40 best political quotes of 2009
Right Wing News has released the 40 best political quotes of 2009.
You can read ’em all here
Here are some sample quotes from the article:
31) As I said repeatedly during the campaign: Obama only appears “cool” and “even-tempered” because he’s never challenged. His “vetting” by the media consisted chiefly of juicy-mouthed nether-kissing.
It’s not difficult to appear “cool” under those circumstances. Anyone who freaks out and goes to pieces because he’s being praised too much is a lunatic. — Ace
21) There is usually only a limited amount of damage that can be done by dull or stupid people. For creating a truly monumental disaster, you need people with high IQs. — Thomas Sowell
12) Isn’t food important? Why not “universal food coverage”? If politicians and employers had guaranteed us “free” food 50 years ago, today Democrats would be wailing about the “food crisis” in America, and you’d be on the phone with your food care provider arguing about whether or not a Reuben sandwich with fries was covered under your plan. — Ann Coulter
3) If we have another 2,000 people killed, I want Nancy Pelosi and George Soros, John Conyers and Pat Leahy to go to the funeral and say, ‘Your son was vaporized because we didn’t want to dump some guy’s head under water for 30 seconds.’ — Peter King
Once again, you can read it all here.
Category: Bloggers
Yeah, I love the food analogy by Coulter. Imagine if you had to sign pages and pages of inscrutable fine print in triplicate and pay up front for your food, then when you got hungry and went to get the meals you had already paid for, they denied your claim and let you die of starvation. Meanwhile, they spent 31% of your money on administrative costs. Yeah, real good analogy Ann….
Joe, mom let you out of the basement again? So, by your reading of the analogy, denial of health care is “rampant”? By that, I mean that the bodies are everywhere, folks are tripping over them on their way to use up more of Gaia’s resources? And, while your panties are in a bunch over “31%” administrative costs, how much do you think that will go up when the gub’mint takes over? Because we all know that bureaucrats who have lifetime jobs never screw up, right? And I bet you believe 0 when he says “health care reform” is budget neutral and won’t drive up the deficit?
And, actually, Mark Steyn’s quote in #37 is way better, and more truthful. And, just for you, #27. Tell us, Joe, what IS your fair share?
UpNorth,
Percent of health care dollars spent on administrative costs in US – 31. Percent of health care dollars spent on administrative costs in Canada – 1. Which seems more wasteful to you? As for quote #27, I give more than I get from the gov’t. So my fair share is presently in negative dollars. But I do get some return – police protection, a system of roads and highways, confidence that my food is fairly safe, and on and on. But I will gladly pay fair taxes to keep the entire network, i.e., the complex system known as the US, working smoothly. Some of you guys and girls have watched way too many John Wayne movies – you tend to forget John Wayne wouldn’t have even made it out of his driveway if someone hadn’t paid to bulid a road to his house, plow out the snow, protect him from crooks, suppress fires, etc.
But you’re correct – bureaucrats screw up, but that’s a different question having to do with oversight and accountability…..
Joe you made an excelent argument against the government getting involved with healthcare. Do you know where a majority of the administrative costs for healthcare come from? Let me tell you this it isn’t by the Doctors’ choice.
What would be better?
1)I go to the grocery store and negotiate the price I am willing to pay by being able to go to competetors. This way I can use my own judgement as to value vs. cost.
2)The way you described the “current” system which in the end isn’t much different than the “reformed” government system. After paying a third party I don’t get to choose what I buy and where I buy it…oh and lets not forget that I don’t have the choice to not buy.
Quit using that stupid all too common straw-man argument that we that we all pay for public good blah blah blah…
Joey, Jason made THE salient point, we won’t have a choice. The gub’mint will mandate that we MUST buy health insurance. So much for free choice, and the Constitution, to boot.
And, I really don’t want to have to pay to provide health care to dopers, crooks, hookers and those who see a higher need for the 50″ plasma HDTV than health care. Some of those I describe can better afford health care than I can, but they refuse to participate. So the solution? Come and take my money for them? Great thinking!!!! If your name is Putin or Hugo.
BTW, your fed taxes don’t pay for police protection, or plowing roads, or building roads, unless it’s a part of the interstate or US road system, or fire protection, unless it’s paying off 0 supporters, like the IAFF, SEIU, AFSCME and the rest.
And oversight and accountability? How’s that working out so far? A US attorney gets cashiered for doing his job in Philly, the State Dept can’t get info from the CIA or their own embassy to revoke some asshat’s visa and no one, NO ONE, has even asked Hillary why that is, 0 sits on his hands for 4 days before he can summon up no outrage over an act of attempted mass murder and terrorism, a Senator stands in the well of the Senate, drunk on his ass, lambasting his colleagues for not going along to get along. I don’t see any accountability there, but I’m sure that Reid is rushing to censure Baucus over his disgraceful display? No? Thought not. Or calling the Senate back in session to grill the Sec of State over why the visa was not revoked.
