Sunday, July 30, 2017

Yes, He Probably Is This Effing Stupid

Or ignorant. Or both.
Donald Trump baffled many reporters this week when he told the New York Times that it was possible to buy health insurance for only $12 a year.

“You are basically saying from the moment the insurance, you’re 21 years old, you start working and you’re paying $12 a year for insurance, and by the time you’re 70, you get a nice plan,” the president said.

The Washington Post’s Philip Bump theorized that Trump mistook the way health insurance works with the way that life insurance works, although he still wasn’t certain where Trump got the “$12 a year” portion of his claim*.

Now Christopher Long, a Kentucky-based data scientist, thinks he’s found the answer.

In a tweet that quickly went viral on Saturday, Long theorized that Trump thinks you can get $12 health insurance because he saw a commercial for baby life insurance that regularly airs on Fox News.

“Why does Trump think health insurance costs $12/year? Because Gerber advertises life insurance for babies on Fox News for about that price,” Long wrote. “That’s right, Trump’s understanding of health insurance is so non-existent that he doesn’t even know it’s not the same as life insurance. Human life means so little to Trump he can’t even be bothered to spend seconds to understand critical things on the crudest, simplest level.”

The Gerber baby life insurance commercial promotes life insurance that costs $1 a week, which would work out to $52 per year. Additionally, the plan offers children $10,000 in insurance protection, which doubles to $20,000 when the child turns 18.

What’s more, the ad tells parents that the plan “builds cash value over time that you can borrow from later,” which may have been what Trump was talking about when he said that “by the time you’re 70, you get a nice plan.”
Sad, innit? Pathetic, even.

[Raw Story]
*Obvious to this reporter: Trump doesn't know the difference between a week & a month, let alone the difference between health insurance & term life insurance.

No comments: