The more "safe" and "electable" Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney dropped another whopper on us today, and this one might leave a mark.
"I want individuals to have their own insurance. That means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. It also mean that if you don't like what they do, you could fire them. I like being able to fire people who provide services to me. You know, if someone isn't giving the good service, I want to say, 'I'm going to get someone else to provide this service too.'"
"I like being able to fire people..."
Mitt Romney's defenders are already claiming he has been taken out of context, however suggesting you enjoy the privilege of firing people is a terrible thing to say regardless of the context.
If you do examine the context, what Mitt Romney said actually becomes worse.
Romney says he prefers that individuals buy their own health insurance rather than receive it from their employer, which -- in context -- would supposedly be him, because that makes it easier to fire them. The obvious implication is that paying for their benefits (healthcare) afterward is the only thing that would prevent him from firing people in a more timely fashion. Hence the context in this case may actually be worse than simply quoting him for saying "I like being able to fire people."
For an added layer of efficient nincompoopery, Romney also suggested that insurance companies are interested in keeping you healthy. And I believe there's a word for that. It's called Derp.
"I like being able to fire people" may not even be the worst thing he said.
