Soccer Dad

A health plan for rube (goldberg)

A friend (ETbuzz) once told me this joke. I won't say how long ago. :-) (Yes it's funnier in person, but bear with me.)

A man brings his suit in to a tailer for alterations. When the suit comes back one pants leg is shorter than the other. The man - rather unhappy - points this out to the tailor. The tailor tells him to bend one leg and sure enough - the legs are now even. But now, walking at a slight angle, one sleeve is a bit too short. The tailor again recommends a new contortion that miraculously evens out the sleeves but affect the fit of the suit elsewhere. After several rounds of this, the customer bent over and twisted like a pretzel hobbles out of the store, thrilled with his new suit.

Soon two peoples pass him in the street. The first one says, "Look at that poor, poor man. I wonder what's wrong with him." His friend answers, "but at least his suit fits perfectly!"

I remember my Senator telling me that healthcare reform was broken that that he, his Democratic colleagues and the adminstration fixed it. But look at this chart prepared by Congressional Republicans. (via memeorandum) It doesn't look like an organizational chart as much as it looks like a Rube Goldberg invention.

Really, a little honesty and modesty would be welcome from my Senator. He has no business claiming that the health care system was broken and that he fixed it; the system is imperfect and he and his colleagues have made it worse. Or as CATO concludes:

The rest of the sector was heavily distorted by government intervention. Obamacare simply makes a bad situation worse.