Weird–is the GOP building a bridge to the 19th century?
What’s next? Bargain removal of the stone of folly? For their sake, I hope so.
From a debate in Tennessee, via the Nashville Scene:
With a straight face, Rep. [Mike] Bell [R-Riceville, Tenn.] went on to tell Rep. Joe Towns, D-Memphis, that people who choose not to buy insurance can pay their medical bills with vegetables like the Mennonites do in his district.
Bell: They’re some of the healthiest people you have ever seen. They pay cash when they go to the doctor. They work out arrangements with the hospitals if their children have to be hospitalized. This is an individual choice that we’re talking about.
Towns: You’re saying they pay cash? For organ transplants and cancer and heart cases, they pay cash?
Bell: I said they pay cash or work out other arrangements. I know for a fact. I know someone in the medical field who has been paid with vegetables from the Mennonite community.
Towns: That’s an anomaly. That’s not how the system works. I can’t take a sack of vegetables down to the utility company and pay my utility bill on my house. Nobody’s going to take vegetables for payment. We can’t run the country on vegetables and horse trading.
This all appears to have started with Nevada Senate candidate Sue Lowden confusing the word “bargaining” with the word “bartering,” but as per the video below, you’ll see that she doesn’t say “Hey, I messed up the word,” rather she fully embraces bartering for health care. Seems like a bad choice for much of anything requiring great intelligence or diplomacy. So she’s probably a good candidate for Senate.
See what she says for yourself:
