To Nancy Pelosi: I do not think that word means…
…what you think it means:
Pelosi’s word, by the way, is “momentum.” I think she’s using it to mean, “nowhere to go but up.” The phrase occurs around 8:10 here:I listened to the whole thing, quite fascinated with Pelosi’s arguments that HCR is wonderful, that it will be paid for by all the savings coming from preventive health care (which she seems to think the HCR bill invented), and that those amputation-hungry doctors will be stopped in their tracks..
Pelosi seems to either have a complete lack of understanding of how insurance works, or she pretends to incomprehension for strategic reasons. Which it is I do not know. But if a person buys the idea that insurance companies set rates capriciously or “frivolously” (another word that may not mean what she thinks it means), then I guess that person might think that Pelosi and Congress have the right and the ability to dictate those companies to ratchet their rates down even while raising and extending coverage—and that said companies will be able to do so without going bankrupt.
Or maybe, for Pelosi, bankruptcy is part of the plan.
I used the word “ratchet” deliberately because Nancy Pelosi has long reminded me of Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. That impression has not been dispelled by listening to the above interview. Those frivolous exploitative insurance companies had better take their medicine or else—or else they’ll be left out of the exchanges (a word that sounds vaguely Orwellian, or is it Huxleyan?).
Not Nurse Ratched, because that character was a heroine despite the attempt of a very-difficult ex-patient who wrote the book to make her look bad.
As to bankruptcy being the ultimate intent I can’t say. I tend toward the simpler explanation that 1) someone other than a Democratically-controlled Congress is making the decision and 2) some people don’t like those decisions. Therefore it follows, as night the day, that Congress should make the decisions instead. As with our fool-or-knave discussion about Obama, neglect not the narcissism and sense of entitlement to rule from other Democrats as well.
another person she looks like… (carol channing)
Scary Alice Meets Humpty Dumpty Scene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgJNcnHCnLc
and especially this one…
The Plusses and Minusses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XVuXuIw-UU&feature=related
🙂
Neo, I think you’re right: bankruptcy is a feature not a bug.
Her familiarity with polling probably gives her the capacity of understand the concept (no math please, we’re Democrats) behind an actuarial table. But her day-to-day use of “lies, damn lies and statistics” skews her view on its validity, and I’ll bet she thinks those evil companies make up their numbers the same way she does.
Reminds me of the story of the state legislature (Indiana-1897) that considered a bill to change the value of pi. Clears up all those messy decimals!
The idea that preventive care is a money saver is largely unproven in at least two ways. Screening everyone for a disease that only a few will get often costs more than treating only those who get sick. Secondly, to the extent that preventive care enables people to survive into old age and live a long life, the drain on Social Security and Medicare is greater.
In a related way, smoking is good for the government. People pay taxes on the product, and they shorten their lives.
OT: Ooh, my bet that Holder will sleep with the fishes by Election Day is looking better by the day:
Another Story the MSM Doesn’t Want You To Know About: ‘Never Bring Another Lawsuit Against a Black’
Bombshell: Defying DOJ Instructions, Christopher Coates Will Testify Friday on New Black Panther Case
I’ve always thought there was something strange about the expression on her face..
I have another, simpler explanation. She’s stupid and uneducatable.
Also innumerate, illiterate, and just plain dumb.
And she’s found a Home in Congress.
Livia Augusta anyone? Recall “I, Claudius”…
Will Rogers never met Nancy Pelosi. (Just change Will Rogers’ “man” to “person”.)
He also never met Senator Ma’am. either.
Nor Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Barney Frank, Barak Obama, etc. etc.
Oh….forgot Alan Grayson (D – FL8)…probably the most obnoxious of them all.
Ah, that old dilemma. Do we hope that Pelosi is honest and believes what she says, or do we hope that she is smart enough to know that what she is saying is not true?
(I run into this problem all the time with Obama.)
On the whole, I think we would be better off if she is lying to us, than if she believes what she says. But I will admit that it is not an easy question to answer.
But I think it more likely that, as I have said once or twice about Obama, that Pelosi is not even thinking about whether what she says is true, just how it will go over with her immediate audience. (Technically, that’s not lying, since there is no intent.)
Good old Charlie wrote “Livia Augusta anyone? Recall “I, Claudius”…”
Wasn’t Livia sharp as a knife, however amoral. Pelosi painted a big target on the whole Demo party, not exactly a sign of cleverness.
BTW great news, at the UN Obama gave the Israelis and Palestinians a year to make peace. What a relief that peace in the Middle East is just around the corner.
I wonder if he is aware that the grown ups are all laughing him? Is this guy genuinely psychotic?
So what happens if they don’t?
Yes.
Jim Miller,
Something to help you judge good old Nan’s IQ — during her “peace” mission way back (also known as the let’s undermine a sitting president mission) there was video posted of her visiting a mosque.
We’re not going to go into her wearing a scarf. I don’t like it, but a point might be made that it’s diplomacy. However, when the video was posted, it CLEARLY showed her crossing herself as she entered the mosque. Crossing. Herself. In. A. Mosque.
The woman has two brain cells and one is dead.
And on Obama…
Well, he thinks he’s omnipotent. He thinks the words create reality. Who was it who posted recently on Obama’s magical thinking? The word is the deed.
He might also think he’s the ruler of the known world — Rex, Imperatur, Deus. Just wait till he puts that between the Greek Columns at the next nominating convention!
