No, no, no, no, no.

In their world, the proper response, like the Romans, is to own your own fire brigade and make people pay protection monies to you.

France’s low retail costs are subsidized by punitively high tax rates

French tax rates:

Corporate: 33.33%

Personal income tax: 21% for social charges, up to 50% individual income

Payroll tax: 45%

VAT roughly 20%

United States:

Corporate: 12-39%

Personal Income Tax: 0-35% Federal 0-10% state

Payroll Tax: 15.3% SocSec 3% Medicare

VAT 0% (sales tax 0-10.5%)

Without getting too much into the matrices, it strikes me that US taxes are nearly as high as French, but the people don’t get one-third the benefit.

Libertarian arguments always boil down to “ME-ME-ME-ME-ME-ME-ME.” The obvious point here is that public option opponents cannot come up with a single legitimate argument against it based on public good, only private benefit for a small, over-privileged minority.

If we socialize fire departments, greedy fire cheats will start all kinds of fires and make ME pay to put it out with MY tax dollars, because these idiots are in there splashing kerosene all over their houses and kicking over candles on purpose! Screw that!!!

Without getting too much into the matrices, it strikes me that US taxes are nearly as high as French, but the people don’t get one-third the benefit.

That’s because we have to fight more wars and bail out more failed financial institutions. Those commie French, on the other hand, want to waste their money on things like “health care!”

Libertarian arguments always boil down to “ME-ME-ME-ME-ME-ME-ME.”

not always. The better ones make serious cases for individual liberties that don’t amount to outright narcissism.

Now that I am finished sucking the socialist teat of France there is no way in hell anyone in the USA is going to suck my nonsocialist teat.

punitively high tax rates

Yes, the taxes are punishing and this is why nobody lives in France any more.

Tumbleweeds roll down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées.

@Shorter Matt Welch — that’s perfect. He’s basically a parasite.

it strikes me that US taxes are nearly as high as French, but the people don’t get one-third the benefit.

Unfortunately those are the nominal, rather than effective rates (what people actually pay). A number of economists have pointed out that the tax codes in the US (both federal and state) are so riddled with loopholes and exemptions (overwhelmingly benefiting those in the upper income brackets) that few of those at the top actually pay anything close to the nominal rate and indeed often pay nothing at all . The average effective income tax rate for the top 1% is 5.2%, much lower than for those in the middle 20% and half of the effective rate for the bottom quintile. It gets even worse for corporate taxes. About 2/3 pay nothing at all.

“Stop being a cheap cobag.”

Works for so many people.

So I decided to take a closer look at French income tax rates. These are the nominal rates:

Up to €5,875 0%
Between €5,876 – €11,720 5.5%
Between €11,721 – €26,030 14%
Between €26,031 – €69,783 30%
Above €69,783 40%
(today, a euro is roughly $1.46)

So looking at this in dollars:
Up to $8,605 0%
Up to $17,166 5.5%
Up to $38,125 14%
Up to $102,210 30%
Above $102,210 40%

Now this is per person so if you have a family of two wage earners, double it.

(looks like the Wiki article was wrong, by the way)

US tax matrix

Single
10% $0 – $8,350
15% $8,351– $33,950
25% $33,951 – $82,250
33% $171,551 – $372,950
35% $372,951+

I’m sorry…WHO’S paying more in income tax again?

Dammit, Brad. Don’t tempt the assholes! I’ve been saying for years that conservatives here in Texas don’t think big enough. They should propose eliminating all state offices outside of Austin. If you have state business, like needing a drivers license, you should have to come to Austin. In learning to think like a conservative, the default position should always be: ME, ME, ME, and dammit, I live in Austin. Why should my tax dollars be spent building state offices in Pampa or Port Arthur? They sure as hell don’t want any of THEIR tax dollars spent upgrading the roads in Austin. Fuck your neighbor as they would fuck you.

I’ve been sympathetic to libertarian arguments about individual liberty in the past. But when they devolve into simple chants of “ME-ME-ME-ME-ME-ME-ME,” I lose that sympathy pretty quickly

I have yet to encounter libertarians whose entire philosophy cannot be reduced to this in about three seconds. Libertarianism is a self-centered narcissistic philosophy that has no function in a modern society. Libertardians imagine that they are so self-sufficient and super-capable that the world is just begging for their contribution, when the reality is that nobody so sociopathic in their leanings is really wanted or needed in a world where everyone has to actually do their share to get by.

