Thursday, August 27, 2009

I Guarantee It's Not In There

Monday night I raced home from work so hubby and I could attend one of Bart Gordon's Town Hall Meetings. The meeting took place in a theatre on the local college campus.  Very appropriate, I thought, to have a political meeting in a theatre.  But I digress.

We stood in line for quite a while, waiting to get in.  There were 900 seats available and all but 75 were given out on a first come, first served basis.  While we waited in line, I ended up talking to a gentleman in line in front of me.  He was pro-Obamacare and I am most definitely anti-Obamacare.  During the course of the discussion, he tried to tell me that HR3200 would not eliminate private health insurance.  I quoted the portion of the bill that would do just that.

Mr. Pro assured me that was not in the bill.  I asked him if he had read it.  The conversation proceeded something like this:

Mr. Pro: "I guarantee you it's not in there." 
Me: "Have you read it?"
Mr. Pro: "I guarantee you it's not in there."
Me: "Have you read it?"
Mr. Pro:  "I've studied the relevant portions." 
Me: "Have you read it?" 
Mr. Pro: "I've studied it." 
Me:  "So you haven't read it." 
Mr. Pro: "Well no.  But I guarantee you -"
Me: "If you haven't read it, then you can't guarantee me a darned thing, now can you?"

I then pointed out to Mr. Pro that part of my job entails reading contracts.  Not glamorous work, but useful.  I asked what he did.  Are you ready?  Yes, Mr. Pro was a poli-sci professor.  I nearly fell over laughing.  I finally managed something along the lines of "Well, THAT explains alot."  Offended, Mr. Pro asks what I mean.  Me:  "Because you have no idea what life in the real world is like."  Mr. Pro tries to convince me that academia is the real world.  I just managed not to hoot directly into his face but I did tell him he was sadly mistaken and that academia had NO relationship with real life.

I share this conversation with you because I think it's quite interesting that Mr. Pro was so ready to guarantee me something wasn't in a bill that he hadn't read.  And these are the people who want to bring us Obamacare.  I rest my case.

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