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A Further Perspective
Left Out in the Sun
Free insurance advice from Harry Reid.
Not relishing confrontation, I parried the liberal’s thrust with humor. When he asserted that “you conservatives lie through your teeth,” I just grinned amiably and asked: “What are you, a dentist?”
No need for my kind to be on the defensive right about now. Our remade country has basted in hope and change until thoroughly pickled. Ben Franklin told us how to be healthy, wealthy, and wise; our new leaders have made us healthy, poor, and stupid. Or, pace Hobbes, our lives are now solitary, poor, brutish, nasty, and long. Our health is insured but our wealth is expropriated. Citizens are none too pleased about these developments, and with their cognac confiscated, they have taken to sipping tea in a menacing way. If the liberals running the joint have any aces up their sleeves, now would be a good time to loosen their cufflinks.
Yet these times still call for conservatives to be on the alert. The short-term opportunities may seem easy enough, falling into their lap as luxury. But there are longer-term opportunities out there for those whose eyes are open. This is true because the left, in their tempo as fugitives, will drop little confessions in their wake. When they are winning, they are careful to disguise their motives and their motifs. When losing, as now, they scramble and squirm and squeal. Like the suspect in the police station before the lawyer arrives, this is their rare moment to blurt. The good detective must pounce.
A fantastic example of this came in the debate between the Latter Day Saint of Nevada, Harry Reid, and the Queen of Heartland, Sharron Angle. Angle said: “What we have is a choice between the free market… America is about choices… Let the people decide where they want to buy their insurance.” Reid responded: “Insurance companies don’t do it out of the goodness of their hearts. All they care about is profit… We need to force them to do mammograms… this will improve our health… by catching the cancers early we save a lot of money…”
Here we have a series of spectacular revelations about the assumptions prevalent among the cognoscenti. Suddenly they have admitted us into their premises, and we see what is Left out in the sun. In these few lines we learn the following:
1. The people cannot choose properly. If left to wing it, they will not wing it right. Two more dollars for the insurance company, tumor dolors for the policyholder. The suckers who are born every minute will be left to die any second.
2. There is no conceivable reason why companies might do the right thing except goodness, and that is unlikely. The idea that they may equate good service with sound business practice is rejected. The only language these companies know is Mammon grammar.
3. Companies will choose profit over saving the lives of the people who are paying the premiums. They do not care that the patient who waits too patiently for a surgery may soon be the subject of a lovely wreath of impatiens.
4. Nor can they do the simple mathematical equation that says there is no profit without customers, and a dead customer is always right in the same spot. You can check the sign over his grave, but you can’t get him to sign a check.
5. Harry Reid and his Congressional cohort can figure out that mammograms save money in the long run, yet the profit-hungry company cannot compute this profit-inducing calculus. They are not only greedy, they are not only stupid, but they are even stupid enough to cheat their own greed.
The truth is the exact opposite. The insurance company is the only instrument in the system today working to save money. Patients no longer negotiate with doctors; the government negotiates but overlooks too much and oversees too little. There is no greater proof that mammograms do not save money over time than the fact that insurance companies do not require they be taken.
But Harry is right about the general principle. Preventive measures can save people money. They can save people from cancers eating them up inside. I recommend all citizens of this great country take just such measures on November 2.
About the Author
Jay D. Homnick, commentator and humorist, is a frequent contributor to The American Spectator. He also writes for Human Events. Here he speaks at the Rally for Religious Freedom in Miami on June 8, 2012.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (36) | Leave a comment
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Booger | 10.26.10 @ 6:09AM
"but for me, we'd be in a world-wide depression." -Harry Reid
http://www.breitbart.tv/reid-b.....epression/
From the desk of Senator Harry Reid:
Dear Constituents,
As we come up on election day 2010, there are a number of issues I would like you to think about, and many that I think you should put out of your minds completely.
First of all, I realize that Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the United States, and that Las Vegas unemployment is at a record high. Please put this out of your mind. Instead, consider the following: If it were not for me, Nevada would have the highest unemployment in the world. That's right, but for my beneficial legislation from the Senate, the unemployment rate in the great state of Nevada would be worse than Somalia, Ethiopia or Sudan. Do you want to live in a place like Ethiopia? If not, then you had better vote for me. Otherwise I will not be able to continue to protect you from the bad choices you would make if left to your own devices. Vote for that crazy tea-bagger Angle and you might as well move to Angola, because that's how this state will end up.