I’d hope he’d be embarrassed to admit such gross hypocrisy. I guess a vampire can’t be shamed for sucking blood.

When Black Hussein Osama X starts the FEMA death trains, can I be a guard at this guy’s camp?

also worth pointing out is that those tax charts do not reflect that in America, the cost of health care, in both corporate and individual payments, is not reflected. Not to mention that those costs are inflated by 30% or so to pay for Insurance Bonuses and such as.

But I guess we are supposed to be grateful that Insurance execs sometimes buy boats or planes, which creates an fueling job….

used to be, Libertarians just wanted to smoke some pot….

can I be a guard at this guy’s camp?

depends.

Do you know how to fricassee brains?

Libertarians just wanted to smoke some pot….

And have sex. Lots of sex.

“I will better appreciate the premium skill level of American fire fighters and their high-quality hoses and techniques”

Oh… I think a lot of people appreciate the high quality of the American firefighters’ hoses and have nothing but praise for their techniques.

I’ve now reached the age where I will better appreciate the premium skill level of American doctors and their high-quality equipment and techniques. And in a very real way my family has voted with its feet when it comes to choosing between the two countries…

Amen, brother. You may have been seduced by them hawt French nurses and a medical system that actual wants to deliver health care, but as a true Libertarian you know all of that is teh EeEEeeVVVuulLLL. Thank goodness you and your family have turned away from that socialist pit of depravity that is the Frenchie frenchy French french.

…It’s a question I plan to ask my doctor this Christmas. In French.

Oh. I forgot, as a Libertarain fuck-tard, prinicples count much less than milking teh system as hard as you can.

Libertarians just wanted to smoke some pot….

And not pay any taxes.

…milking teh system as hard as you can.

Veiled PENIS reference, in case y’all weren’t paying attention.

What Slippy said. Even *I* am tired of reading my own description of libertarians and their “ideas.” If you’re in the 8th grade, it’s inspiring to propose a deal with society: I’ll take full care of myself and accept the consequences of all my actions, if you’ll only just leave me completely alone.

Of course, if you’re in the 8th grade, you’re 13-14 years old. You’re not expected to know anything about history, general human psychology, your own personal psychology, how human institutions function, and how they can be corrupted. You think your every “insight” is unique and that no one has ever thought the same thing (or something even smarter) before.

You think you’ll never be unfairly victimized by a poisoned, faulty, or irresponsibly marketed product. You don’t know how much corporations, politicians, and hired “experts” lie under oath. You think “competition” and “justice” are the same thing.

And, as usual with ignorance, you don’t know what you don’t know.

For a kid, you’re developmentally normal and healthy. If you’re still oblivious of all these as an adult, you’re brain damaged. Or, of course, a libertarian.

(Okay, NOW I’m tired of it.)

IOKIY are rich

The better ones make serious cases for individual liberties that don’t amount to outright narcissism.

Yeah, but are any of them anything beyond basic democratic principles that are complete no-brainers to almost everyone that doesn’t envision some form of autocratic rule as the perfect governing system? Really, the best of “libertarian thought” can be found in John Stuart Mills’ work, and anything beyond that is so much jibber-jabber from the Megan McArdles of this world.

it’s often been pointed out that health care costs are going up far faster than inflation, while most wages are stagnant.

Now, I think we’ve all taken some shots at firedoglake; but the crew there do a lot of legwork that mainstream media are unwilling or not allowed to do, and Marcy Wheeler posted an aggravating chart:

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/12/14/one-of-few-things-growing-as-fast-as-health-care-costs-is-income-of-richest-1/

It shows, as you can probably tell by my lazy link up above, that the income of the richest one percent of the country is keeping up with healthcare increases – in fact, it tracks almost exactly.

And the rate of increase is getting steeper.

Fuck it, I say. Single payer is the only real solution. Stick both Harry Reid and Joe Lieberman on a spike and spin ’em until they turn into butter.

Joe Lieberman on a spike and spin ‘em until they turn into butter

I prefer “no jowl added” butter.

jeez, picky. remove the jowls first. It’s done like taking skin off chicken pieces; a small cut, then grab on and PUUULLLLLL.

Libertarians just wanted to smoke some pot….

And have sex. Lots of sex.

What a shame, Lawrence vs. Texas took the wind out of their sails!

