Health Care for Millionaires
Unsurprisingly, the left has responded to the revelation that the “needy” family showcased by their recent radio address on health care actually owns assets approaching $1 Million with utter rage at the idea of anyone “attacking a twelve year-old.”
To which, the obvious responses are:
1) No one’s “attacking a twelve year-old.”
2) If you don’t want a twelve year-old to be even remotely within the line of fire, then don’t employ them as political human shields.
As a side note – it seems possible that this blog actually helped to move the story. My personal blog entry is the first item to pop up (chronologically) on the Google blog search for “icwhatudo.” And, speaking of our enterprising anonymous reporter, he’s back with some comments on a New York Times story on the issue.
In summary:
1) It’s impossible to dispute the central holding of the original story – namely, that the Frost family holds substantial assets whose value exceed, at the very least, half a million dollars – and which, looking at the numbers, probably approach $1 Million.
2) The Times and others are seeking to dishonestly spin this story by, among other things:
- Disguising the true value of the Frosts’ assets by presenting old “property assessments” as reflective of the real value of their property.
- Performing rhetorical slights of hand, such as noting that the claimed granite countertops in the Frost home are actually concrete – without noting that concrete and granite countertops are substantially the same price.
This whole exercise demonstrates the inherent absurdity of so many government programs. Just like farm subsidies meant to help struggling family farmers end up going to the boutique ranches of celebrities, here we see how a program supposedly designed to help those who cannot afford health insurance instead is used to underwrite the lifestyle of a fairly well-off family who, for some reason, made the choice not to buy health insurance and are now asking the rest of America’s taxpayers to pay the price for their own personal irresponsibility.
Of course, in a sense, this should remind us just how fortunate Americans are – they’re only compelled to pay taxes for some free riders, instead of the whole bloody lot.
To which, the obvious responses are:
1) No one’s “attacking a twelve year-old.”
2) If you don’t want a twelve year-old to be even remotely within the line of fire, then don’t employ them as political human shields.
As a side note – it seems possible that this blog actually helped to move the story. My personal blog entry is the first item to pop up (chronologically) on the Google blog search for “icwhatudo.” And, speaking of our enterprising anonymous reporter, he’s back with some comments on a New York Times story on the issue.
In summary:
1) It’s impossible to dispute the central holding of the original story – namely, that the Frost family holds substantial assets whose value exceed, at the very least, half a million dollars – and which, looking at the numbers, probably approach $1 Million.
2) The Times and others are seeking to dishonestly spin this story by, among other things:
- Disguising the true value of the Frosts’ assets by presenting old “property assessments” as reflective of the real value of their property.
- Performing rhetorical slights of hand, such as noting that the claimed granite countertops in the Frost home are actually concrete – without noting that concrete and granite countertops are substantially the same price.
This whole exercise demonstrates the inherent absurdity of so many government programs. Just like farm subsidies meant to help struggling family farmers end up going to the boutique ranches of celebrities, here we see how a program supposedly designed to help those who cannot afford health insurance instead is used to underwrite the lifestyle of a fairly well-off family who, for some reason, made the choice not to buy health insurance and are now asking the rest of America’s taxpayers to pay the price for their own personal irresponsibility.
Of course, in a sense, this should remind us just how fortunate Americans are – they’re only compelled to pay taxes for some free riders, instead of the whole bloody lot.
posted by Adam Yoshida at
1:31 AM
1 Comments:
Man, you're a sorry guy.
You've never heard of mortgages? What does it help them if their house is worth $500,000 today? You want them to sell it and live where? On the street? You think they can buy another one for $55,000, the way they did 12 years ago, or whenever it was they bought it?
And, really, what's your problem with this? They didn't defraud anybody. They never lied to anybody. The state of Maryland found them to be eligible for help under the program.
The son just went on the radio and told Americans about a program that helped save his life and his sister's. Then he advocated for its reauthorization and its extension so other children who needed the same benefits he got from it could have them.
What's so wrong about that?
Why are you and those like you so hellbent on tarring this kid and his family? What have they done to earn it?
Would you rather that he and his sister had died? That his family had just sold their house in a week and moved into the nearest shelter? In all seriousness, what should this family have done to stave off these attacks from people like you?
And I have to know, have you never needed help? Have you never found yourself in over your head? Have none of the people you know ever found that they couldn't get by on their own? Why don't you try putting yourself in somebody else's shoes sometime?
You know, to me, one of the advantages of living in a society is that when things get truly rough, there's some help at hand. And in a country as big aqnd complex as the U.S., sometimes that help has to come from the government. I don't mind paying taxes for that. I'm glad that maybe a little bit of what my wife and I pay in taxes went to help Graeme Frost and his sister. I feel like, as Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "I'm buying civilization."
I don't know what happened to you to turn you so angry, bitter, resentful, hate-filled and contemptuous of those who are weaker or less lucky than you are, but you must have had a truly horrifying experience in grade school at the hands of bullies or maybe it was something even worse.
I can't help but be curious about what made you this way. Maybe you can give us a hint of your history sometime, because I'd really like to understand you.
And I feel bad for you, I really do, though I guess you don't want to hear it; I know nobody likes to be pitied, but you do come off as pitiful, in spite of all your pretentions of being a liberal-curb-stomping, Stalinist-dictator-admiring tough guy. Rather, I should say, you come off as pitiful BECAUSE of all that would-be tough-guy stuff.
You must have an awful lot of unhappiness buried in you. And it's sad, since, you know, you don't have to live this way. Hatred and anger are going to eat you up inside if you don't do something about it.
Good luck.
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