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Scuba

(53,475 posts)
Wed Aug 29, 2012, 10:57 AM Aug 2012

Republicans appeal to racism again: Platform says Medicaid is a "black hole".

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/blame-the-poor/

Blame the Poor



Many in the parade of governors scheduled to speak tonight have long complained about how much they are forced to spend to keep poor people healthy, and the Republican platform has an answer for them: They can stop worrying.

Medicaid is a “black hole,” the platform says, and is too big and too flawed to be run out of Washington. By turning it into a block grant program and letting the states do what they want with it (i.e., as little as possible), those annoying federal regulations can be deleted.

“Excessive mandates on coverage should be eliminated,” said a draft of the platform, a signal to statehouses that anything goes.

Both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan favor a block-grant system, but the draft platform goes even further in explaining how spending can be squeezed from the program. It’s done largely by blaming the patient. Because 80 percent of health care spending is because of “lifestyle,” the platform says – specifically smoking, obesity, and substance abuse – it’s time to put more emphasis on “personal responsibility.”



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Republicans appeal to racism again: Platform says Medicaid is a "black hole". (Original Post) Scuba Aug 2012 OP
Don't usually think of the word "black hole" as involving race. Igel Aug 2012 #1

Igel

(35,173 posts)
1. Don't usually think of the word "black hole" as involving race.
Wed Aug 29, 2012, 09:34 PM
Aug 2012

Just a singularity. Pulls things in and nothing, even light, gets out (well, perhaps Hawking radiation). Hence its use in describing things that suck in time and/or money or other resources.

IIRC, chernaia dyra, the original Russian (translated, word for word, "black hole&quot was a euphemism for zhopa "asshole" back in the 1960s.

Now, of course, no euphemism would be needed. Such is the state of kul'tura rechi, "culture of speech," on post-Soviet terrain.


I guess how racist it sounds to a person depends on how familiar the term is otherwise.

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