JustPlainJason, yeah, the current bill is a muddled up fiasco. For crying out loud, no one can even read, much less understand the thing. I just think they should phase in universal coverage and be done with it. But all the free-market nonsense doesn’t apply to health care – it’s not a commodity in the sense that food or automobiles are. No one, not even lawyers, can comprehend their own policies, so no one really understands what they are buying. A true health care free market relies on an informed consumer (impossible under the current circumstances) and transparency (the mortal enemy of insurance companies). And the imperatives and incentives for a profitable insurance company are crystal clear – get as much money as you can up front, then deny, deny, deny. The more you deny, the higher your profit margin. Deny and stonewall often enough and the patient will die and the problem will go away.
Again, as for the common good argument, if you take conservative/libertarian ideas to their logical conclusion, you end up with Somalia. Every man for himself, total personal responsibility, no freeloaders, no gov’t interference, no taxes – a libertarian paradise!
Hey Joe,
You do know that part of that 31% (which is inflated) figure you are quoting includes the taxes that the insurance company pays to the Federal and State Governments?
Medicare serves the elderly population and thus has a high cost per enrollee. In 2003, the average medical cost for Medicare was $6,600 per person per year, while the same figure for private insurance was $2,700.
Thus, if public and private health insurance had the same administrative cost per person, Medicare would still be seen as ‘more efficient’ since Medicare’s administrative cost ratio would be less than half the size of the private insurance’s cost ratio.
Joe there are so many ways I could tear apart your argument.
First of all if all an insurance company does is deny, deny, deny what do you think will happen? They violate their contracts and face litigation, which in most cases is far more expensive than the care itself. Also if all an insurance company does is deny, deny, deny, they will lose customers and thus their overall profit margin will go down.
Now what happens if the government denies care? Nothing, you just have to suck it up and take it. If my only choice is to go to a government for care what incintive do they have to provide the best care possible? None other than some “altruistic” duty.
The only argument you have against the current system is to take away all patient choice and replace it with government. At least now I can choose what kind of health insurance I get.
Joe a big difference between you and me is that you have little or no faith in you fellow man to do what is right.
Joe there are so many problems with your argument you keep making mine for me. At least with insurance companies (which aren’t the boogeyman you are potraying them) I can choose which one and if I really need them in the first place. Insurance companies are held accountable by their customers, shareholders, and the judicial system. Who is going to hold a government run system in check?
Free market nonsense? Really? If I am free to shop my healthcare dollar around I have some choice in my healthcare. If there is a government run system, do you really think I will have the same choice?
Explain how you get to your “logical” conclusion that ” you end up with Somalia” That is a pretty big leap to make…
Sorry everyone for hijacking the thread.
and sorry about the double post…computer is being funny.
JustPlainJason, Brown Neck Gaitor, UpNorth, et al,
I guess we’re getting far afield from the original topic of “40 best political quotes of 2009”, so I’ll end it after this brief response, but I thank you for the lively exchange. Litigation is an expensive, cumbersome way to resolve the situation, and it’s not a fair fight – insurance companies with unlimited resources against families struggling to just pay the bills. Merits of individual cases notwithstanding, who is gonna win that one?
The conservative/libertarian mantra is “gov’t is the problem, not the solution”. Their platform is absolutely minimal gov’t. Somalia is perhaps the place on the planet with the least gov’t interference, thus my analogy.
“Litigation is an expensive, cumbersome way to resolve the situation, and it’s not a fair fight – insurance companies with unlimited resources against families struggling to just pay the bills. Merits of individual cases notwithstanding, who is gonna win that one?”
Where, exactly, did John Edwards get his money? It wasn’t tfrom the poor smokers he represented, in can tell you that.
There are plenty lawyers that will take a case based on the potential payday later.
You are right in one respect, we have hijacked this thread.
Well, dragging the quote thing back into perspective, and paraphrasing a little, “If a Somali steals from you at sea, he’s a pirate…if someone steals from your paycheck and hands it to someone who didn’t earn it, it’s a government entitlement.”
Claymore- Thanks for the clarification. Now some of the denser readers here may begin to grasp this thing.
Joey- How in hell does the government go about comforting you on the safety of the food you eat? Personally, I don’t trust the government to test anything that I consume, either internally or not. I prefer to know who I am buying from, what I am buying, and that does not include any sort of government approval. After all, the government approves smoking, does that make it safe? The government handed us the bullshit on a platter that was the food pyramid. Later determined to be made up to lessen the surplusses in the USDA.
Jason- Good lucid points my friend. And a good proper slapdown of Joey.
“Never Forget the Ft. Hood Texas 14 11/5/09!”
Joey brought this gem up, “transparency (the mortal enemy of insurance companies)”. Nope, got that one wrong too. Transparency, it appears, is the “mortal enemy” of this congress, and this administration. Please note all of the promises from 0, the Botox Queen and the burned out bulb from Nevada about transparency, and the fact that they haven’t even bothered to try to bring transparency to anything.
End of thread hijack, and thanks to Jason, FO, Claymore and BNG for trying to set Joey straight. I doubt it will have any effect on him, but good try anyway.
P.S. Anyone notice that when Joey gets stumped, or finds facts inconvenient, that he changes the subject, or just ignores anything brought up?