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[filkertom]

During the 2000 Presidential campaign, George W. Bush accused Al Gore of treating Social Security "like some kinda federal program."

That incisive intellectual style lives on with the aptly-named Arthur Laffer, bloviating on CNN this morning:

If you like the Post Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles and you think they’re run well, just wait till you see Medicare, Medicaid and health care done by the government.

And, for the record, the Post Office does a pretty fucking good job.

Comments

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Obama even called out one of these last week: "I got a letter the other day from a woman; she said, I don’t want government-run health care, I don’t want socialized medicine, and don’t touch my Medicare."

*wham*
*wham*
*wham*

Gah. My grandfather's words, as usual, are right. "You keep making the same mistake time and time again. You think logic matters."

[maiac.livejournal.com]

My doctor has told me that he has patients ranting to him about "socialized medicine". He responds by pointing out that they're on Medicare. Somehow they don't think of Medicare as a government program, even though it's paid for with tax dollars and administered by, you know, the government.

I think this shows how successful Grover Norquist and his ilk have been in redefining "government" to mean "anything bad". If it's something desirable and well done, it can't possibly be the government. ::headdesk::

[awfulhorrid.livejournal.com]

I rather enjoy hearing similar rants from patients waiting to see their doctors ... at the VA hospital.

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

just wait till you see Medicare, Medicaid and health care done by the government.

I can't stop laughing.

[jenrose]

LIkewise.

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

I'm immensely amused by the right-wing folk on my LiveJournal friends list who, in friends-only posts, alternate between arguing that the government should stay out of everything... and complaining that their unemployment checks are being held up.

[patoadam]

From Paul Krugman:

At a recent town-hall meeting in suburban Simpsonville, a man stood up and told Rep. Robert Inglis (R-S.C.) to “keep your government hands off my Medicare.”

“I had to politely explain that, ‘Actually, sir, your health care is being provided by the government,’ ” Inglis recalled. “But he wasn’t having any of it.”

Also from Paul Krugman, re your Barack Obama birthday post:

Only 47% of Southerners say that Barack Obama was born in the U.S. 30% are unsure, and 28% think say he was not born in the U.S.

[awfulhorrid.livejournal.com]

Of the Southern 'Birthers,' I have to wonder how many of those understand that he was born in Hawaii, but don't understand that it's part of the US.

[caraig.livejournal.com]

And despite the repetitive jokes, the DMVs of a lot of states have gone out of their way to shake the bad reputation they have. In a lot of places it's one of the most efficient bureaus of the state government.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Word. The Secretary of State office I go to in Ann Arbor has completely reorganized over the past year, and it's a lot more efficient, open, and friendly.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

We can only hope and pray that someday we'll have health care that's as efficent, cheap and well run as the US post office. God knows it's way, way, WAY worse than that now.

I love how they say that this will make health care be run by "a bunch of bureaucrats." Who do they think runs it now? The difference is, the bureaucrats that are running it now have a personal monetary interest in boning you as bad as possible. Personally I'd rather have the government providing the care.

Yeah, free market, etc. Health care in the US right now is NOT a free market. Nowhere near one.

[hitchkitty.livejournal.com]

As I've told other people:

"The government is beholden to me. The free market is beholden to no-fucking-body. Call me a control freak, but..."

[dlobok.livejournal.com]

"And, for the record, the Post Office does a pretty fucking good job."

This is the only time I've ever disagreed with you - granted, it comes on the heels of getting back over 20 damaged orders that never even left the local post office (With those wonderful, "Sorry we destroyed your mail" letters).

[jenrose]

Gotta compare them to the competition. Because UPS and FEDEX? Suck just about exactly as often as the PO does IME.

[jenk]

Ah, but don't you see? Real Americans [tm] don't actually have experience with Medicare and Medicaid and thus fear them. But when private insurance is banned people will be FORCED to use them!

Or something.

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

Tom, please steal my icon.

For all you people who think the Post Office sucks, the Royal Air Mail is more expensive, slower, and known to steal things.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I do believe I shall --- thanks!

[holzman.livejournal.com]

Arthur Laffer? That's the guy with the economic theory that's holy writ to Libertarians and trivially devoid of content to anyone who's taken enough geometry to know how many curves can be drawn between two points?

[valsadie.livejournal.com]

My Twitter status a few days ago:

Disagree with @whitehouse strategies - but keep the science fiction ("END" of life care, birth cert nonsense) down to a minimum please? Thx!