Stick both Harry Reid and Joe Lieberman on a spike and spin ‘em until they turn into butter no-fat, low cholesterol spread.

Fixed for political correctness.

Libertarians Hippies just wanted to smoke some pot….

And not pay any taxes.

FTFY.

Actor212, I, for one, welcome high cholesterol beaver shots!

Spread or butter, they’re both gonna taste like old man.

I, for one, welcome high cholesterol beaver shots!

Great! Now I have an image of Harry Reid in that scene from Basic Instinct….

you need help, actor.

you need help, actor

I tried Hare Krishna but I kept chanting Hare Reid.

not a gator said,
December 14, 2009 at 21:57

FTFY.

the mask slipped there, bunky.

Hey you all, I just found a post from the end of September, actually it was the first I had heard of sadlyno. The thread was on Art Chance,who I have first hand experiences with. Sorry to go “off topic” but this is worthy of a revisit.

http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/25429.html

It was because of Art Chance that I went federal with a complaint and ended up in the Ninth Circuit Alledging and “Ethics Crisis,” and pointed to a Company called VECO and their efforts to influence a petroleum tax that robs the permanent fund.

The latest on Bill Allen/ VECO is here:
http://www.adn.com/news/politics/veco/story/1053359.html?mi_pluck_action=comment_submitted&qwxq=4839654#Comments_Container

Anyhow, Art Chance posts regularly on the REDSTATE.COM, and many people swallow the Bovine Excrement he peddles there. Others take it with a grain of salt.

Some are getting a clue. See the coments here:

http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/120609/sta_532575214.shtml

If any SN comenters would lke t take on a project, I ave tried to put some information out there for hose that don’t know this guy s a sociopath that should not be anywhere near policy decisions.

Please, if anywould care to help, open a redstate account and post a couple sycophant comments. Then open up windows or tabs on his diaries or recent posts. (ten is a good #) Thencut and past the following into each comment box and let all ten go at once.

As some noted there is some split over at RS, and if any would care to do this it would serve that purpose as well as perterb the sociopath’s perpetual need of approval that he gets no where else than at RS.

ArtChance wrote on 11/11/2008 11:12:41 AM:
Alaska’s greatest political irony is that Wiemar was once widely believed to be a major drug dealer. Many thought he was the economic muscle behind the Ad Hoc Democrats of the ’70s, the McGovernite wing that siezed the Party and State government at a vital time in the Pipeline Era. The Palmer paper once branded Wiemar and his then-sidekick Bill Parker as the two most dangerous men in Alaska. There’s a good story in how Wiemar came to run DOCs drug programs, rake in huge sums for halfway houses, and how Parker came to be the Deputy Commissioner of DOC. Since it all involves some very prominent Democrats, I’m confident the ADN won’t touch it. Sarah’s shoes are more interesting, right?
Recommend (1)

akvinnie wrote on 11/11/2008 11:46:12 PM:
The Republican Corrupt Bast. Club really started initially under the Bill Weimer day’s althought they had no gang name or affiliation at the time; just the color of money. They rose to power and dominance under Wally Hickel’s Administration. The Corrupt Weimer contributed to both political parties but only Democrat’s who had a remote chance of winning and where he could peddle his influence on them. If not he loaded his funds to the known Political Party of influence peddleing for hire. The early well rewarded members of Weimers club to privitize Corrections was Representative Ramona Barnes who managed Corrections daily from her office. Senator Jerry Ward the frequent bill for hire legislator. Then, None should forget how clever man the House Finance Chairman Eldon Mulder use to be. YES, All Republicans! There were more paid off Republicans during those days but I think the average reader get’s the picture.
Recommend (3)

So let me just go through the very few arguments that he makes against UHC –

1) “It’s not that I think it’s either feasible or advisable for the United States to adopt a single-payer, government-dominated system.”

An idea that he never returns to and never backs up, with anything. Sure, the French can do it, all the EU can do it, every other industrialized democracy on Earth can do it, but America? No way. No how. Nobama.

2) “We know that the horrific amount of third-party gobbledygook in America, the cost insensitivity, and the price randomness are all products of bad policies that market reforms could significantly improve. We know, too, that France’s low retail costs are subsidized by punitively high tax rates that will have to increase unless benefits are cut. If you are rich and sick (or a healthy doctor), you’re likely better off here. But as long as the U.S. remains this ungainly public-private hybrid, with ever-tighter mandates producing ever-fewer consumer choices, the average consumer’s health care experience will probably be more pleasing in France.”

Ah yes, the libertarian’s rallying cry; anything wrong with the economy must be because the government interfered. Never mind that the French government interferes far more regularly and deeply in the health care market than the American one ever has, that the French government has much tighter mandates than America ever has (for example, “You’re a doctor not an accountant, stop looking for preexisting conditions and treat the fucking patient”), and yet, by his own admission, the French system is vastly superior.

(Oh, and those high tax rates? It’s called the cost of living in society instead of a desert island. That’s the money that builds your roads, educates your kids, provides you with cheap and effective public transportation, keeps your streets safe, helps your parents live a dignified retirement, and heals people. Only in America are taxes considered one of the plagues of Egypt – in France, it’s just as much a part of growing up and joining society as getting a job is).

3) “But as you look at the health care solutions discussed in this issue, ask yourself an honest question: Are we better off today, in terms of health policy, than we would have been had we acknowledged more loudly 15 years ago that the status quo is quite awful for a large number of Americans? Would we have been better off focusing less on waiting times in Britain, and more on waiting times in the USA?”

That’s it? That’s your argument? Umm, for lack of a better word, yes, we would – if you can’t understand why, reread your own column. Whether the conservatives in Congress (not all of them Republican) will ever allow a real, good plan to pass is another question. But it’s a question of will, not ability.

This is one of the most surreal arguments I’ve ever read against UHC, and I’ve seen some pretty crazy ones.

What mask? Hippies exist for my entertainment. (I say this as a Confirmed Pink.) The troo hippeh lives in a commune, barters for rent, and works under the table at a subsistence levels (cutting hair, cutting lawns) to be able to afford the cover charge and gimcrack at festivals and farmer’s markets. (I’m mystified as to how they afford pot, because that shit’s expensive. Pain pills, OTOH, are cheap unless you have some weird thing about name brand.)

No troo hippeh would pay taxes because they have made a conscious decision to “drop out” of the unsustainable, materialistic, consumeristic, corporatist rat race.

Methinks YOU have confused ze hippeh with ze hipster, which is the anti-hippy, additionally, tambien.

Speaking of actual private fire departments.

We know that the horrific amount of third-party gobbledygook in America, the cost insensitivity, and the price randomness are all products of bad policies that market reforms could significantly improve.

I’d be curious to know what Welch’s Kool Aid here thinks is regulated about the insurance markets?

If anything, they are underregulated, allowing companies to basically divvy up the nation into regions into which they agree not to compete…this collusion is specifically allowed by regulation under US statute law.

Here’s another hate-spew byMr. Chance, who posted as “Black3” on the ADN blog. This is one that got him an impromptu “Asshole of the Year award.”

I think developing Pebble would be a good thing for the state, but apparently you represent the will of the people in SW AK, so you guys can just hang out there unemployed, sleeping til noon or later, playing lots of bingo, and screwing your daughters; gotta preserve that culture, right? http://community.adn.com/?q=adn/node/105992

I notice there is a bunch of new spam there n that thread, but you can see this nazi needs some questions and massive gorilla style criticism over at RS.

It is always refreshing to see somebody come out and say “Fuck you, I’ve got mine”, without dressing it up in lots of flowery language about freedom and liberty and accusing everybody else of being Hitler or Stalin or Mao.

The point about the difference in per-capita spending needs to be made loudly and often, until people get it. Gingrich was on Jon Stewart some time ago saying, “Socialized medicine isn’t free! They pay for it through higher taxes!”. Unfortunately, Stewart let him get away with it, instead of saying:

Yes, they do. But they don’t pay for it with crippling insurance premiums that are enough to drive companies bankrupt, or crippling hospital charges that are enough to drive individuals bankrupt, and on the whole, they come out ahead because the overall cost is lower. Oh, and they manage to cover everybody and have better health outcomes, too.

The only health outcome in which the US does better seems to be the standard of living of health insurance executives, and that is not obviously a metric that is important to many people.

Ah, those over-regulated insurance companies, with their exemption from antitrust laws and all.

See, the problem with socialized medicine is that it puts the burden of payment more on the productive, successful people who make or have inherited large quantities of money, rather than charging higher rates to — or refusing to cover — people who are likely to need a lot of medical care. So you have the horrible situation of someone like me being forced to choose between getting a second luxury yacht and a helicopter. And what, I ask, is the point of even having a helicopter if you can’t fly it from your yacht to your other yacht?

Now, yes, I suppose, I am overstating it a bit. After all, I can still fly the helicopter from my magnificently appointed Tuscan villa to my yacht, which is some consolation. Meanwhile, some peon who doesn’t know enough to stop drinking high fructose corn syrup like it’s water, or who had the poor judgement to be born with some kind of medical condition, is going to get a doctor’s care at my expense, and that’s simply not right.

So why would you oppose implementing something like it here in the United States?

Because the French system doesn’t produce a river of sweet, sweet campaign cash. We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs, gentlemen! Harrrumpf!

so we’ve now gotten to the point where reason is publishing articles that admit, straight up, that french healthcare is better…but still argue against changing our system. amazing.

Yes, they do. But they don’t pay for it with crippling insurance premiums that are enough to drive companies bankrupt, or crippling hospital charges that are enough to drive individuals bankrupt, and on the whole, they come out ahead because the overall cost is lower. Oh, and they manage to cover everybody and have better health outcomes, too.

Here’s the weird thing: the US spends up to double per capita on health care than any other civilized nation.

But as a percentage of government tax revenue, the costs are about the same as other nations, with perhaps a five percent spread from the lowest to the highest, and that’s taking into effect the fact that the government pays less, by far, than any of these countries towards national healthcare.

Meanwhile, the US has one of the worst doctor/population ratios in the civilized world (roughly 2.4 per 1000, France has 3.5 by comparison, and Norway has 3.8).

So the money we spend AIN’T being spent on doctors.

#

R. Porrofatto said,

December 14, 2009 at 22:43

Speaking of actual private fire departments.

evil. also.

So actually I think he does argue that the system should be changed; it’s just that he wants it (of course) to be even less regulated. Now, certainly, some of the regulations we have in place now aren’t helping, but come on. “Letting” them “compete” across state lines is somehow going to magically fix things?

Shorter Matt: “It’s OK for me to sponge off the French healthcare system because it’s better and cheaper. Also, I don’t contribute anything to France or the French, except put the stones to my ‘partner’. On the other hand, trying to make the US system comparable to the French one will only cause all Americans to quit their jobs, and sponge off the system.” (head explodes)

wondering if any of the sadly,nauticans are in SF. finding myself there, and planning on conducting a blind (drunk) wine tasting. spectators welcome. NO zombies. (need mah brainz).

Asshole: We know, too, that France’s low retail costs are subsidized by punitively high tax rates that will have to increase unless benefits are cut. If you are rich and sick (or a healthy doctor), you’re likely better off here. […]

No, no, ABSOLUTELY NO, you fucking lying asshole. In 2007 the French spent an average of $3,601 per citizen for their superior, all-inclusive health care, while we suckers in the U.S.A. spent $7,290 per citizen supplying inferior health care to 85% of our citizens. Twice as much for lousier health care, which on top of everything else, excluded tens of millions of our fellow citizens from any health care at all until they get so sick the emergency rooms can’t turn them away.

And this piece of shit Matt Walsh knows this already. He knows it, but he spends his days lying about it to the ignorant and credulous so we Americans can continue to get robbed. All so a handful of multi-millionaires can afford 100-foot yachts and whores who charge $5,000 per fuck. God, I fucking hate these scumbags.

I’ve now reached the age where I will better appreciate the premium skill level of American doctors and their high-quality equipment and techniques.

Does anyone seriously believe that US doctors are on average more skilled than French ones? And of course there are French clinics where he can enjoy whatever treatments he wants, and take whatever pills he wants.
In any privately- or publicly-insured health system, some people at a certain age and state of fitness will be receiving more care than their premiums have paid for; Welch is now in that cohort to benefit from the US system, so he’s moving back to the US. Good on him, but I can’t see how he thinks that this will convince anyone else.

Does anyone seriously believe that US doctors are on average more skilled than French ones?

Yeah really. I mean, they both go to the same Caribbean schools…

the premium skill level of American doctors and their high-quality equipment and techniques

Why is this always taken as a given? French (or British or German or Canadian, and also) doctors aren’t exactly dumbasses. Is there some kind of actual proof that your American doctor is always more skilled than a random foreign doctor?

OK, maybe there’s a few stars in the US (??), but it’s like sports fans bragging that they have the league’s best player, yet their team is a perennial also-ran.

