Have any teabaggers burned their big gubmint provided Medicare cards yet?

http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/letters/2163918,CST-EDT-vox16.article

They need a dose of reality

Back in the '60s, when we protested an unjust war, we burned our draft cards and moved to Canada. I have yet to hear of a single retiree tearing up a Medicare card and moving to Mali or Madagascar, where no one gets Social Security checks and no one has health insurance, and where if you don't have money for medical care, that's tough.

It strikes me as odd at best, if not downright hypocritical, to see so many elderly retirees, few of whom pay income tax, most of whom collect a monthly stipend from the government and all of whom are eligible to participate in the government-run health insurance program that is Medicare, vocally shouting down the recently enacted health-care reform legislation as being "too much government."

Elizabeth Bloom Albert,

Highland Park

It would have to be pried out of their cold dead hypocritical fingers.
The "Clueless" is contagious.

Bet it wouldn't be many.

Someone like Big Ed could do this with his radio and TV show. I wish he would do it.

Don

Big Ed reads all his e-mails. Sending it off right now.

Just sent the suggestion off to Ed.
waiting...waiting...

Take a BIG Medicare card and light it on fire. The media would have to video of that, then ask the Tea Baggers how they will follow up.

They just don't want to pay for it!

But that's a stupid argument.

First of all, very few people actually did "burn their draft cards and move to Canada." And those that did, were not exactly making a huge sacrifice - they were *selfishly* (not necessarily wrongly, mind you, but out of personal consideration) avoiding a bloody war.

Second of all, Medicare and Social Security are NOT welfare, at least they are not supposed to be. Retirees who have paid into the system their whole working lives really ought to be able to expect a return on that investment, don't you think?

Very tired of that argument. It's their money, they paid into the system. They have the right to get it back. I'm sure they would have preferred to save and invest the money themselves if they were given a choice. I still get a kick thinking about those signs saying "Government out of my Medicare!" though, heh.

It takes a special kind of self-absorption to forget where, exactly, Medicare comes from.