Nevada Democrats today held a protest outside Republican Senate candidate Sue Lowden’s campaign office in Reno, over her suggestion that people can lower their health care costs by using the barter system with their doctor.
Lowden first suggested barter as a good way to lower health care costs two weeks ago. She spelled it out further this past Monday. “Let’s change the system and talk about what the possibilities are. I’m telling you that this works,” Lowden said. “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.”
Nevada Dem communications director Phoebe Sweet told the local CBS station: “It’s just unrealistic as any doctor will tell you to think that on any large scale you’re going to be bartering with chickens or goats or any other sort of animal or service for health care.”
Lowden campaign chairman Robert Uithoven shot back: “Harry Reid and his Democratic friends can come up with barnyard animals a lot faster than they can come up jobs…which is unfortunate for our state. We have record unemployment, record recession and records debt.”
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
Facebook Conversations
Questions about commenting with non-Facebook accounts like Yahoo, or other concerns? Click here to read the TPM Commenting FAQ.