Now I recognize that my blocking the nuclear waste storage facilities at Yucca Mountain have cost this state a large number of jobs, as well as any number of Federal tax benefits. I know many of you would like to have high-paying jobs associated with such a project. Well, put that out of your mind. Instead, think about this. I am working to expand our already proud tradition of legalized prostitution in Nevada. I am having direct rail lines built here from Los Angeles, San Diego, and of course Salt Lake City as well as many other cities. Soon we will have a booming sex industry here, with jobs for all. Your daughters and wives will never have to be unemployed again. Now that some of our brothels are offering male "services" your sons should be able to have fine careers as well. It's my high-speed rails to hookers program, and it's our future.
I also want you to know that if not for me, there would have been hundreds, possibly even thousands of catastrophic terrorist attacks on this country. It is a little-known fact that when not working in the Senate I am actually a CIA ninja, leading Delta Force commando squads to root out Al-Qaida cells around the globe. Although that ingrate General Petraeus doesn't like to publicly admit it, I was single-handedly responsible for the success of his surge strategy in Iraq. It was almost embarrassing how I had to keep convincing him we could win even though he wanted to give up. That's right, if not for me we would have lost the Iraq war AND been conquered by Osama Bin Laden.
I also think you should know that I created the internet. That's right, the vast computer network that enables the business transactions and social interactions which make your lives worth living is my creation. I also gave Microsoft the source code for their famous Windows program as a humanitarian gesture, and since I couldn't profit from it while serving in the Senate anyway.
Additionally, I was the one who convinced John F. Kennedy that the United States could go to the moon. Without my backing and brilliance NASA would never have existed. I also discovered penicillin, which was a true savior for one of our top industries here in Nevada. If you have a loved one who has survived cancer, I was the one who developed the treatment that saved their lives. I built the Hoover Dam by myself.
Not to brag, but I was personally responsible for Frodo Baggins casting the One Ring into Mount Doom. I instructed Luke Skywalker in how to use the force to defeat Darth Vader. I personally blew up both Death Stars. I discovered the Northwest Passage and made the Louisiana Purchase. I wrote and signed the Emancipation Proclamation. I won the BCS championship in football ALL BY MYSELF. I am tougher than Chuck Norris and smarter than Steven Hawking. I am better looking than your dream girl and a better cook than your momma.
So, as you can see, you have every reason in the world to vote for me. You are besieged by innumerable problems, and quite frankly you cannot possibly solve these problems yourselves. You need someone to guide you. You need someone to tell you what to do. You need someone to MAKE you do it if necessary. You need Harry Reid, because only I can save the world. That's the reason I was sent here from Planet Krypton.
Sincerely,
Senator Harry Reid
Chicago "TEAMSTER WISEGUY"| 10.26.10 @ 7:03AM
To Harry Reid;
As described in the movie "Casino"
"There's alot of fu*kin holes in the desert". Go find one, crawl in and die already, you know Harry, Just like your old friend Tony, the guy found in the "fu*kin hole" of that Indiana Cornfield some years back with his brother, just as the end of the movie describes.
Dixie Pixie| 10.26.10 @ 1:08PM
Once again Booger you have written a true gem of a TAS post.
Frankly I did not think anyone could beat your “Bahney Fwank” posts.
The latest post came close.
Keep up the good work and keep those posts coming.
joli| 10.26.10 @ 1:29PM
Clean AND funny--who'da thunk?
dw| 10.26.10 @ 3:00PM
From the desk of Plixo Plather
Commisar of the General Roundtable
Planet Zarax
To Esteemed Senator Harry Reid,
Designated Savior of Earths People and It's Natural Resources
Dear Master Senator Reid,
We are a minor planet located some 100 light years from your home planet. I am contacting you in hopes that you may be of some essential help to us. We are in desperate straits here on Zarax.
We are being attacked by an unknown force from somewhere beyond our reach. They are using what we call a Death Star to unleash all sorts of deadly bombardments and assaults on us. We can not hold out much longer and appeal to you, SuperReid (our affectionate name for you) to come to our aide before it is too late.
We are located in the fourth quadrant of the second solar system. Please help us. We can not survive without you.
With Hope in Your Magnanimous Self,
Plixo
Booger| 10.26.10 @ 9:04PM
Dear Plixo,
I will consider your request for aid, as I may soon be looking for a new line of employment. One thing I must ask first, however, is whether you have an informed electorate. I have found the presence of an informed electorate has the same effect upon my powers as Kryptonite does upon that other famous refugee from my homeworld. If not, then I would gladly consider helping you in exchange for some cozy real estate deals.
