Update: Martin Mull and Horatio Hornblower on the Dems insurance mandate and $3800.00 penalties…

Update:09/09 10:00pm AZ time: Lookee here, Daniel Henninger of the WSJ has an opinion piece going up for tomorrow that agrees with MiM but in much more palatable language, lol:

…The most recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll has 87% of the public somewhat or very dissatisfied with the economy. The unemployment rate is likely to go above 10% for all 2010. Whatever GDP growth may occur, there is no evidence of new-job creation. Gold’s price has risen above $1,000, suggesting inflation is swimming below the economy’s flat surface. China is stockpiling gold and worrying out loud about the weak dollar. A U.N. panel said this week the world should abandon the dollar as the world’s anchor currency.

Just now, Barack Obama’s mad obsession with arcane health-insurance puzzles looks beside the point….

I thought these Critters were living in an Ivory Tower looking down on Americans without understanding them, now I am wondering if they are actually living in a tower in Mordor instead…

MiM was for a universal mandate to bring down the cost of high usage insureds, you spread the risk over a wider pool etc etc but that was, of course,  BEFORE the economy WENT OFF A FRAKKIN CLIFF!!!@ HELLO??? Is anybody checking these Critters in DC for a pulse??

How in the hexx can they try to pass the mandate and penalties in THIS economic environment? In 1994 this would work, hell in 2004 this would work, in 2007 this would work. You know, in an EXPANDING economy.

But now we have a RETRACTING economy and MASSIVE UNEMPLOYMENT.. Which is of course why MiM thinks this is POLITICAL, Congress and TOTUS pushing it now, not an actual health care delivery crisis. And pullleeeezze don’t tell me how this does not kick in until 2013. People will FEEL the pain NOW and revolt against it and kill the plan or as I predict take control back in 2010 (which I think will happen in the House regardless).

And let us not forget the impact this will have on CAPITAL MARKETS and HIRING which are, of course, FORWARD LOOKING!!!!! D’uh!!! Way to kill an incipient recovery. We cannot even invest in DEFENSIVE stock plays, like KO!!! (Coca Cola) b/c even CONSUMER STAPLES like lightbulbs (and next I’m sure Teh Evvvvvil Two-Ply toilet paper killing Gaia!) are under assault (Cheerios and sugary drink makers, Tylenol in flu season, look out, Big Brother coming to frak with you too!)

People are LOSING THEIR HOMES. Food Stamp usage is at a RECORD high. Now is NOT the time to tell people to get ready for another ginormous govt program and TAX.

And if it can wait until 2013 to kick in, why in the name of all that is Holy are we ramming it through NOW?? Yeah POLITICAL BS that’s why. So take your moral imperative and pack it up with your condescension and take a long walk neoprogs…a 4 year walk according to Baucus…

You know what’s a crisis? THE DAMNED UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IS A CRISIS!

Anywho, H/T to the commenter on McCardle’s site who said the Baucus $3800.00 penalty for a family who does NOT buy health insurance under his plan is comparable to the Python Martin Mull! skit wherein Christopher Columbus in reply to his Officer telling him ‘The men have not eaten in days sir” says “Well Make them eat!”

Gee it’s almost like some band of intellectual elites far removed from the realities of everyday Americans lives are coming up with these ideas isn’t it?

Mashup by iRat13

High-income people being more inclined to believe that everyone ought to have to buy health insurance has sort of a Marie Antoinette quality to it. (“Why the hell aren’t you buying health insurance?” “Uh, I don’t have enought money?”)

Or the old Python Christopher Columbus sketch (from whence comes the song “Men, Men, Men”): “Sir, the men haven’t eaten for days.” Columbus replies: “Well, make them eat!

September 9, 2009. Tags: deficit spending, Economy, Healthcare, Horatio Hornblower, Max Baucus Healthcare plan, Monty Python, Mordor, Obama Healthcare Plan, recession, Unemployment. Comedy, Economy, Finance, Healthcare, Labor Department, Obama Administration, Politics, Popular Culture, Taxes, Unemployment Statistics. Comments off.