This must be the silly season. During the primaries in 2008, the then candidate Obama told the nation that the months leading up to the Democratic Presidential Convention – when it was clear to the world that Obama would win the nomination – were the campaign’s "silly season."
It was that time of the year when the losing candidate – Hillary Clinton – would make silly and unsubstantiated charges against Obama as a last and final try to derail the Obama campaign.
It must be the silly season now in this country because we are being subjected to – literally – the silliest arguments by our politicians.
Having been defeated in their attempts to short-circuit the health care reform legislation passed by a Democratic-controlled Congress, Republicans are hard at work trying to salvage scraps from their train wreck.
First, they finally came out with their own health reform plan. They said people should get tax cuts so they will be able to afford to pay for health insurance.
Let’s analyze this. A family of four with a combined income of $50,000 probably pays a total of $4000 in Federal income taxes. Give that family a tax cut of 10% and at the end of the year the family will have $400 more disposable income. Let’s see... this family would be lucky to find health insurance for less than $800 per month, or $9600 per year.
The tax cut gives them $400, so where will they get the shortfall of $9400 per year?
Another idea being pushed by Republicans is health savings accounts that accumulate tax free. Assume for the same four-member family an ability to set aside $100 per month in a health savings account. After six months Papa Bear gets sick and needs surgery done. The total cost is only $15000 because it’s minor surgery and requires only a two day stay in the hospital.
The health savings account was set up six months ago, so it only has $600 accumulated in it. Where will the $14400 shortfall come from?
Now we learn that an original-thinking, out-of-the-box Republican has a great idea. She says, forget about insurance, forget about tax cuts, forget about health savings accounts. Just go to your doctor and make arrangements to pay him in kind. Pay him in chickens, for crying out loud. That’s right, she says, pay him in chickens or offer to paint his house for him, or pay him in some other kind.
This Republican thinker is Sue Lowden, the leading Republican candidate for senator of Nevada and an odds-on favorite to unseat Harry Reid, the sitting Nevada Democrat who also happens to be the U.S. Senate Majority Leader.
Sue Lowden was interviewed after she made the statement about paying doctors with chickens and instead of backtracking, she elaborated on her health care plan. In the interim, she had received support from a doctor in Henderson, Nevada, who would accept payments in chickens if the patients can’t come up with the cash.
As of this writing, a few people in Nevada are offering their services to set up a barter system that will make it easier for people with no money to see their doctors and pay them with chickens or in kind.
The rest of Nevada can no longer hold back their laughter.
Let me see. Assume that a doctor charges $75 for an office visit. At an average of 3 pounds for every dressed chicken, that’s 25 chickens that the patient must give her doctor. The chickens have to be refrigerated to prevent spoilage. That means that the patient must rent a refrigerated truck to deliver the chickens. The doctor’s office must have a huge freezer to store all the chickens he expects to receive from his patients. And his nurses and office help will need to wash their hands each time they take in a bunch of dressed chickens.
So much for the chicken idea.
Let’s explore the other idea. The patient could pay the doctor “in kind.” The patient could paint the doctor’s house. But what if the doctor’s house has just been painted, or is brand new? Hmm, let’s see. What if the patient washes the doctor’s cars? But the doctor can have his cars washed for $5 at the school where kids on a football team are washing cars to raise funds. “OK,” the patient will likely say, “I’ll charge $5 a wash, so your three cars will get 5 washes each.”
“Fine,” the doctor says, “you’ve got a deal. Now where do you propose to do the wash?”
“I’ll do it in front of your garage,” the patient offers.
“But I live in a condo high-rise and there’s no space…”
“Fine, I’ll wash your cars in front of my house,” the patient offers.
“How are we going to get my cars to your house?” the doctor asks.
“Well, you could drive the cars over. While I’m washing your cars, you could be waiting in my kitchen and drinking coffee.”
“I’ll tell you what,” the doctor finally says, “you’re an attractive young woman. Why don’t you just invite me to your house and pay me in kind in any way you want.”
The patient, a pretty 26-year-old woman, flashes her snow-white teeth.
Is this the alternative health care plan that the Republicans said they would offer if the Democrats were only willing to scrap their health care reform legislation and started from scratch? The country almost fell for the Republican promise to restart the health care debate from scratch and put the country on the right track.
What the Republicans did not tell us was that starting from scratch meant starting with chicken scratch.
Why do politicians become silly when all they want to do is be original? It’s because we don’t have an intelligent electorate in this country. The silliest arguments are advanced because they can be made easily and in the form of sound bites. The shorter the message, the easier for people to remember.
God forbid a candidate should ask his voters to think. How dare him make me think. He is out of touch. He is an elitist. He is a liberal. He is asking me to think.
People worship at the feet of Sarah Palin because she talks their language: “It's good to be among you, the real Americans,” (translation: Obama is not, he is a Kenyan); “We will re-load," in obvious reference to the Tea Party’s predilection for carrying loaded weapons to political rallies.
“This is a gangster government!” Michelle Bachman screams.
“Obama is a racist!” cries Glenn Beck.
"They're setting up "death panels," warns Sarah Palin.
Ex-convicts who are sexual deviants must not be given Viagra through the new health care plan, one Republican senator offered by way of amendment to the health care reform law.
Down with European-style socialism, screams a banner being waved by an elderly man who probably is on Medicare and receiving Social Security payments.
The leaders know that if they do not stoop to the level of their audience they will be ignored, or dismissed as elitists. Or worse, the right-wing dogs will be let loose on them.
We test our school-age children to get a snap-shot of their academic progress each year. Is there some kind of test for adults?
America is mired in the longest-running silly season. Is this what happens when a country is on the decline?
