The stupid, it burns very brightly in Dick Armey. Rachel Maddow sitting to his right was gobsmacked with this one, losing her composure for a minute. That this sad-ass Neanderthal* who really wants to get rid of all entitlement programs should be painting himself as a friend of seniors is highly offensive.
MS. MADDOW: Do you really think that there’s a major uprising of seniors wanting to get out of Medicare? I know you’re suing the government for your right personally to get out of Medicare.
REP. ARMEY: Right.
MS. MADDOW: But do you really think that’s the problem...
SEN. COBURN: Is it...
MS. MADDOW: ...that Medicare—that seniors hate Medicare and they want out?
REP. ARMEY: No, I didn’t say that. Most seniors—I was talking to my minister the other day. My minister says, “Dick, I’m so fortunate I’m in Medicare.” I said, “Bless you, my, my friend that you get to be in it if you choose to be so.” But if you give a government program and you let me choose to be in or choose to be out, that’s generosity. If you force me in, irrespective of my desires, that’s tyranny. Now, if Medicare’s $46 trillion in the red, with no idea how we’re going to pay for it, why, why do they not let people who don’t want to be in out?
MS. MADDOW: This is...
MR. GREGORY: Let me—I want to get it...
REP. ARMEY: I mean, that’s...
MS. MADDOW: Just—I—very briefly.
REP. ARMEY: This, this, this defies logic.
MS. MADDOW: This is a really important point. The anti-healthcare reform lobby thinks that Medicare is tyranny, OK?
REP. ARMEY: I did—I said...
MS. MADDOW: This is an—I mean, you said in 1995 that “Medicare is a program I would have no part of in a free world.”
REP. ARMEY: Right. Absolutely right.
MS. MADDOW: You said in 2002, “We’re going to have to bite the bullet on Social Security and phase it out over a period of time.”
REP. ARMEY: And I’m going to enumerate exactly what I’m talking about. Medicare...
MS. MADDOW: Americans need to know this is your position and this is the position of the anti-healthcare reform lobby.
* Apologies to all Neanderthals out there who are no doubt more intelligent and less likely to bear false witness than this old fart.
