<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" Gosh, that didn&amp;#039;t take long: The new GOP plan for health care is the barter system \u2014 as in, you grow a batch of vegetables, take them down to your doctor&amp;#039;s office, dump them on his receptionist&amp;#039;s desk, and... bingo! Cancer treatments! Sample line: &amp;quot;I know someone in the medical field who has been paid with vegetables from the Mennonite community.&amp;quot; Okay, I&amp;#039;m not being fair. This is not the official GOP plan, it&amp;#039;s justmore small-government gas from a Republican state representative down in Tennessee, Mike Bell. But the point is, it&amp;#039;s just as realistic as the bill Bell was talking about, which is Tennessee&amp;#039;s new Freedom Act, yet another pointless attempt to nullify federal law \u2014 which worked out so well the last time Tennessee tried it: &amp;quot;The act protects the right of Tennesseans to participate or not in any health care system, and prohibits the government from imposing fines or penalties on that person&amp;#039;s decision. It also protects the right of individuals to purchase \u2014 and the right of doctors to provide \u2014 lawful medical services without government fine or penalty.&amp;quot; It passed by a vote of 26 to 1. The real question is, Is this kind of thing just a cynical attempt to harvest Tea Party anger for the Republican party, or are these legislators really planning to resist and violate federal laws? It&amp;#039;s similar to the larger question a conservative political philosopher named William Voegeli asked in the Wall Street Journal in this thoughtful article: &amp;quot;Is the repudiation of the welfare state a prerequisite for a coherent 21st-century conservatism \u2014 or a quixotic, self-marginalizing gesture?&amp;quot; Right now, regardless of whatever happens in November, I&amp;#039;m betting on the latter. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a7233/mike-bell-tennessee-vegetables-for-health-care/>