I’m not really the biggest Barney Frank fan in the world, but the Congressman scored a lot of points with me at last night’s town hall meeting in Dartmouth to discuss health care.
The debates to date have not exactly been heady intellectual fare, but it hit what I’d consider a low point when Rachel Brown took to the microphone — clutching a picture of President Obama onto which she had drawn a Hitler mustache — and asked Frank how he could support a “Nazi” policy — perhaps referring to the greatest lie about health care reform: that it advocates “death panels” to decide whether to yank an elderly American’s health insurance and start talking about planned suicide.
Frank’s — dare I say it? — frank response: “On what planet do you spend most of your time?” Followed by: “Ma’am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it.”
He added, for good measure: “This notion that something in this bill would require people who are elderly or sick to be denied medical care or be killed is the single stupidest argument I have ever heard.”
Thank you!
It’s often been said that the first one to invoke the Nazis or Hitler in a debate automatically loses, and rightfully so. Unless someone can draw a very firm parallel between providing all American citizens with health insurance to the actions of a cowardly paranoiac rounding up “undesirables” for mass extermination, kindly shut the hell up.
Tags: health care debate
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Agreed
See “Godwin’s Law”
Awesome. Thank you, Mr. Frank!
Steven Colbert actually brought a “French Provincial Table” onto his set to interview after Barney’s statement. It was hilarious! You go, Barney!
I find it amusing that the policy they are so up in arms about, end of life counseling, was added to Medicare by George Bush. Where were these noble thespians then? How about when the same policy was applied to Veterans, oh, some three Presidents ago? These citizens can easily imagine a government boogeyman coming to get them, but they can’t see the same in a private entity like health insurance conglomerates or the pharmaceutical magnates. Do they honestly think these companies have their best interests at heart? Please…….