It drives me absolutely crazy that the bigger and more outrageous the lies, the more some people are believing it! I thought it would be as bad as it could possibly get during the campaign. But the way it's continuing and fomenting and building is downright scary. And what makes me craziest is the sheer ignorance (and unfortunate gullibility) displayed by these people. Not knowing that Medicare is administered by the U.S. Government is just the tip of the iceberg. If nothing else, the complete perversion of the concept of socialism is unforgivable.

[shadowofsummer.livejournal.com]

The Post Office arbitrarily raises its rates while reducing the services it provides. That's a fantastic model for healthcare.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

The Post Office is no longer run by the Federal government, either. It's a separate (dare I say "privatized"?) entity, and has been since sometime in the 1970s.

[ericcoleman]

as I said elsewhere in response to this quote ... I've been a driver for 34 years, and I have never found the DMV to be anything less than efficient in Iowa or Illinois.

[ldyerzsie.livejournal.com]

"And, for the record, the Post Office does a pretty fucking good job."

Not in MY neck of the woods. I can't tell you how many times I've traded mail with either the next door neighbors or the guy on the next street over. Same number completely different street name. The winner, though, was the letter with the same house number, but different street name that was from so far on the other side of Indy that the letter had a different zip code. Until I moved to my current location, I had very few problems with the Post Office, so it's gotta be the local branch.

[karjack.livejournal.com]

I'm baffled by the people who don't want government controlled health care because they don't want their health care in the hands of an apathetic bureaucrat. As opposed to an insurance company employee who has a vested interest in making sure you are never provided with the service for which you're paying? I'll take the apathetic bureaucrat, thanks.

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

Amen to the Post Office comment.

[thistlethorn.livejournal.com]

just wait till you see Medicare, Medicaid and health care done by the government.

Oh, brother! What a complete moron.

I think the PO succeeds nicely about 90-95% of the time (mind you, I've had some practically illiterate mail carriers in the past, but I've also had some who went above and beyond the call). Just because I get cranky when the mail doesn't work the way I expect, doesn't lessen their overall good record.

I've never had a problem with the DMV; renewing licenses and license plates/tags, even on busy days in the city limits, has always gone smoothly. I've never understood the whole DMV-animosity.

[silentpheonix.livejournal.com]

As an employee of a competing company (The UPS Store), I probably shouldn't say this but since you're comparing USPS to health care, I feel reasonably sure I won't be lynched.

The USPS is pretty damn good. Yes, they're raising the rates and wanting Saturdays off but honestly, who else delivers on Saturday at no extra charge? FedEx had to give my Harry Potter books to the postal service to deliver just so I got it on the day the same day the books were released. When do you get freebies in health care?

And how often do you think about whether or not your stuff is going to get stolen? On the whole, probably not very. Whenever someone comes into my store to send internationally, the postal service on the other end can determine whether the customer pays less than five dollars or coughs up more than twenty just to make sure their stuff gets there at all.

[adamselzer.livejournal.com]

My post office is pretty terrible, but still - 50 cents or whatever it is to mail a letter is one of the better deals in the country. And getting a package across the country for under five bucks in 2-3 days is terrific. Even the DMV has gotten better (at least where I've lived).

[umbran.livejournal.com]

Taking the volume of mail they deal with into account, yes the USPS does a pretty darned good job. Not perfect, but as I understand it, the error rate is pretty low. They aren't perfect, but then neither am I, or anyone else I know.

And the DMV? Heck, my DMV is so good that I don't have to visit it! In MA we can do most of our business (like renewing a license, or processing an address change) online.

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

I can write on a piece of paper, pay someone 42 cents, and in 4 days time they'll deliver it by hand to a small ranch in Wyoming where the town's population only takes 2 digits to display. That's pretty damned efficient in my book - I can't pay someone 42 cents and have them even spray my car with a garden hose.

They seem to have a problem moving DVDs though. But I think that was just a fluke :)

[shadowofsummer.livejournal.com]

If you pay them 42 cents you'll get the letter back in the mailbox a couple of days later with an 'INSUFFICIENT POSTAGE' sticker.

[tommytoony.livejournal.com]

So let's see...I currently don't qualify for any current government program, and have been without insurance for 6 of the last 8 years, and the coverage I had for the 2 years was questionable at best ($10 co-pay for prescriptions, but they would only pay $35 a month total for all medications. And the point was...?).

My baby son is currently insured thru a state program ($120 for the year for some pretty good coverage; can NOT complain) because his mother's (my Lady) insurance declined him coverage because he wasn't added to her insurance in the short window allotted (3 days), while she was out of work recovering from labor....or some other lame excuse that was given.

The current system will do anything to maintain a profit, and make health care a luxury item. Government running it? If it's anything like what the government is currently giving my son, sign my butt up. Cos what they'll be offering me is better than what I have right now...which is nothing.