Fear & Loathing on Healthcare

#tcot #hhrs
Steny Hoyer's Town Hall via Mark Hemingway over at The Corner:

"...when I arrived for the town hall being held by the congressman from Maryland's fifth district last night at a high school in Waldorf, I was two hours early, and the place already looked like Calcutta on Free Malaria Shot Day....[Hoyer's] speech was made up of such canned Democratic talking points that it would normally have been unremarkable, except that when you hear all the current Democratic health-care talking points assembled in one place, it's kind of hard not to notice how breathtakingly disingenuous they are."

But the best lines of the night came from Hoyer himself:

"After he repeatedly assured everyone that this bill was fiscally responsible, another questioner asked somewhat incredulously how this bill would save money. Hoyer responded, "I didn't say the bill would pay for itself, I said it would be paid for." The angry crowd didn't like that bit of sophistry one bit. And when another questioner asked how he could assure the bill's fiscal responsibility when Social Security and Medicare were bankrupt, Hoyer responded by saying, "Indeed, I don't know if they are going bankrupt . . ." and had to wait to continue because of the riotous laughter that ensued."

I would think that politicians should fear for their proposals, and perhaps their futures, when they are openly mocked by their constituents.

I think that may be my nomination for political line of the year.... "I didn't say the bill would pay for itself, I said it would be paid for." Now that is ballsy....