Sincerely,
Senator Harry Reid
Ret. Marine| 10.26.10 @ 7:45AM
Poor dirty harry, or dingy for short. he's now older than dirt. His feeble mind is lost among the elder head hunters tribal members of the "We the People of these United States". Ole dingy may have just given the headline to his obituary. Dingy to dirty for his own scalp.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.26.10 @ 8:41AM
I would be fascinated to know the jobs demographic in Nevada.
The only thing that comes to mind is the Casino operations, heh and lots of air-conditioning technicians.
Does anyone here know?
Howie Hughes| 10.26.10 @ 9:24AM
Las Vegas is a product of Federal Water and Power (Hoover Dam) Elgin Airforce base and special Basque immigration to bring in sheepherds. When You fly into Pat McCarren Airport the Vista resembles Gatsby"s ash heap, (As I remember Gatsbey's money like Nevada's comes from organized crime and gambling.)
Aindyin| 10.26.10 @ 4:16PM
Eglin is in Florida, the base near Las Vegas is Nellis.
H Smith| 10.26.10 @ 7:05PM
1. Organized crime hasn't been in Vegas in at least 20 years. It's all corporate now.
2. While we may get our water from Lake Mead, we don't get a single kilowatt of power from Hoover Dam. It all comes from conventional power plants through Nevada Energy. I wish we did get some watts from the dam; it would be a whole lot cheaper.
PhilTheCapitalistPig| 10.26.10 @ 9:31AM
I resent statements from these self-rightgeous pricks saying that insurance companies don't do anything to help people, its all for profit. I know thats all Harry Reid is worried about is gaining more money, power, and influence, but ask the people servicing claims, helping people avoid bankruptcy, and giving people the piece of mind that they won't have to use up their 401k should they have a heart attack.
Now you tell me that insurance is all numbers? Harry Reid and the rest of these Democrats tell us what they beleive in all the time. All you have to do is listen to what they accuse others of doing. Its called "Projecting." They project their own weaknesses on others to take the attention off that same weakness of theirs'.
It's like Jack Conway in Kentucky, early in the campaign his camp was making Rand Paul out to be some guy that would prefer every resident of kentucky be addicted to drugs, and in the Courier-Journal yesterday there was an article about Jack Conway conspiring to help his dope-dealing brother out of charge.
Just something to think about. ;-)
Troy| 10.26.10 @ 12:20PM
The other fun thing is that it is illegal for the insurance companies to think about anything but money. When many people hear the phrase "beholden to their shareholders" their minds sort of gloss over the meaning of this. Companies have to make a profit so they can pay off their shareholders. When they run out of money, the shareholders get first pick of the assets, the employees get second, the creditors get third, and then maybe, the customers get what's left. How can these anti-capitalists complain about a company caring only about their shareholders when it's legally mandated?
Kishego| 10.26.10 @ 2:59PM
Easy, the shareholders are evil, greedy capitalist pigs who only steal and cheat the common man out of what is rightfully his. After all, how can we all be equal under the law if don't all have a 46" flat screen tv, free internet and free public healthcare. It just isn't fair any other way.
Peppermint Tea | 10.26.10 @ 10:00AM
Please don't judge us Latter-day Saints by the Harry Reid. Saturday, I watched the Angle/Reid debate and thought he came across as a small, mean, contracted man who couldn't outcharm a wellmeaning grandma, or out think her.
PS. Booger, keep it up.
Dixie Pixie| 10.26.10 @ 10:12AM
Harry Reid SSUUPPEERR GGEENNIIUUSS
Has anyone considered a Constitutional Amendment to require all members of the Federal, State and Local governments to be both Sane and Competent.
joli| 10.26.10 @ 1:32PM
I want a constitutional amendment to require Booger to continue skewering every politician as he sees fit.
Dixie Pixie| 10.26.10 @ 3:54PM
An amendment is not needed Joli.
All Booger needs to do is collect enough material for a complete book and then call the good folks at Regency Publishing.
A few suggested titles, “Letters From Booger”, “Demo's Hidden Files”, “Holders Burn Bag” and “Obama's Woes”.
Bob Miller| 10.26.10 @ 12:46PM
Whatever thought happens in Reid's mind stays in Reid's mind.
Dixie Pixie| 10.26.10 @ 1:24PM
They should but Harry Reid keeps opening his mouth and let his thoughts fly free.
Bob Miller| 10.26.10 @ 1:26PM
Do you think what he says involves thought?
Dixie Pixie| 10.26.10 @ 7:09PM
My analogy was arthritic bats fleeing a collapsing belfry.
Of course it may be a case of a truth escaping the twisted dungeons of Reid's mind.