I can’t wait until the rest of you are on Government Healthcare. I just got cut off of a drug that has worked very well for me – for five years. My doctor has called, and I have called dozens of times, to no good. I warned him not to use logic, as this only produces anger in the mind of public servants. Good luck to the rest of you.
OT, OB: I’m still long Holder. My bet is a dead solid lock. Prepare to pony up January 1, because they are not taking Holder out.
I think Obama/Pelosi really believe that tax cuts to the ‘rich’ get wasted – won’t stimulate the economy. Krugman believes the same thing. They also believe in the savings paradox, the multiplier, and maybe unicorns too. But it’s their faulty theory that carried to its conclusion leads them to say things like the government paying out unemployment support stimulates the economy and growth (because it puts cash in the hands of people who will spend it).
Pelosi is not only amazingly ignorant, she is intellectually deficient. Here she is pontificating on Kelo, the SCOTUS case on eminent domain:
“It is a decision of the Supreme Court. If Congress wants to change it, it will require legislation of a level of a constitutional amendment. So this is almost as if God has spoken. It’s an elementary discussion now. They have made the decision.”
Later, she insisted: “Again, without focusing on the actual decision, just to say that when you withhold funds from enforcing a decision of the Supreme Court you are, in fact, nullifying a decision of the Supreme Court. This is in violation of the respect for separation of church — powers in our Constitution, church and state as well. Sometimes the Republicans have a problem with that as well. But forgive my digression.”
The reporter couldn’t believe his ears.
Worst Speaker ever. The woman is delusional.
The story is told of Pelosi visiting a mental health facility and asking a doctor how he could tell if a patient was mentally unsound.
“Quite simple,” the doctor said. “I ask a question anyone with average intelligence could answer.”
“Like what?” Pelosi asked.
“Oh, like, ‘Cook made three voyages around the globe and died on one of them. Which one was it?”
Pelosi: “Excuse me doctor, I’m not good on history. Could you give another example?”
Looks like we can put down Portia in the “yes” column.
LAG- “…she thinks those evil companies make up their numbers the same way she does. ”
That jumped out at me as a simplified explanation of what others are saying. Her opponents are evil. Her friends are good. All those numbers make her woozy, like a woodland animal out in bright sun. Or at best, if she really is somewhat clever, the numbers are boring. The safest thing to do is pay no attention to numbers from opponents, who are probably just trying to trick her anyway.
I pointed out long ago that world events – wars, for example – have no meaning for Washington Democrats (and maybe some Republicans) except as they translate into power inside the beltway. Real people aren’t being killed. Real people aren’t thriving or starving. It’s all a video game with a screen in Washington. Now it seems that even the rest of America is becoming unreal to them.
Okay, their own districts are real to them as well. Annoying, but real. An addict always protects his supply lines.
People who have spent their lives orchestrating social contacts, and deals, often have no other skill, or have only marginal other skills.
What do they need them for?
I have now met way too many of such in different positions of management and entertainment that i realize that they are an interesting bunch for study. that dear in the headlights look from knowing not much, copying morals which means they have no morals of their own, believing that its telling others what to do that makes things happen (despite never being there to tell them what to do), recognizing and supporting each other often over more competent others, connect people finding ways to skim the deal, and lots of other cool things.
there was some show on once which had as their focus the industry that tests people to find out what kinds of jobs they would be good add. one thing has always stood out while the rest of the show crumbles in memory,and that’s when the interviewer asks what happens when someone tests to having no real skill focus. the answer was they become managers and administrators… was it sarcasm, sometimes i am not so sure when i meet this special type of administrator.
one thing to remember a not so bright person with help in back, can do things that they normally couldn’t, and so can easily become the puppet of the help. productive for only as long as the relationship lasts.
I have often said that Pelosi proves the Peter Principle each and every day.
My new saying for her is that she has defined incompetency down. (HT to Daniel Patrick Moynihan.)
There once was a pirate ship that was captured. The captain and crew were to be hanged. The captain kept up a running dialog of how they’d all escape the gallows. The entire crew was marched up to the gallows and each in turn had their nooses tightened around their necks. The captain continued to assure his men they’d escape. As the hangman moved to the leave to spring the trap doors, the captain warned his men to be be ready to act. It is said his last words as the traps sprung were, “See boys, the momentum is with us.”
Mr. Frank, I think there is a lot of hooey floating around about preventive care. What these wizards are talking about is actually early detection, not prevention. Prevention would require behavior control (oh–wait–that’s what they’re really talking about). And early detection is actually mass screening. It is, as you astutely point out, far more expensive than any possible alternative.
I have long thought, and continue to think, that the best course of action is to simply go to the doctor when you are sick. All the rest, so currently popular, is humbug if our goal is to reduce system-wide costs.
> take their medicine or else–or else they’ll be left out of the exchanges (a word that sounds vaguely Orwellian, or is it Huxleyan?).
I believe the word you search for is “Stalinesque“.
“Pelosi seems to either have a complete lack of understanding of how insurance works, or she pretends to incomprehension for strategic reasons.” … I think you left out a possibility – one which I only recently began to consider myself – that Madame Speaker is in fact as dumb as a bag of bricks.
Not Pelosi as Nurse Ratched, it’s gotta be Hillary. Nurse Ratched’s whole purpose in life is to completely and utterly obliterate any and all male sexuality. Definitely Hillary.