The year was 2010, and the Republican Party was trying to tell everyone that we didn’t need a healthcare fix, and if we did, it wasn’t some kind of universal healthcare platform, it was something even better—old-timey bartering. Republican candidate for Nevada Senate Sue Lowden had been leading in the polls against Senator Harry Reid. Then she said this crazy-stupid-crazy thing.
On Monday Lowden appeared on a local TV programme, where she was asked about a mildly eccentric suggestion she had made that patients should haggle and barter with their doctors to save money on their medical bills. As you can see from the video clip above, she replied:
"You know, before we all started having health care, in the olden days, our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor. They would say I'll paint your house.... In the old days that's what people would do to get health care with their doctors. Doctors are very sympathetic people. I'm not backing down from that system."
So. Amazing. The Democratic Party in Nevada brought a goat to Lowden’s campaign headquarters, telling them that this bartering thing wasn’t working out so well.
Phoebe Sweet, communications director for the Nevada State Democratic Party, and a few of her barnyard friends who shall remain nameless stopped by Lowden's campaign headquarters.
"I tried to trade this goat for some health care, and my doctor looked at me like I'm crazy," Sweet told a receptionist as she carried the 25-pound goat into the headquarters with a local TV crew tracking her. "So I was just curious if you had any information on her barter plan."
Now, Republicans, after seven years, and no new plans, have pretended, along with Donald Trump, that they can get some magical plan together that’s better than trading chicken for chemotherapy treatments.