The Direct Attack on Intermediaries

Couldn't be plainer than McDermott's remarks.

"When I grew up, my grandmother had four daughters, and she spent three months with each one of them. And she had no Medicare, she had no Social Security. And she lived with her daughters. And we took care of her. I mean, I got thrown out of my bedroom. My bedroom became grandma's bedroom, I slept on the couch in the living room, because that's the way families took care of their seniors before 1964.

Indeed, Rep. McDermott:  they took care of them.  That's what families do.

The family is the first and most important Intermediary Institution--which McDermott and his ilk have been attacking since....oh....1964.

..."Now we have a Medicare program, where my father -- and my father lived to 93, my mother to 97 -- and my brothers and sisters and I did nothing for them, except pay their taxes.

"One year, we gave my mom a Christmas gift, a hearing aid. A hearing aid cost about $800, a lot of money. So all  of us chipped in and we bought my ma a hearing aid. That was her Christmas gift...Medicare doesn't cover that....

Damn nice of you, Jim.