Claudia Monteverdi| 10.26.10 @ 1:39PM
You cannot serve God and Mammon.....Oh Yeah? Listen to the effete intellectual snobs tossin around aramaic as if it were double sour kosher pickles (only fomn the bottom of the barrel my friend) Jay!!!! Damn, This work of yours is no less than quadralingual..Classical Latin and Greek and Hebrew we can live with ...though we be but sniveling lizard brains, clinging to our thesauruses and snuggling up to our sliderules.....but golly gee, ARAMAIC? How thrilling to be bathed in the liquid syllables of Hedy Lamar and Victor Mature (just saw SAMPSON et Delilah on Turner Classics...witha liberal dose of George Sanders...sensational) who just gush aramaic all over the place as does uperreichsfuhrer Mel Gibson. Jay how lovely to escape the humdrum reality of moving names in the senate race from likely to toss-up 'till we throw-up..
As to the subject matter of your essay. I find myself doing formal cheering for Miss Angle (who I despise) to beat Senator Read it and Weep...No more I cursing both their houses, now its "Angle, Angle Mangle Reid..Angle Angle Strangle Reid sis boom bah" --
Well Jay, you are a joy forever---Love, Claudia
A. Murray Kahn| 10.26.10 @ 4:33PM
Claudia - what? No! Really! Huh?
Claudia Monteverdi| 10.26.10 @ 6:15PM
Ah Mr. Kahn,
Huh? Really? You see old chap, Jay, a punster for the millenium flips from mammograms to MAMMON..then goes on and on--MAMMON is pure Aramaic, designating or better personifying GREED! (which we all know is GOOD)
Does that help? Huh?
Claudia
Ned the Red| 10.26.10 @ 1:40PM
Sharron Angle gave the Dingey one a
Man-Up-Gram.
mames| 10.26.10 @ 2:43PM
A perverted, tired old man. Symbolic of a depraved roman senator reincarnate.
Jim O'Brien| 10.26.10 @ 3:27PM
Obamacare is already screwing up insurance. My prescription drug premium will increase 32% in January, because Obamacare forces a zero deductible for brand name drugs. The premium after a 32% increase does not make economic sense, so I'll cancel. How many millions of people are affected by this? Maybe we can get a "waiver" from Herr Dictator Obama, much the same as McDonalds, a NYC teachers union, and others did when they threatened to drop medical insurance coverage for their employees. What will Dictator Obama do about the estimate 5 million college students whose coverage is also likely to be terminated? How will the Dictator determine who doesn't have to follow the law, and who must?
The above examples are just the tip of the iceberg.
Ned the Red| 10.26.10 @ 3:42PM
"How will the Dictator determine who doesn't have to follow the law, and who must?"
It's called campaign contributions.
Occam's Tool| 10.26.10 @ 8:23PM
Jay, I work with insurance companies all the time. They make many penny wise pound foolish decisions. This is because the economics of the marketplace for health care have been twisted to the point that rational market policies no longer apply. If competition was allowed across state lines, this would rapidly fix that problem, but few insurance companies have any incentive for long-term customer satisfaction as people switch insurances when they shift jobs.
In short, insurance does not tend to be portable---a market problem caused by socialist policies.
Occam's Tool| 10.26.10 @ 8:26PM
Again, insurance companies don't calculate long-run advantages because, in the long run, you will be covered by Medicare and not them. Again, perverse market incentives.
Occam's Tool| 10.26.10 @ 8:27PM
But the answer to this is to FREE the market, not ENSLAVE it more.
Bruce | 10.26.10 @ 9:04PM
Dammit, Booger - stop it. I just got out of the horsepistol and it hurts to laugh.
On the other hand, during my absence from home, my new "Medicare and You 2011" book arrived. I have not yet garnered the guts to open it.
And BTW, Harry ... my medical plan has a number of "preventative care" features that put the lie to your contentions.
The Red| 10.27.10 @ 12:08AM
Hey Peppermint Tea;
Right, Harry Reid must be a big embarrassment to practicing (and many non-practicing) LDS. But, to put a Dingy slant on a ugly fact, Harry Reid is just as good a Latter-day Saint as Nancy "Wicked Witch of the West" Pelosi is a Roman Catholic (both should be refused communion by their respective bishops).
Foul as Dingy Harry has made himself to be, no way could such a Dirty subject spoil my enjoyment of "Sagey Jay" D. Homnick's writings.
Marc Jeric| 10.27.10 @ 5:57PM
Harry Reid is a small town crook; his IQ is in low 70's. He himself is not a communist nor eco-nazi; he just thinks (?) that the future is theirs.
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