Baby Wants His Ba-Ba

I don't really know who Andy Harris is, the newly elected Republican representative for Maryland's First Congressional district, but by all accounts he is some sort of whiny baby who wants what he wants and he wants it now, no matter what.

It appears that the Honorable Gentleman from Maryland wants his health care - his GOVERNMENT health care - and he wants it NOW. What is so unusual (but not entirely unexpected) about this is that Mr. Harris is an anti-health care Republican and won his election by campaigning on his opposition to government run health care. Here's how it all went down:

A conservative Maryland physician elected to Congress on an anti-Obamacare platform surprised fellow freshmen at a Monday orientation session by demanding to know why his government-subsidized health care plan takes a month to kick in.

Republican Andy Harris, an anesthesiologist who defeated freshman Democrat Frank Kratovil on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, reacted incredulously when informed that federal law mandated that his government-subsidized health care policy would take effect on Feb. 1 – 28 days after his Jan. 3rd swearing-in.

“He stood up and asked the two ladies who were answering questions why it had to take so long, what he would do without 28 days of health care,” said a congressional staffer who saw the exchange. The benefits session, held behind closed doors, drew about 250 freshman members, staffers and family members to the Capitol Visitors Center auditorium late Monday morning,”.

“Harris then asked if he could purchase insurance from the government to cover the gap,” added the aide, who was struck by the similarity to Harris’s request and the public option he denounced as a gateway to socialized medicine.

Harris, a Maryland state senator who works at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and several hospitals on the Eastern Shore, also told the audience, “This is the only employer I’ve ever worked for where you don’t get coverage the first day you are employed,” his spokeswoman Anna Nix told POLITICO.

Actually, Mr. Harris, most employers WILL make you wait a predetermined amount of time before your health care kicks in. Maybe if you had just spent more time in the private sector, instead of in a government job (which as we all know, isn't a real job at all, according to most Republicans) you would know this. This, however, is my favorite quote:

Nix said Harris, who is the father of five, wasn’t being hypocritical – he was just pointing out the inefficiency of government-run health care.

Actually, that's not what it points out at all. A waiting period for health care has absolutely nothing to do with any real or imagined inefficiencies with health care. What it does point out is a) how the MARKET determines when health coverage kicks in (most employers want to wait a bit to see if you are going to stay at the job long-term, so there is a grace period before you get your health care) and b) Andy Harris is a a hypocrite of the first order and a moron, taboot. The next thing you know, Mr. Harris will be screaming about keeping the government out of Medicare.

Soylent Green is people!

Read all about Mr. Harris in Politico and TPM.