doc who made
the rounds of frontier homesteads, presumably with his horse and
buggy, and fixed everybody up, good as new -- "Just pay me when you
can, Sue." But the truth is that in those days, doctors routinely
watched people die from diseases that are easily cured today; simple
infections and even childbirth carried grave risks. The care that Doc
could give wasn't worth much more than a chicken.
Today's reality is that Nevada is a highly urbanized state -- almost
three-fourths of its residents live in and around Las Vegas -- where
the collapse of housing prices, the epidemic of foreclosures and the
lack of access to health care are as acute as anywhere in the nation.
No wonder some people might find a sepia-toned fantasy more
attractive.
This same false-memory syndrome infects the Tea Party movement, which
harks back to some imagined time when the United States was a sylvan
utopia where everyone walked around peacefully carrying guns and
quoting Thomas Jefferson. But this was a big, messy, complicated
country even when Jefferson was president, with sharp conflicts over
slavery, economic policy and the rights of the individual vs. the
welfare of all. To mention just a few.
Oh, and doctors really preferred to be paid in money. Not livestock.
[***@washpost.com]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/29/AR2010042903667.html