And you can be selfish and still prefer single-payer, if you look past your own short-term net income. A healthier society with a well-balanced health system will produce economic dividends down the road. All these bankruptcies and other deleterious effects of current US medical care must be an awful drag on the overall financial picture.

Whereas I have a degree from Hollywood Upstairs Medical College *and* the Mayo Clinic Correspondence School.

Damn!

Must refresh before commenting…

I mean great minds think alike.

*and* the Mayo Clinic Correspondence School.

Hey! I took that mayo clinic. I am now a Sandwich Master Level III.

Far be it for me to defend Matt Welch and Reason, but doesn’t the last paragraph of the essay reads,

“But as you look at the health care solutions discussed in this issue, ask yourself an honest question: Are we better off today, in terms of health policy, than we would have been had we acknowledged more loudly 15 years ago that the status quo is quite awful for a large number of Americans? Would we have been better off focusing less on waiting times in Britain, and more on waiting times in the USA? It’s a question I plan to ask my doctor this Christmas. In French.”

That sounds me like 1) he knows that the system in the US– particularly insurance (which is what much of the essay is about)– sucks; 2) he knows that the French system works better because it’s not a crazy hodge-podge, and 3) he’s actually pretty conflicted about this. Yes, he might prefer a Friedman-like utopia in which everything from medical education to hospital architecture was completely free of government oversight, but his own experience argues for a more robust and thorough reform of the American system.

the US has one of the worst doctor/population ratios in the civilized world

There goes another libertarian argument against socialized medicine, that nobody will become physicians if we limit their ability to charge obscene rates for their services.

Shorter Libertarian philosophy:
If you find a tit, suck on it. Then kill the cow and eat the meat.

And in a very real way my family has voted with its feet when it comes to choosing between the two countries.

Number of Bimler Clyde siblings now living in France = 1.
Number now living in US = 0.
France DECLARES VICTORY.

We didn’t want him anyway! *sob*

Actor212, there’s another issue when comparing the French and US income tax rates:

I land somewhere in the 25% bracket in the US, so call it 30% in France.

Health insurance for myself and my family eats up about 25% of my paycheck (coverage only, not out of pocket costs, co pays, deductibles, etc.). Now, that 25% is (currently) pre-tax, but if I deduct that 25%, I still end up in the same bracket, so I’m still paying 25% on the remainder.

In the US, I end up paying out around 43% of my income in health coverage deductions and Federal income taxes. And I still pay at least $120 in perscriptions, copays, etc. out of pocket on top of that.

In France, I’d pay 30% of my income for health coverage and income taxes. Even if my out of pocket costs stay the same, I’m still coming out way, way ahead.

I will generously agree to take a 5% tax increase in exchange for govt-provided health insurance. Hell, I’m willing to take a 10% increase in exchange for single payer.

I’m just so kind-hearted that way.

So is there now going to be a sudden epidemic of Yanks proposing to Euros? Now THAT would be innovative.

The US may very well have marginally superior doctors & nurses – goodness knows it should by now, after all the years of poaching them en masse from Canada & overseas with sweetheart-deal contracts … which, given how much ass the US system now sucks, amounts to an even more damning case against a private-insurance-based system.

I prefer the futball of France and most of Europe, but because of the high transfer fees I have decided to really like the pauchy play of the MLS retirement league.”Did you see Blanco draw the foul when Beckham’s wheelchair collided with his———–that was awesome.”

Is this not a revolutionary libertarian strategy to bleed France dry of resources, with Americans coming over to get free health care, with the hope that once death and chaos had been achieved, the libertarian ultra-capitalist option would be the only option?

Is there some way this douchebag is unfairly taking advantage of the french system? i.e. can we somehow write a letter to the french consulate and get his health care in France revoked? After all, he doesn’t pay taxes there, except on his property, presumably. I say we try to fuck him! And if it doesn’t work that way, we’ll just fuck him (in the ass!).

Reading through the comments at Reason… apparently Matt’s better half duly paid her taxes in France, so he claims their whole family was entitled to get their dose of Le Medicin, which of course was a better system. No-one forced them to pay tax in France, but they did because… oh. Oh my.

**cough** Public Option **cough**

can we somehow write a letter to the french consulate and get his health care in France revoked?

Mais non. Ze Franch are soshaleest enuff to cover evan zee non-ceeteezens for ze eelness.

I have decided to really like the pauchy play of the MLS retirement league

Hey now! Landon Dono–

I see your point.