Do I Hear Four Chickens, Madam?

Well, at least a Republican is actually offering a solution to health care costs in lieu of the current law.  It's a completely asinine suggestion, but there you go.  Steve Benen:

Sue Lowden (R), the leading Republican Senate candidate in Nevada, recently articulated her vision of how the American health care system should work. At a local candidate forum, Lowden, a former state senator and chair of the Nevada Republican Party, encouraged Nevadans to "go ahead and barter with your doctor." It would, she insisted, "get get prices down in a hurry."

I assumed that Lowden misspoke, and meant to say "bargain," not "barter," though the notion of bargaining with medical professionals is itself foolish. But she couldn't have meant "barter," since that's ridiculous.

I stand corrected. Lowden appeared on a Nevada news program earlier this week, and doubled down on her notion of a more effective system.

"I'm telling you that this works," the Republican candidate explained. "You know, before we all started having health care, in the olden days, our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor. They would say, 'I'll paint your house.' I mean, that's the old days of what people would do to get health care with your doctors. Doctors are very sympathetic people. I'm not backing down from that system."

To recap, the solution to lower health care costs and insurance costs from the woman that the GOP is backing to replace Harry Reid in the Senate is to trade livestock and/or odd jobs for a doctor's bill.  I take back the statement that the Republicans are the party of no ideas.  They are the party of completely stupid ideas.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking cattle rustling and knocking over a Home Depot for a backpack power paint sprayer may be the new extremes people go to in order to avoid medical bankruptcy in Reno.

Obvious Bonus Leno joke:  How many cats do you need for a CAT scan?  However Greg Sargent wins the intertoobs this morning with "Chickens For Checkups".