Jim DeMint: Status Quo = Socialism

Somebody take this Senator Jim DeMint and give him a lifetime appointment, because he is a nationaltreasure.He is a Poet of Words. And for every sane thing he says -- he does say some sane things, occasionally! -- he says something sort of astonishing. Witness his latest interview with a South Carolina newspaper.

So, por exemplo:

What we've done is set up the whole system to reward employers for offering health insurance, but we don't support people who don't get their insurance at work, and that's not fair.

Why yes indeed! Totally reasonable. And yet:

If nothing is done,we're likely to end up with a single-payer system anyway in a few years.Every year we're ratcheting down what we're paying doctors and hospitals for Medicare and Medicaid, which means the cost shifting gets greater and fewer employers can offer health insurance. What we're doing is driving the private market out of business anyway, and I think that's why they don't want anything to pass that would make it easier for people to have their own insurance. So if we don't do anything, that's bad too.

Wait, what? Can somebody explain this? Medicare and Medicaid pay less and less, so private premiums go up because healthcare providers have to make up the shortfall somewhere. Thus, fewer employers can offer healthcare to their employees, causing those employees to .... suddenly become destitute or elderly? Which causes private insurance companies to go out of business? CONFUSED.

 DeMint offers his take on hot issues [The Post and Courier via First Read ]